French neither spoke nor moved. He could not. Deep floods were surging through him. For one brief moment he saw in vision a little ivy-coloured church in its environment of quiet country lanes in far-away England, and in the church, the family pew, where sat a man stern and strong, a woman beside him and two little boys, one, the younger, holding her hand as they sat. Then with swift change of scene he saw a queer, rude, wooden church in the raw frontier town in the new land, and in the church himself, his brother, and between them, a fair, slim girl, whose face and voice as she sang made him forget all else in heaven and on earth. The tides of memory rolled in upon his soul, and with them strangely mingled the swelling springs rising from this scene before him, with its marvellous setting of sky and woods and river. No wonder he sat voiceless and without power to move.
All this Brown could not know, but he had that instinct born of keen sympathy that is so much better than knowing. He sat silent and waited. French turned to the index, found a hymn, and passed it over to Brown.
"Know that?" he asked, clearing his throat.
"'For all thy saints'? Well, rather," said Brown. "Here, Kalman," passing it to the boy, "can you sing this?"
"I have heard it," said Kalman.
"This is a favourite of yours, French?" enquired Brown.
"Yes--but--it was my brother's hymn. Fifteen years ago I heard him sing it."
Brown waited, evidently wishing but unwilling to ask a question.
"He died," said French softly, "fifteen years ago."
"Try it, Kalman," said French.
"Let me hear it," said the boy.
"Oh, never mind," said French hastily. "I don't care about having it rehearsed now."
"Sing it to me," said Kalman.
Brown sang the first verse. The boy listened intently. "Yes, I can sing it," he said eagerly. In the second verse he joined, and with more confidence in the third.
"There now," said Brown, "I only spoil it. You sing the rest. Can you?"
"I'll try."
Without pause or faltering Kalman sang the next two verses. But there was not the same subtle spiritual interpretation. He was occupied with the music. French was evidently disappointed.
"Thank you, Kalman," he said; "let it go at that."
"No," said Brown, "let me read it to you, Kalman. You are not singing the words, you are singing the notes. Now listen, 'The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon, to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
Hallelujah!'
There it is. Do you see it?"
The boy nodded.
"Now then, sing," said Brown.
With face aglow and uplifted to the western sky the boy sang, gaining confidence with every word, till he himself caught and pictured to the others the vision of that "golden evening." When he came to the last verse, Brown stopped him.
"Wait, Kalman," he said. "Let me read that for you. Or better, you read it," he said, passing French the book.
French took the book, paused, made as if to give it back, then, as if ashamed of his hesitation, began to read in a voice quiet and thrilling the words of immortal vision.
"From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host."
But before the close his voice shook, and ended in a husky whisper.
Touched by the strong man's emotion, the boy began the verse in tones that faltered. But as he went on his voice came to him again, and with a deeper, fuller note he sang the, great words, "Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Hallelujah!"
With the spell of the song still upon them Brown prayed in words simple, reverent, and honest, with a child's confidence, as if speaking to one he knew well. Around the open glade with its three worshippers breathed the silent night, above it shone the stars, the mysterious stars, but nearer than night, and nearer than the stars, seemed God, listening and aware.
Through all his after years Kalman would look back to that night as the night on which God first became to him something other than a name. And to French that evening song and prayer were an echo from those dim and sacred shrines of memory where dwelt his holiest and tenderest thoughts.
Next day, Black Joe, tired of freedom, wandered home, to the great joy of the household.
