The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-05-04
A COUNTRY CHORISTER.

ana the whole flock rushed pell-meIl after
OF course our little eve lamb couldn't
be expected to escape the ridiculous in
lection"
At this obscure hyperbole Mrs. Fair
field opened wide her eyes and looked at
her eldest daughter in bewilderment.
"It's plain to be seen," pursued Jane
" that Dora head over heels in love with
Miles Van Dorm, like ali the other fools
in the parishl"
Mrs. Fairfield quite blushed at this
bold assertion.
* Pm ashamed of you, Jane" she said
severely. "Dora's mere child, and has
no more idea of that kind than babe in
arms. [ should think you'd have more
delicacy than to accuse your sister of
giving her love unsought"
"Thats all balderdash, mother" said
the practical Jane. 81 don't profess to
know much about the tender passion,
but the little attention Pve bestowed
upon it proves to me that it holds itself
quite beyond the volition of its victims
Her failing to gain the appreciation of
this piping shepherd is the only thing
that gives me a hope of quenching her
love for him."
" Nonsense, Jane" said her mother
OF course she respects him-we all do,
but as for love-"
:" As for love-" repeated Jane, " / never
saw a more decided case of infatuation
in my life. The way she hung up on
every note of his at the singing-school
tonight was simply distracting."
"She's fond of music" pleaded the
mother
:" Yes, and for that reason" said
Jane, IS she should have listened with
anything but delight. His voice is pas
sable, merely passable; in the high notes
it fails ANONYMOUSLY. But high or low,
true or false, upon every note Dora
hung enraptured. [ felt a chill creep
down my vertebr@ as | glanced at her."
Jane Fairfield was the eldest of two
daughters of the village school-master,
and had, years since, left the paternal
roof and gone up to the city in search OF
fortune. Steadily eschewing more
aesthetic but less profitable employment,
she had served a long apprenticeship to
the dress-making business, and having
graduated with an artist in that line at
the metropolis, she counted her future
safe in her own hands. Devoting her
self to her needle and shears, the world
dwindled down to a small compass with
Jane, and time fled speedily by. Once a
fortnight she ran down home, and
heartily enjoyed what domestic amuse-
ment she could CLEAN there-adviseda and
harangued her mother, scolded and
drilled her little sister, accepted reluct-
ntly the benign patronage of her father,
and glancing around on the village peo-
pie, devoutly thanked heaven that she
was not as other people are.
In all dispositions like James there
must be one element predominating !;
her nature was too strong to be diffusive
1t was necessary there should be con-
centrating point. With her it was ambi-
ton. Not for herself-that was given
up long ago with bitterness that par
to1k of scorn. Nothing could be done
without a reasonable capital, and poo r
Jane had scrawny figure, a harsh voice,
and general tout ensemble that possessed
more character than grace. That por-
ton Of James life which the French
gracefully term the beauty of youth had
been frittered away in the struggle for
independence, SO that Jane had ceased
to hope for any personal joy; but it had
become delight to her fancy that some
thing might come of Dora.
When her sister was but a child it
CHANGED that she sang a simple little
ballad within hearing of a professional
friend of James, who fell into raptures
over the pure, clear notes, and declared
there was the germ of fine, of perhaps
an extraordinary, voice Jane cherish
cd of
soon as Dora was old enough she was
brought to the city twice a week and
placed in the professors hands, as docile
little pupil as that ardent lover of music
could desire. And the child grew lovea-
BILE as the years went by-loveable and,
above all, lovely; above all with Jane,
as it was the one thing she held alto
gether without approach. She had been
known in one of her flights to declare
the result of genius could be attained by
application, but nothing had ever been
found that quite took the place of beauty.
So the energetic spinster gloated on
Dora's fresh young loveliness, upon the
1.-the, plant form, the shifting lights in
her hair, the wonderful color that was
never the same from one minute to an
othcr-uow faint and fading rapidly,
now bright, vivid, increasing to inten-
sity, until it glowed like flame, then
feeting again like the gorgeous tints of
an evening sky.
The music lessons went on, the pro-
fessor became more and more encourag-
ing, and poor Jane reveled in a FOOLS
paradise. Heaven knows what LOFTY as
pirations took shape in her mind. When
her establishment was closed, and Jane.
who could well afford it, took a hack to
the stylish boarding house where her
nights were spent, she allowed her busy
hands a resting spell; they Law idlv in
the folds of her we'll fitting robe. while
her imagination woye many faneiful
dream of the future. The dream geper
ally eliminated in spacious hall crowd
ed from pit TO dome with full dress au-
dience; each man and woman of them
all breathlessly intent upon catching
every note. that fell from the lips of a
marvellously lovely creature bending
and swaying upon the great stage before
them, shaking out from her pretty
throat trill and trill, each one more
wonderful than the last, until, driven
to enthusiasm by this witchery. they
rise from their seats and fling flowers
and jewels at the feet of this beautiful
magician.
Jane was in the full tide of these Wis
ionary delights when, in that summer
holiday at home. she went with her young
sister to the choir meeting No other
gathering could have tempted her from
the paternal hearth; but there was a
sort of malicious slipping from the cup
of nectar in hearing Dora sing in the
village choir. Jane fancied these simple