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.