The Mad Fiddler of the North, Part Iii

...As the years went by Nick’s playing came less often, as he wandered, he just became a vagabond, going to almshouses in winter. That’s how he came to Watertown in the sad last year of his life, they say he didn’t play at all, many felt pity at his plight. There even was a well-dressed man, white-haired, and getting on in years, who came looking for Nick Goodall, and in that sad poorhouse appeared. They say he took Nick’s violin, and played it so the notes were heard, said, “Nick, don’t you remember this? And how we played it together?” Nick then took up the violin, and ones more played beautiful airs, some say the man was his father, he was never seen again there. Why Goodall died, nobody knows, he was given a pauper’s grave, some folk looked at his violin to understand how well he played. But they found nothing special there, the viol was a common kind, the beauty that he’d drawn from it was born out of his troubled mind. After he died they raised money, for a grave, he had been broke, of course, in local folklore Nick remains: The Mad Fiddler of the North.