The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-12-22


church, the sexton had blown out the lights
and locked the heavy doors behind him
Sleigh bells jingled family away out Of hear
ing, and the slow footsteps Of the sexton
crunching on the half trodden snow mingled
with the tones Of the clock in the high tower
striking ten Then door inside the vestry
opened, and out Of q closet where brooms
and dust pans were kept All old man came
hesitatingly. He niEde his way very slowly
up the broad stairs to the main meeting
room. At the door Leading to the choir loft
he paused moment. His hand was on tho
knob, but he turned it not. More slowly than
before he went down the aisle and dropped
into q pew. He sat there in the darkness a
long time, his head sunk forward on his
breast. A half hour, may be, passed. before he
rose and marched VITA determined step to the
choir door, and up the stairs to the
familiar loft. He found match in his
pocket and lit the lamp that hung
near tho bench, where Hezekiah for moro
than fifty years had sung Gods praises and
carried the voices and spirits OF the congrega-
Won with him. The dim yellow ray threw
gloomy shadows of the pew backs into relief,
Just disclosed the pulpit at the further end OK
the church. gave faint hints OF evergreen fes-
toons on the walls, and here and there the
laurel worked words Emanuel" GLORY to
God in the highest" and SO on, that had been
placed there with great toll by the young
men and women of the parish in honor OF the
day so near at hand; but had you been there
you would have seen only the patriarchal
| form Of the chorister with sadly bitter look
on his face gazing at the gloom about the
| pulpit Was he thinking how often he had
stood solemnly thus while the minister was
prayingi Perhaps SO, for after moment
his lbs parted, and tremulous "Amen!"
uttered softly on a high note, sung to tho
evergreens and the shadows
Then Hezekiah looked about the bench in
front of him. He picked up one OF the new
anthem books brought in by the quartet. He
| glanced at the cover and let it fall. Taking
| the lamp from it's socket he held it so that he
could SEQ, and presently drew forth the an
cient collection Of anthems, every tune in
| which he knew by heart, so sacred to him.
and vet SO speedily hidden away where 1t
should serve nobody. He replaced the lamp
and turned the pages to Coronation" the
| first piece sung by q choir under his direc-
| ton moro than a lifetime ago. Fondly he
| looked at the familiar notes and then, his
| chest thrown out and his head held up, he
sung the grand old tune and it's magnificent
| words with all the fervor and all the power
| that his voice ever had commanded. From
| beginning TO end the hymn rang through the
| deserted gloomy church, and DR.. Williams,
| driving by in haste to attend the ills OF lar
| off patient, wondered that the rehearsal
| should have been continued SO late. When
| the last note had ceased Hezekiah stood with
| the book still open and his head still up, but
the tears were coursing down his face in
steady streama
At last he sank into chair. and with q
great pang at the heart he saw upon the
bench beside the volume of newfangled tunes
/ little book Of manuscript music. When he
was young man Of not more than so Heze-
kiah had taken it into his head that he would
write music, and the several anthems that he
had composed in pure harmony, but with
crude progressions, had been laboriously
copied into books, and had been used oc-
casionally ever since in church service.
What had they been doing with his music!
Vas it not enough that they should discard
him in his old age, and his ways and his
books, without hunting up his feeble but
earnest compositions to laugh at thems That
could not be forgivenl With melancholy
fingers he VIC lCuNco' LIS ihot'SNeiOh
stopped at an anthem for Christmas, COM
posed on words taken literally from the
Scriptures. There it was, with its introdnc-
, tory recitative for bass, and a double fusue,
as he called it, when the angels chorus was
reached. His wife had sung the treble be-
fore she left the choir, and when with patient
resignation he had laid her in the grave, his
daughter had performed her part, and since
4 fha anti
had not been sung. With what grand emo
ton he had heard the voices begin the first
fugal movement: