Why, for instance, should the pipe be called a penny whistle?
I think no one ever bought it for a penny.

Why should the alternative name be tin whistle?
I am grossly deceived if it be made of tin.

Lastly, in what deaf catacomb, in what earless desert, does the beginner pass the excruciating interval of his apprenticeship?
We have all heard people learning the piano, the fiddle, and the cornet; but the young of the penny whistler (like that of the salmon) is occult from observation; he is never heard until proficient; and providence (perhaps alarmed by the works of Mr Mallock) defends human hearing from his first attempts upon the upper octave.
A really noteworthy thing was taking place in a green lane, not far from Padwick.

On the bench of a carrier's cart there sat a tow-headed, lanky, modest-looking youth; the reins were on his lap; the whip lay behind him in the interior of the cart; the horse proceeded without guidance or encouragement; the carrier (or the carrier's man), rapt into a higher sphere than that of his daily occupations, his looks dwelling on the skies, devoted himself wholly to a brand-new D penny whistle, whence he diffidently endeavoured to elicit that pleasing melody 'The Ploughboy'.
To any observant person who should have chanced to saunter in that lane, the hour would have been thrilling.

'Here at last,' he would have said, 'is the beginner.' The tow-headed youth (whose name was Harker) had just encored himself for the nineteenth time, when he was struck into the extreme of confusion by the discovery that he was not alone.
'There you have it!' cried a manly voice from the side of the road.
'That's as good as I want to hear.