Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-05-13


of your voice. What Is that Haweis
says about"
The flow Of her comment was cut short
by the organist. With a lizard touch,
as if he were 10th to let it go, the latter
had finished the voluntary, and the gen.
tie prelude to the new sopranos song
came from the keys. The congregation
were all seated aud everybody looked
expectantly toward the choir loft as the
head of the new soprano rose gracefully
above the red curtain. In rich soprano
the melody foated out into the church
freighted with the words:
From the transient and the fading,
Home flies the dove;
TIC the sky no cloud is shading,
Home flies the dove;
To the longed for, happy meeting,
All the well beloved greeting,
From the vain and false and feeting
Home flies the dove.
AS the mellow cadence arose and fell
the old deacon in the front pew felt that
the time Of refreshing had indeed come.
The tenor leaned forward and listened to
the delicate shading with trained ear.
"By George!" he muttered to himself.
''I'll have to take lessons of her teacher"
A smile of grateful vanity spread over
the face Of Mr.. Hopkins, the banker, as
he inwardly congratulated himself on
his judgment in the selection of a So
prano, and even the fat grocer kept his
eyes open while the song was in progress,
which was greater compliment than he
had ever paid to singer before.
DIT Io
appreciated the song the most. It was
the Dove in the sealskin cloak. She
had clasped both her white hands over
the back of the seat in front. Her soul
shone in her eyes, and every note and
word of the song fell upon her tired
heart with the refreshing of rain in the
face in August. Her lips parted as she
whispered to herself the refrain, and
look of infinite peace overspread her face
and her head fell upon her hands and
rested there in the attitude of prayer.
AS the soprano resumed her seat, the
tenor said in a whisper
eff you don't get the situation, Hop
kins'll have to hire Patti"
Then they fell to whispering softly to
each other. The tenor pinched the So
prano's cheek playfully, and she re-
proved him with a glance that was not
all reproof.
The venerable pastor arose in the pull
pit and, adjusting his gold spectacles,
opened the big Bible on the red velvet
cushion at the eighth chapter of Genesis
and the eleventh verse, and read
''And the Cove came to him in the
evening; and, 10, in her mouth was an
olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew
that the waters were abated from off the
earth.''
Twas not an exhaustive exegesis that
the gray pastor preached. He made no
attempt to prove that the flood had &C.
Cured as stated in the Sacred Book.
But while the grocer went to sleep as
Usual and the bankers thoughts were far
away in Wall street, and the tenor and
soprano ate candy oblivious to the flight
of time, he dweit on the flight of the
message bird above the waste Of waters.
He told how on tired wing she had eX-
plored the pillows tor an evidence Of
solidity, and had at last secured it. He
drew a homely analogy between the re-
and the coming of the Christ. And
while many OF the congregation yawned
because they had heard the old story be-
fore, and the boys on the back seat ate
peanuts and threw the shells on the floor
to make the sexton angry, Dove sat
quietly on the back seat, in the position
she had assumed when the song was
SUMO. and made no sirn that the story of
the olive branch had reached her ears.
AS the pastor closed the Good Book
and resum I'd his seat the organist played
again. The fat grocer awoke with a
start as his wife indicated with her elbow
in his ribs that 1t was time for him to
pass around the contribution box. The
cents jingled into the box as he passed
slowly down the middle aisle until he
came to the seat where Dove was sitting.
He touched her gently with the box to
notify her that shs MAS expected to CON