The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-10-11
THE YOUNG CRIPPLE.

ion. Crippled and deformed there stretch
ed behind her a record of suffering, before
her the prospect of greater torture still.
Nature had used her cruelty, for while her
puny and misshapen frame inspired ridi-
Guile, or at best shuddering pity, she had
been lowered with "A capacity for affection
that burned itself into fiercer intensity
waiting the love that never came.
Misunderstood, she had gradually re-
treated into little world of her own, with
nothing to love. Nothings There was her
violin, but that could hardly be considered
apart from Ida's own individuality. 1t
was her violin that expressed more elo-
quently than herself could ever have done
the loneliness and the lovelessness of her
life. How many heart conceived tragedies
had throbbed harmlessly away upon its
vibrating stringsl How many delirious
day dreams had CROPPED their way from her
inner consciousness into exhilarating life
through that medium which faithfully in
terpreted all her varying moods
1T speaks for me, she once confessed
to the old doctor who understood her bet
ter than any one else. "What other peo-
pie feel they can explain in words, but L
seem to have no power of expression ex
q cept through my violin"
DR.. Marshall was silent for a moment.
Then he asked presently, "Did you ever
hear my boy Austin play?"
Ida shook her head. She had heard no
= one. Her morbid consciousness of infirm-
tiles prevented her from attending any
public concert, and Austin Marshall, as
she knew, was professional violinist of
repute.
"You ought to hear him. They tell me
his execution is remarkably good and be-
sides geniuses like you two ought to
know each other. I'll tell you what I'll
do" he added kindly. "Ill bring him
round one evening to see you, if you like,
when he isn't busy"
Not many days elapsed ere the doctor
kept his promise, and Austin Marshall,
tall and strong held the small, wasted
hand of the diminutive musician and won
dered the while how the perfect soul his
father had described had managed to find
itself in that misshapen little body. And,
later on, when Ida had completely astound-
ed him with her rendering of Dvorak' 5
Romance intense and heart
breaking-he told himself that such
thing was monstrous. Here was an untu-
torei genius, beside whom himself would
pale into comparative insignificance,
doomed by nature to perpetual solitude
while, Orpheuslike, she sought by her
music to charm into life the rocks and
trees.
"You want some lessons to correct few
technical errors, - he said at last, land
then you ought to be able to hold your
own at Queens hall or ST. James with
the best of them. If I could believe in
the transmigration of souls, would swear
the lost soul of some repentant sinner is
imprisoned in your violin"
He spoke with the generous enthusiasm
of genius Mere talent is sparing of praise
and begrudges success.
II can never play in public she an
swered briefly, with painful flush that
testified to her sensitive recognition of
physical defects.
Ida on public platform! Why, they'd
never see herl" interpolated jovial elder
brother, which the brutal candor admiring
friends had sometimes mistaken for frank
geniality. eve call her the Diminished
Seventh" he added, with conscious
smile that betrayed the originator of the
questionable pleasantly.
Poor Diminished Seventh She WINGED
as from blow, and Austin, with the in
tention of covering her confusion, observed
with ready tact:
II suppose because the minor harmon
les are most perfect and least understood. I"
The retort was SO sudden and so unex-
pected that for once the wag of the family
was left speechless and not quite certain
whether some disguised slur on himself
had not been subtly introduced, while Ida,
feeling vaguely that those few words had
sealed a compact of eternal friendship be-
tween Austin Marshall and herself, took
up her violin again and dashed into wild
and characteristic Hungarian air, whose
reckless jubilance was Swallowed by an
underlying vein of sadness. And when at
last the music was all over she crept to her
room up stairs, marveling that the book
of life, with its multitudinous possibili-
ties, had never been opened to her at the
enchanting page of friendship.
That evening was but the forerunner
Of many similar. Scarce a day passed
without Austin Marshall contriving TO
spend some time with the deformed must
clan, and as the days lapsed into weeks,
and the weeks into months, IL was noted
that when Ida played alone her airs were
more romantic than before. And even her
unmusical family became infected with
their gayety. Her mother, who frequently
alleged she could enjoy good music as
much as any one, IL she could only get it,
WAS Cnttrtu w thc verge VI JOylul dutlCl-
patton for who knew that Ida might not
attain the supreme height of inspiring
dance music, such as her mother loved,
and abandon forever those ghoulish walls
she said were classical.
But when the old doctor noticed the
change he shook his head in apprehension,
while tears of pity filed his eyes. His pro-
fession had trained him TO read the long
ings of the heart as well as the infirmities
of the tenement 1t inhabited, and II all he
thought and dreaded were true Had
things been differenti II Ida had not been
distinctly isolated by nature from the
sweetest gifts life can hold
And one evening came the crisis the
good doctor feared.
"I shall miss all this dreadfully when
I'm away" Austin said as he turned over
q pile of music for a particular duet.
Tim going north In day or two, you
know. Didn't 1 tell your" he added, an
swering the unspoken question.
Next autumn, when 1 am back again,
he said presently, feeling vaguely that
something was wrong, I'VE shall have
some more pleasant evenings together,
hope"
Ida sroke not For n moment abe was