A Cathedral Singer
hinted to passers what they would more abundantly see if fortunate e
summit of the slope trees of oak and ash and maple and chestnut and poplar lifted against the sky their united forest strength. Between the trees above and the
erils of their road: the snow-threatened lily of the valley, the chill snowdrop, the frosty snowball, the bleak hawtree, the wintry wild cherry, the wintry dogwoo
, as harmonies of summer thrust into the wrong places and become discords. The time for them was not yet. The hour called for hardy adventurous things, awakened out of their cold sleep on the rocks. The blue of the firma
ay rest; if you are coming down, you may linger; if neither going up nor coming down, you may with a book seek out some retreat of shad
his sun-faded, rain-faded, shapeless cap, uncovering much bronzed hair; and as though by this simple act he had cleared the way for business, he thrust one capable-looking hand deep into one of his pockets. The fingers closed upon what they found there, like the meshes of a deep-sea net filled with its catch, and wer
my soul and stomach, my twin masters of need and greed! And possibly, as the lad deposited his earnings, he was old enough to enter a little way into this adult and despicable joy. Be this as it may, he was not the next instant up again and busy. He caught up his
disorder. His hair might never have been straightened out with a comb; his hands were not politely mentionable; his coarse shoes, which seemed to have been bought with the agreement that they were never to wear
in them some of the cold warrior blue of the sky that day; and they were set wide apart in a compact round head, which somehow suggested a bronze sphere on a column of tr
his instincts; and suddenly from his thicket of forest trees and greening bushes he began to pour forth a th
his forehead; that climb from base to summit stretches a healthy walker and does him good. At a turn of the road under the forest trees with shrubbery alongside he st
his bridge of falling notes is as Nature's bridge of falling drops: individual drops appear for an instant in the rainbow, then disappear, but century after century the great arch stands there on the sky unshaken. So through
le print a story of the accidental finding in it of a wonderful voice-in New York, where you can find everything that is human. He recalled throughout the history of music instances in which some one of the world's famous singers had been picked up on life's roa
n in the blood, might debar the voice, block its acceptance, ruin everything. He almost dreaded to walk on,
urning green, a little fellow, seasoned by wind and sun, with a count
d sprang forward with the instinct of business. When any one paused and looked questioningly
t paper do you want? I can get yo
irst criterion to go by than the singing voice itself. He pronounced it sincere, robust, true, sweet, victorious. And very quickly also he made up his m
preciative he felt of all that fac
said, "I have
the lad's words, he addressed
mister? I thought boss was what you
ith ready courtesy and good nature. "I don't
to take his true measure; also as being of a mind to l
ood purpose; but before he could speak agai
when I am selling pap
papers and when you are at home?
hing," retorted the lad, fl
nterest. Another word in the lad's spee
out in his own mind that if he were ever pushed out of his own position, it would be some Southerner who pushed him. He sometimes thought of the whole New York professional situation as a public wonderful awful dinner at which almost nothing was served that did not ha
was again, though this time as from a mere pepper-box in a school basket. T
reflected audibly, looking down at
e, he began to dust the air with its contents: "I was born on an old Southern battle-field. When Granny was born there, it had hardly
assumed to be acceptable to the listener.
ed with a quizzica
did you say that ba
it was pointed up t
laughed
on of the deadly Southern shell and
rel out long ago. That's the way we boys do: fight i
o do," said the man. "A
ster, and back up on the avenue. Granny
nging. Does any
ann
ndmother is your
lad's tur
grandmother; Gran
image; in its place a much more vital being appeared just beh
r mother ta
ly
one heard
ly
ind a jab of the comic spur. Now he laughed at the lad's deadly preparedness; business competition in New York had taug
d telling m
m an old English family. What is your name, and
re do yo
along there is blasted out of solid rock,-and looking downward
se in the middle of the block, the li
did not
e the statue of Washi
in he saw Washing
houses till you come to the littlest, oldest, dingiest o
s the n
er. We live in the half that isn't num
our music lesso
, Mister.
a pi
Mister; o
ve a piano,
ys the time has come to rent a better one. She has gone
one looking up and the other looking down. The ma
mother pose
She's posing as herself. She said I must h
the boy over fr
k you are po
reply came back
, we certainl
millions apiece for hands. At least ten millions for each eye. About the same for the ears. Certainly twenty millions for your teeth. Forty millions for your stomach. On the whole, at a rough estimate you
otion of wealth is the power to pay for what it has not. The wealth that childhood is, escapes childhood; it does not escape the old. What most concerned the lad as to these priceless feet and hands and eyes and ears wa
over into the class of enormously opulent things; and finding himself a little lonely on that new landscape
said, with a satisfied twinkle in his ey
owed. The man broke it wit
ppen to think o
hink of it; I couldn'
e cathedral?" inquired th
. It's our church. Why, good Lord! Mi
d outright lon
e a very small object through being in the neighborhood of such hereditary beatitud
ir as they finish one part and then another part. I can count the Apostles on the roof. You begin with James the Less
n apostle as Pete! Do you think that is
ittle. He wasn't an apostle th
l an apostle Big Jim
Gabriel on the roof, he's nine and a half. Everybody standing around on the outside of the roof is nine and a half. If Gabriel had been turned a little to one side, he would blow his trumpet
haps and mishaps possessed for him the flesh and blood interest of a living person. Love takes men
ry much interested," remarked the man, strengthe
ay. I have just come from there. They are building another one of the chapels now, and the men are up on the scaffolding. They carried more rock up than they needed and they would walk to the edge and throw big pieces of it down with a
d. Now he hesitated. The boldness of his nature deserted him. The deadly preparedness failed.
do you lo
estion, which seemed to go clean through him and his knowledge and to point back to childhood'
ce and completely captured his friendship. Now he felt sure
nything about
smiled g
little about the cat
e, anxious silence. And no
ys get into the cat
, in whose eyes all at once a great baffled desire told
morning." He turned h
that he was to receive no answer; withering blight
e rock. But he had had a good time talking with this stranger, and, after all, he was a Southerner; an
I met yo
up and the
silvery April air with a ripple of silvery leaves. His eyes sought out intimately the barely swollen buds on the boughs of other forest trees yet far from leaf. They lingered on the white blossoms of the various shrubs. They found the pink hawthorn; in the boughs of
fainter and fainter, went a wandering little drift of melody, a haunting, unidentified sound under the blue cathed
e valley to join friends in play on the thoroughfar
d went in the direct
k in his eyes as he asked the question which brought out the secret desire of a life: "Do you know how
ing over and over in his mind some difficult, delicate matter
having decided what ought to be done.