Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-12-08
CHAPTER u.-fContinued1

crow, but if you make me sing it's no
fault of mine, and you must put up
with it."
He threw down his riding whip and
sauntered to the piano. He struck
chord or two and the character of the
instrument seemed to change. 1t jingled
still-it would have jingled under the
hands of the king of pianists-but his
voice was richer fuller and softer than
it had been. Even now he was not go
ing to waste a sniff of the incense which
was waited about him, and was at once
so common and so delightful. He pre-
luded at half-random for a minute or
two, and when he had whetted expec-
fancy to it's keenest edge he struck some
opening chords and in due time began to
sing.
His voice was of that rare and exqui-
cite quality which inspires immediate
confidence in the listener. On the song
of natures born singers the soul en-
banks without hesitation at the call of
the first true note.
If there had been nothing else to have
accounted for it, il would have been
remarkable tribute to VIII Hackett's
vocal powers that a wayfarer should
have paused in the street at the first note
of his song, and should have stood stock
still in the wind and snow to listen.
Theirs was, however, much else to ac-
count for this circumstance, for the way
farer was none other than Will Hack
ett's unsuccessful rival. He had forgot
ten the wind and the snow half an hour
before, and now in the very act of stand
ing still to listen he forgot the song. He
doubted t$e news he had heard, and had
tried vainly to persuade himself that he
had no belief in it at all, but his thoughts
were comfortless and disturbed. He had
been Mary Howarth's sutton these two
years, and though he had been more than
sufficiently shy in his suit and timid
enough in his hopes, he had hardly iden-
titled staggering VIII Hackett as a
rival.
The Hacketts had been well-to-do time
out of mind, but for the last three or four
generations the family had been rolling
so industriously downhill that it was a
marvel they had not long since reached
the bottom. This svyeet-throated Wills
great-grandfather had in his time gam
bled away one-half the family belong
ings. The grandfather had in like man
ner reduced his share by a moiety; and
more rapid than that Of his predecessors,
had left the remnant of the property SO
heavily mortgaged as to be almost value
less. Since his death the Hackett home
stead had been closed and was likely to
remain so, for the mining resources of
the district round about were fast being
opened up, and coal pits and blasting
furnaces are undesirable neighbors for a
% ~.
eral resources of the land would have
made careful people wealthy, but it had
only encouraged the later generations of
the Jackets to larger extravagances.
VIII had inherited the tastes and procliv-
tiles of his ancestors, and was as deep
in debt as he knew how to be.
If there had been nothing worse than
the fallen fortunes of his family with
which to reproach Will Hackett the thing
night have been borne with; but the
young fellow kept the family reputation
alive in all ways, and the graver sort
OF people shrugged their shoulders at the
mention of him, whilst the feebler held
up their hands in horror. The long and
the short of it is, he was the last sort
of man in the world for a girl to think
of marrying. Now the disappointed lover
him terribly.
Edward Blame. sunk deep in the mem
DRY of these things, stood in the storm,
wrathful, sore-hearted and piteous. When
the song was finished and the applause
which followed it aroused him from his
thoughts, he awoke out of dream which
had carried him both into the past and
the future by a year or two. He could
not have told then or afterward what
impulse drew him into the hotel and led
him to the upper room in which the sing
ing was going on. The thing seemed
most to desire just then was solitude,
and he had no mind to exchange unmean-
ing talk with people he did not care for
or even to listen to viii Hackett's de-
lightful singing. Yet he entered and
stood rather modify propping himself
against the door. until his old half-aban-
doned crony discovered him, and crossed
the room to shake hands.
why. Ned, old lad, it's a hundred
wears since l saw the last of you. What
brings you hereY'
Il heard your singing as 1 was going
nv" said Ned. II wouldn't come up till
you'd finished"
And now" cried the landlord, FITS
pretty well beknown as there's nothing
Mr. Hackett wouldn't be willin' to do to
oblige Mr.. Blane. and he can hardly do
less than sing another song to pay him
for standin' out the cold to listen TO
the first IN"
lay, sing us song. Will!' said his
old companion. They're all rarely pleas
ed to hear you"
why. So | will" answered Hackett;
'ebut I'll have n little refreshment 6sst
If you please. Warden"
The landlord hustled from the room
snd soon returned. Then Hackett sang
another song. This time he chose sally
in Our Ailev," and the unlucky lover.
though not easily disposed to be affront-
ed as a rule, felt personal application
in the ditty and took umbrage at il. The
joyful and tender exultation of the line
'.Oh. then I'll marry Sally" especially
wounded him, and the singers accident
nj smiling look in his direction seemed
70 his raw and distempered fancy as if
II were meant to barb the shaft. He
leaned modify against the wall and re-
signed himself to bitter fancies. Hack
EFT. his song being over, began TO rally
him upon his gloomy temper,
You've taken rather more thans good
for you." said the sufferer. Better stop
it and so home"
"who2 II" cries Hackett. Not a bit
of il. TO-iay's the only day we own.
We mayn't be alive TO enjoy ourselves
tomorrow.
The foolish youngster spoke with so
much aplomb. and with an air so gay
and sprightly. and laughed so heartily
in his speech that everybody but Ned
Blame took the speech itself to be full Of
wit and humor and laughed loudly with
him.
And, in brief. the popular tenor sang
SO often and found refreshment so essen
tial between songs that when but an
hour had gone by his ditties were ali of
the Bacchanalian sort. and were sung
with less taste and refinement than might
have been asked for from so accom-
vocalist