The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-12-17
Tommy. the SOPRANO.

Tommy. the soprano
HE BAD BEGINNING AND GOOD ENDING OF
A LITTLE CARoL-sINGER's CHRISTMAS.
He was very small. Only ten years old,
and just as tall as the top OF the chancel
rail. When he put on his white robes
and stood mp TO sing he looked like a
young angel with blue eyes and very
bright brown hair. He had no wings.
This some people thought a pity. 1t
was not. for then he might have flown
away. Besides, clever boy is better
than two angels in picture book.
On this particular morning he had no
white robe, and ne did not feel much like
singing. 1t was cold and stormy ont of
doors, and one couldn't be quite sure
whether il was night or morning. The
clock on the wall said five minutes past
eleven, but that was q mistake. The
clock had stopped. And the fire was
out, and the water had frozen III the tea
kettle, and the cat was dead. Poor old
blind pussy She had just died. Tom
my looked at the old cat stretched out
beside the cold stove. He looked at the
heavy frost on the windows. He looked
Mt his hands red with the cold, and he
wondered what would happen next.
Far away over the snowy house-tops
came the sound of bells. The chimes !
How merrily they rang. He listened to
the jangEng music. Such n queer old
song! Tommy took up the tune and
sung softly;
God rest you, merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you disn.ay,
To- ]esSs Christ, our Savior.
Was born upon this day"
That was al ne could sing; he let the
bells say the rest.
He was not very merry gentleman.
The poor Old cat was dead, and the fire
had gone ont That was not all. There
were no Goals, nor any breakfast, and up
stairs-ah up stairs in the cold and dark
lay his mother, sick, feeble, poor and
old before her time.
Let nothing you dismay
FOR jesus Christ our Saviour"
How the chimes rang out on the frosty
air. at must be nearly time to go to
church. Tommy looked at the clock.
1t only stared at him, with both hands
lifted up in mute despair.
Tommy spread rig over the poor old
cat, and, putting on a cloth cap and a
faded coat, he prepared to go out of
doors.
He could do nothing more. The world
seemed 70 be quite upside down, and
Christmas Day all out of place, as il the
year had stopped with the clock. He
could do nothing more. The dispensary
doctor said he would call soon. He would
not wait for breakfast, for there was moth
ing to eat in the whole house. At least,
he could get warm at the church, and, by
the time the service was over, perhaps
something would happen. What might
happen he could not guess. 1t would
quite as bad as they could be.
All II was pleasant to get into the
warm church, ont of the cold wind and
the snow. The choir were nearly all
there, and the service was about to begin.
Tommy hung up his poor old hat and
carefully crept into his white robe. One
of the alto boys buttoned it up behind
for him, and gave him his music book.
There was q little stir among the white
robed men and boys, and then they
formed IL procession and marched two
and two through small door into the
great church. How the loud organ
pealed The music seemed to thrill him
through, and he took his seat in the
choir with trembling knees. How full
the church! Every seat seemed to be
taken, and ne looked around on the grea,
company IN kind of dull surprise. II
was in al the papers, but Tommy didn'
know it, that the famous boy soprano
Thomas Sterry, would sing that morn
ing, and many had come to hear him
As for Thomas Sterry, he knew ther,
was q solo somewhere in the service; h,
had studied it carefully, but now he al
most forgot where it came or what i
was about.
Small time for thought. The choi
stood up, and in a moment away the,
went in the opening anthem. How
Tomry's voice rolled out the sonorou
Latin:
" sierra in excelsis Deo!"
IT was a delight to spring through tb
lively measures of Mozart's great Twelfth
Mass, and Tommy took up the high sus
tanned notes in the soprano part as if b
were really an angel, after all. Their
was a grea: picture of an angel, standing
on o golden cloud, with trumpet in hi
hand, in one of the windows, and on
lady il The congregation thought
looked lust like Tommy. After tn
anthem. the service began and wen
ON in the usual fashion. Tommy fol
got all about the dead cat, and the break
last that he did not eat, and he almos
forgot his mother. The music SCENE
TO carry him away to another country
where there was no snow, nor sickness
nor poverty, nor tears. He thought ho'
many months his mother had denied hel
self everything that he might learn I
ing; perhaps the church people woul
give her little something, for really sh
was so very, very poor! The church peopl
were wei able to pay something, an
they ought TO do it. He must speak
them on the murrow-
One Of the singers whispered in h
ear
Look out, Tommy Here com,
your solo"
How the organ caught up the brillia,
music BE had hardly time TO open h