Free The Dulcimer Boy by Tor Seidler

shack, from his cousin to his aunt to his uncle. “Don’t you think that sounds like rather too much?” he asked them. “I mean, especially at Christmas?”
    Morris was still sound asleep and made no reply. Mrs. Jones opened her mouth but wasnow unable to raise her voice to so much as an audible level. Mr. Jones, shrunken down in his easy chair, stared off at the empty wicker chest in the corner of the room, muttering something about a golden opportunity.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    A FEW MINUTES LATER the old gentleman led William and Jules out of the shack into the morning light. Waiting for them in the mucky lane was a number of uniformed attendants, holding horses by their reins. Another attendant stood beside a gleaming carriage. The morning was sunny but crisp, and the Mayor quickly removed his greatcoat and draped it over Jules’s shoulders. For a moment Jules was at a loss about what to make of such strange behavior. He took the coat off and tried to hand it back.
    â€œNo, no, you keep it,” said the Mayor.
    He then smiled at William, who was wrapped in his own coat.
    â€œAfter your first concert,” the Mayor said, “I’ve no doubt astrakhan will be back in fashion.”
    He walked to the carriage.
    â€œShall we be off?”
    Jules, who had begun to stare at the Mayor with shining eyes, leaped immediately to his side, taking his cane for him and helping him up.
    â€œThere’s room for two,” the Mayor said, “if you’ll do me the honor.”
    It took no more than this for Jules to climb up and sit beside him.
    â€œThank goodness!” the Mayor cried, delighted. “I have such a lot of room at home, and I’ve just lost my only grandchild to the university! Your aunt and uncle seem so attached to you I was afraid you might want to stay here with them and fish.”
    At the prospect of losing their sole source of income, the Joneses had demonstrated a deep,last-minute affection for Jules. But neither Jules in the carriage nor William, who had climbed onto a horse behind one of the attendants, gave the shack so much as a last look as they paraded off down the mucky lane.

    The town chimney sweep was sharing the carriage

    The party attracted considerable attention as it rode through Rigglemore. Even the old people sitting out on the shady side of the street—even they, who had seen so much—could hardly credit their senses. Never had they laid eyes on such fine horses, such noble equipage, such splendid uniforms. There could not be the slightest doubt that the gentleman in the carriage that led the procession, carrying himself so well for a man of his age, was some great personage. But if this was so, how could it be that the town chimney sweep was sharing the carriage with him?
    The party proceeded out of town along the stagnant river and then, after skirting a vastpine forest, entered the rolling countryside of woods and meadows. In a couple of hours, they came to a fork in the road where the horses naturally took the turning southward toward home. To the astonishment of all the others, however, William at this point slipped off his horse and bade them farewell.
    Taken off his guard, the Mayor acted spontaneously. He stood on his authority and forbade William to leave them. But in spite of all the gratitude he owed the old gentleman, William only shook his head solemnly. He pointed to a flat blue cloud that had appeared on the eastern horizon and explained that with the help of a certain fisherman he hoped to find the man who had given him the Mayor’s card.
    â€œAh, Drake,” the Mayor said slowly, thoughtfully. “If I could take the time off, I’d like to look for that man myself. I owe him my life.”
    â€œMe, too, Your Honor,” William murmured.
    For just as William had known that the dulcimer was a dulcimer, and that the flat blue cloud was the sea, so he had known from the first that the scruffy seaman was more