Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-07-14
A BIRD OF PASSAGE


Beatrice Harraden in Blackwood's Magazine
| 1t was about in the afternoon when a
young girl came into the salon of the little
hotel at c. in Switzerland, and drew her
chair up to the fire.
You are soaked through" said an elderly
! lady. who was herself trying to get roasted.
you ought to lose no time in changing
/ your clothes"
Il have not anything to change" said the
/ young girl laughing. "Oh, 1 shall soon be
dry!'
Have you lost all your luggage?" asked
the lady, sympathetically.
| NO" said the young girl, Il had none
to lose" And she smiled little mischiev-
ously, as though she knew by instinct
that her companions sympathy would at
crce degenerate into suspicion.
Il don't mean to say that 1 have not a
knapsack.' she added, CONSIDERABLY. 81
| have walked long distance--in fact, from
T."
And where did you leave your compan-
ions?" asked the lady, with touch Of
| forgiveness in her voice.
Il am without companions, just as I am
without luggage" laughed the girl.
Aud then she opened the piano, and
|
caressing in the way in which she touched
the keys; whoever she was, she knew how
to make sweet music; sad music, too. full
Of that undefinable longing like the holding
out of ones arms to ones friends in the
| hopeless distance.
| The lady bending over the fire looked up
at the little girl, and forgot that she had
| brought neither friends nor luggage with
her. She hestated for one moment, and
| then she took the childish face between
her hands and kissed it.
Thank you. dear, for your music" she
said. gently.
The piano is terribly out of tune" said
the little girl suddenly, and she ran out of
the room and came back carrying her
knapsack.
what are you going to do?" asked her
| companion.
Il am going to tune the piano." the little
girl said; and she took tuning hammer
, out of her knapsack and began her work
! in real earnest. She evidently knew what
she was about, and pegged away at the
notes as though her whole life depended on
the result.
The lady by the fire was lost in amaze
ment. Who could she be? Without lug
gage and without friends and with a tun-
1 ing hammeri
| Meanwhile one of the gentlemen had
strolled into the salon, but hearing the
| sound of tuning and being in secret possess
| sion of nerves he fled. saying, THE tuner,
| by Jove!"
| A few minutes afterward Miss Blake,
| whose nerves were no secret possession,
| FASTENED into the salon. and in her usual
| imperious fashion demanded instant 81
| lence.
| Il have just DONE" said the little girl.
| THE piano was SO terribly out of tune; /
could not resist the temptation"
Miss Blake who never listened to what
q m nnly fl tod. hot fh.a
| little girl was the tuner for whom NJ lie
| Proprietaire had promised to send, and
| having bestowed on her a condeScending
nod. passed out into the garden, where she
| told some of the visitors that the piano
had been tuned at last, and that the tuner
was a young woman of rather eccentric
appearance.
| Really 1t Is quite aboninable how
women thrust themselves into every pro-
| fession," she remarked. in her masculine
| voice. 1T is unfeminine, unseemly."
| There was nothing of the feminine about
| Miss Blake. her horse-cloth dress, her
waistcoat ard high collar and her billy
| cock hat were OF the masculine genus;
| even her nerves could not be called femi-
nine, since We learn from two or three
| doctors taken off their guard that nerves
are neither feminine nor masculine. but
| common.
| Il should like to see this tuner" said one
of the tennis players, leaning against a
| tree.
Here she comes" said Miss Blake, as
| the little girl was seen sauntering into the
| garden.
The men put up their eyeglasses and saw
| little lady, with a childish face and soft
| brown hair, of strictly feminine appear
ance and bearing. The goat came toward
| her and began nibblng at her frock She
seemed to understand the manner of goats
and played with him to his hearts content
! One OF the tennis players, Oswald Evera I'd
| by name. strolled down to the bank where
| she was having her frolic.
| Good afternoon" he said, raising his
| cap. II hope the goat is not worrying you
Poor little fellow! This is his last day of
play: He Is to be killed tomorrow for
| table d'hote'
| What a shame!'' she said. Fancy to
be killed. and then grumbled at.''
| That Is precisely what we do here" he
| thing We eat. And / own to being one of
| the srumpest, though the lady in the horse
| cloth dress yonder follows close upon my
| HEELS
| She the lady who was annoyed at
me because | tuned the piano." the little
girl said. still it had to be done. 1t was
plainly my duty. l seemed TO have come
] for that purpose
1T has been confoundedly annoying hav-
| ing it out of tune" he said I've had to
give up singing altogether But what
| strange profession you have chosen! Very
| unusual, isn't it?"
why surely not" she answered, amused
| 1T seems to me that every other woman
has taken to it, The wonder to me is that
|
| however, no one could amass huge for
| tune out of it,
mo one, indeed!' replied Oswald Ever
| ard. laughing. what on earth made you
| take to it?"
1T took to me-" she said simply cit
| wrapt me round with enthusiasm. l could
| think of nothing else. l vowed that would
| rise to the top of my profession l worked
| day and night. But it means incessant
toll for years If one wants to make any
| headway."
| Good gracious l thought it was merely
a matter of a few MONTHS" he said, smil-
| ing at the little girl
| "A few m.onths!' she repeated, scornfully
| You are speaking the language of an
| amateur. No; one has to work faithfully
year after year, to grasp the possibilities
| and pass on to greater possibilities. You
! imagine what ii must feel like TO touch the
| notes, and know that you are keeping the
| listeners spell-bound; that you are taking
| them into fairy land of sound, where
| petty personality is lost in vague longing
| and regret"
| Il confess had not thought of it in that
| way he said, hCnlbly. Il have only re-
garded it as a necessary, everyday evil:
and, to be quite honest with you, | fail to
| see now how it can inspire enthusiasm l
| wish l could see' he added. looking up at
| the engaging little figure before him.
Never mind she said, laughing at his
| distress; 81 forgive you. And. after all
You are not the only person who looks upon
4