Hodel walked down the road back to Uncle Abrum's house with Shprintze and Bielke. Her mother had asked her to bring them home and put them to bed. As they stepped into the yard Hodel heard a fiddle being played she turned about but saw no one. Bielke started to back toward the front door. Shprintze just stood her ground waiting for Hodel.
"Shprintze, do you see him?" Hodel asked still looking about for the fiddler
"Who?" asked Shprintze a bit dreamily
"The fiddler, don't you hear it?"
"Hear what?" Shprintze asked frustrated.
Hodel turned around to look at her little sisters and spotted the fiddler, on Uncle Abrum's roof, sitting next to the chimney.
"Look on the roof Shprintze!" Hodel said pointing
"What? I don't see anything!"
It must be past midnight when Golde and Tevye stumbled into the house. They had both had a bit to drink and everything was a blur. Golde almost never drank but when she did it was a sight. They both fell drunkenly onto the bed together.
Golde awoke the next morning with a terrible hangover. Tevye had one also but it wasn't nearly as bad. She had a splitting headache. Hodel and Bielke were acting strange and they kept talking about a fiddler. Shprintze on the other hand was very quiet. She hardly spoke at all.
Motel walked with Shprintze up the road to the woods. They were going to get firewood and Golde didn't want Shprintze going alone. Motel was the only person not doing something at the time so he volunteered. Shprintze was much quieter than usual. She usually talked non stop from dawn till dusk.
"Is anything wrong?" he asked her as they walked up the road.
Shprintze shook her head.
"Are you sure?" he asked
She shook her head again
"What is it?"
"I walked back from the party with Hodel and Bielke last night." she started
"Yes?"
"When we reached the house, they acted as though… they were listening for something and they were both looking around when I asked what was going on they spoke of a fiddler but I heard nothing"
"That's very odd." said Motel thinking hard of a way to explain this but he couldn't think of anything. Come to think of it, he remembered Hodel mentioning something about a fiddler she had seen on the ship to America.
That night, as Motel was getting into bed with Tzeitel he mentioned the story to her. She agreed that it was strange.
"I remember a saying that Mama had told me when I was a baby," she told him "It was that 'the villagers of Anatevka are much like a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant simple tune, without breaking his neck.' perhaps the fiddler's from Anatevka." she said smiling.