The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1904-01-14

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were quite rugged at the eastern side
Of the orchards sea edge near the hill.
! 1t was SO placed as to be visible over
Q small area only, and this I knew from
having come so suddenly into the view
Of it. Now, what should light be kin
died for upon the shore except for the
sailor who seeks a harbor? A beacon
is set upon a rock as a guide to show
the way. But there are false lights. of
course, and the mariner must exercise
great caution; he must not set all sail
in hurry.
I am a good skipper of small craft.
can paddle over the rail of a boat. and
you shall neither hear nor see anything
that bears a hint of propulsion. And
thus I tloated in toward the shore
through the gray night.
| Presently there came sound as IF a
hand had been laid upon stringed in
strument; then there were chords very
lightly struck, and at last l heard q
woman's voice singing softly an air
that was new to me. Considering this
matter in coldly rational fashion. If
was evident that if the lady had wished
me farther away she would have SING
more loudly. Her voice was so won
derfully clear, even in this whisper of
singing, that felt sure she could have
made the music audible across the lake.
Plainly, then, this was an invitation.
and upon the strength of it I cut nv
distance from the shore in half. Yet
the song neither ceased nor grew
louder.
My boat must have been visible It
might look white or black in the night.
for that question is not determined by
the normal color of the paint. If the
freight reached it, the skiff would
show white and declare itself more
plainly for what it was. l decided to
be frank about it and not try to pass
for the trunk of a tree. In matters of
romance believe thoroughly in hon
esty-if it wins. So 1 cut off another
rod or two Of distance
The fire was now quite distinct. It
seemed to be on fat rock not much
above the water level, and behind it
| was a curving wall. little cliff ten
feet high, but Of this only the top was
visible for it was Of course impossible
for me to see anything that was di-
rectly behind the light.
AS for the singer, she was utterly in
visible. There was something mystical
in this music, which seemed to proceed
out Of the red fire that, with the ia
miliar habit of inanimate moving OBJ
jects, assumed to the eye the rhythm of
the song. was so deeply fascinated
by all this that forgot my seaman
ship and let my oar strike the boats
rail with sharp sound.
Instantly the music ceased, and I was
tortured by Il perfect silence This
was an emergency, and knew it. The
singer might be at that moment escap-
Ing by some secret path among the
rocks. For a moment I was near to
the deadly banality of addressing her,
apologizing, introducing myself, com
mitting l know not what absurdity.
Then it occurred to my mind that
since there undoubtedly was a way of
escape for her it might possibly be
permissible for me to sing There have
been serenades i'll all ages and un-
doubtedly at one time or another wo-
men have listened to worse voices than
mine with very kind acceptance of the
Offering for the sake of the spirit in
which it has been made. So I sang the
first thing that came into my head, and
1t happened to be a ballad called ''The
Evening STAR quite trivial in every
way, that I used to sing to Sibyl long
ago.
! 1t is we'll known that in moments of
excitement one speaks above his usual
pitch, and this law of nature worked to
defeat me in the present instance The
man who wrote s"The Evening STAR
would never have dared to publish it
in the key that hit, for he would have
found few that could sing it. think
special dispensation must have been
granted me, for got through the first
stanza like nightingale, but 1 per-
spired freely with terror. Then 1
waited, and by my sensations of dura-
ton it should have been 4 o'clock in
the next afternoon when I heard a
blessed sound from the shore 1t was
the guitar, and presently the lady sang
again. She had chosen Hearts De-
light quaint little melody, and
Sibyrs favorite of all, as I remembered.
l have strong faith in the power and
the will Of chance to deceive a man,
but to take this for coincidence was an
impossibility.
1t could be only Sibyl that sang to
me, and l must have been less suscepti-
BILE to emotion than was the wood Of
the boat that bore me if 1 had not
thought tenderly of the little girl who
had wept in the dark at Hearts De-
light" in the old days.
In the voice itself there was nothing
whatever that reminded me of Sibyl.
1t was not girlish, and of course
could not fully realize the difference
that the years had made She was
still child to me, and the voice was
womanly. would have said the singer
had been taught not only by thoroughly
competent masters, but by her own