The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1898-04-12

"Bother Why can't l get it,"
The light, ringing step ceased fortunate
ly just as Rex gave a vexod little stamp.
Rex went on walking and singing. The
boyish vent to his feelings had relieved
him. His voice rang nj cxquisitc1y high
and clear. 1t was like a woman's-ike
his mothers, from whom he had inherited
it, and it conjured up a vision OF her TO
her husband, shut in his library and busy
with papers. Rex stopped again.
"Confound you, You're doing awfully
tonight, he said, addressing his voice as
if 1t were a companion.
His full naine was Richard Hamilton
Winsted, but years before-1l, to be ex-
plicit-his happy mother II day when
her husband ~laughingiy said the baby
ruled the whole house, applied the name
Of kingly meaning to him. 1t was never
given up afterward-
The boys life up to the time CT this
| story can be briefly sketched. Left moth
erless at Z, with memories Of a lovely face
and tender, %broOding care which still lin
gered with her son, who associated her
vaguely with the madonnas that he saw in
store windows, the boy lived alone with
his father.
Singing was his passion. He was one
of the leading voices in Il famous boy
choir, and the best part of tie year to him
was when tho Easter music was being
learned. It wanted but a day before that
| great OCCASION, ard all his spare time at
home was devoted to practice.
Mr.. Hamilton Winsted was an ambi-
tious man. He was engaged in a paying
though not extensive business. How to
enlarge it had been a problem ever since
he had known what a wonderful voice his
boy had. Within q few months he had
found a new object TO gain money for in
the promise Of a second wife. 1t was a
handsome girl who had made him this
promise, and his pride amused itself by
fancying how well she must be attired and
in what style she must live when she be-
! came Mrs. Hamilton Winsted. She was
quite as good as she was beautiful, and he
instinctivelv kept from her knowledge
some of the ways in which he was striving
to grow rich for her sake and the boys.
AS it grew later Nh. Winsted's mind be
came keener and more alert. The visions
of his promised bride and his son faded to
give place TO some new plan Of speculation
that suddenly occurred to him. He thought
it all out, aided by calculations on paper.
The sum that might be gained was large,
and his face grew clated with the JOY OF
greed. 1t was a look that Miss Leonora
Ellsworth would not have cared to seq
there, and it was not softened by any pity
for those who would lose if he won.
But in the hall there was another look
on a handsome, boyish face. Rex had for
gotten that it was past his bedtime. His
countenance, aglow at first with an artist S
delight in his art, grew brighter with the
realization of the meaning of what he
sang. 1t was the first time he had entered
SO completely into the spirit of his Easter
music, and he rendered it so we'll that
! his father BECAME gradually conscious Of
the words. The repetltions of the faithful
practice fairly burned the syllables into
his soul
The day CT resuIrectionl
Earth, tell it all abroad!
The passover of ~Gladness.
Tie passover OF God!
From death to life eternal,
From earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought Us over,
With hymns of victory.
So sang the clear soprano that in a few
hours was to c~ncllant ali hearers st Christ
church, and the change Of his intonation
as he rendered the last half of the stanZa
was perfect. Tho listener in that quiet
library began to grow very uneasy. Then
he heard
Our hearts be pure from evil
That we may see Alright
and the rest Of those words composed so
long ago by John of Damascus. "Our
hearts be pure from evil, sang the boy