Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-11-17
AT EVENTIDE.

AT EVENTIDE.
Listen, said the children, grand
pa is singing
Was that singing which sounded
more like the works of a clock run
ming down, or the melancholy croak-
ing of an ancient door than the artic-
ulate consonance OF a human voice.
attuned to sweet sounds? Yet, once.
when that voice rolled out its mellow
notes of love and conquest, it had
thrilled the hearts of those who heard
it with hungry longing for all the
beautiful things it seemed to encom-
pass and describe. Then it had be
longed to young fellow with eyes
/ like stars, and the limbs of Hercules.
and the flush OF everlasting youth ser
deep i'll his cheeks. Now, it came.
from the sunken and estimate chest
OF little wizeued up old man, sunk
far back among the cushions of an old
rocking chair-the chair that belonged
to his dead wife-and the wisps of
hair that hung about his wrinkled
cheek were white as snow. But, Oh
his shrunken and his shapeles knees,
as if to connect him still with the
world of youth and love, was fair,
rosy child, whose sunny head was
laid against the old man 5 heart,
where she nestled lovingly in the sweet
abandon of tired, trusting childhood.
1t was for her the old man was singing
these labored notes, now, when the
grasshopper was burden, and the
child, with the uncritical taste of her
years, thought she had never heard
such sweet music. In front OF them
was the undraped window, through
which they could see a crescent moon
bathed in the fading flush of depart
ed sunset and its one attendant star,
and the child clasped the old mans
hand rapturously as he sang in his
wheezy voice:
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How | wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high
Like diamond in the sky,
The poor traveller in the dark
Thanks God for your spark,
Would he know which way to go
If you did not twinkle so."
The old man could not see a printed
page held before him, but he could
plainly discern that far distant star
shining in the blue sky, and the chill
dren at the door heard him telling
Mabel he was the poor traveller in the
dark, and the star would show him
which way to go. Then the feeble old
voice piped up with that mos. FASH
mating rhyme:
"A ship, a ship a sailing,
A sailing on the sea,
And it was deeply laden,
With pretty things for me.
There were raisins in the cabin,
And almonds in the hold,
The sails were made of satin,
And the mast it was of gold"
This was followed by a livelier
strain, to which grandpa kept time
with one slippered foot;
London bridge is broken down,
Dance over, my Lady Lea
London bridge is broken down,
With gay lady;
How shall we build it up again?
Dance over, my Lady Lea" etc.
The child could not know that the
singerw ould rather have sung the sad
dest funeral hymn, but that great love
for her conquered, and brought his
feeble mind. out of a world of graves
and shade; S to do her bidding, SO she
put one dinpled hand up with ca
ressing motion, and patted his thin
cheek, and nestled closer to him as she
whispered in voice of entreaty, Now
grandpa, the Babes in the Wood,
and the old man cleared his voice a
great many times to make it more im-
pressivc, and began in tragic melo-
dy:
"My dear do you know
That, long time ago.
Two dear little children whose names |
don't know,
Were stolen away
One fine summers day,
And 10 It in the woods, so Eve heard peo-
pie say.
"And when il was night
How sad was their plight;
The moon did not shine, and he stars
gave 10 light.
They sobbed and they sighed,
And they bitterly cried,
And the poor little things, they lay down
and died.
And, when they were dead,
The robins so red,
Brought strawberry leaves and over them
spread,
And sung them this song
All the day long;
Poor babes in the wood, poor babes in
the wood
Oh, don't you remember the babes in the
wood?"
AS the qaivering voice rose and fell
in its weird intonations the children
at the door were awed into silence by
its sad complaining, but Mabel only
lifted grateful eyes, shining in misty
sIeepiness, and whisI cred caressingly
"More, grandma but he was wander