An old man insists on playing his fiddle without stopping, as his house collapses around him and his neighbors complain.

A boy and his family befriend a country fiddler, who teaches the boy all about playing the old tunes, which the boy promises to help keep alive. Inspired by Melvin Wine and Jake Krack.

No one saw it being built, and the residents of River Bend, Arkansas never got acquainted with the builder before he just disappeared, but he left his tiny, strictly one-man, cabin behind on property that belonged to no one. The land had once belonged to the river, and someday it might be taken back, but in the 1900s hill country, it had one more purpose and the angels would see that the purpose came about. Young Jefferson Masters was a master logger, being the link between the massive trees on the hillside and the lovely, durable furniture created from oak, pecan and walnut logs. He was also skillful at turning logs into cabins, and would create one for himself just as soon as he found someone to occupy it with him. For a young man who is slow in finding a mate, the best path to take is toward a girl who knows how its done and again, it may take the services of an angel or maybe a sick, old man.

Some folks have skeletons in their closets. The Waters have toilets. Jake’s mortified by his dad’s dream to open the American Toilet Museum. Toilets have caused enough turmoil in Patience, Kansas. Patience has been cursed for 129 years, since Jeremiah Waters installed the first flush toilet. The Dolphin Deluge Wash-Down Water Closet caused a stink, and since then Patience has been drying up like a cow pie in August. Jake wants out of Patience, especially when his dad gets a relic for his museum, triggering the curse’s last promise: “The day the Plunger of Destiny returns to Patience, the final destruction begins!” Can Jake save Patience by discovering what happened when Jeremiah last sat on the Dolphin Deluge Wash-Down Water Closet?

Journalist Robert Ruark tells of the friendship between a young boy and his grandfather as they hunt and fish in North Carolina

"With a postscript by Joshua Bell."--Cover.