PAGE 5
The Beautiful Gate
by
As he said that, another thought occurred to Tiny, and he unfastened his harp, and touched the strings. But in the din and roar of the city wagons, and in the confusion of voices, for every one seemed to be talking at the top of his voice, what chance had that harp-player of being heard? Still, though the crowd brushed past him as if there was no sound whatever in the harp strings, and no power at all in the hand that struck them, Tiny kept on playing, and presently he began to sing.
It was that they wanted–the living human voice, that trembled and grew strong again, that was sorrowful and joyous, that prayed and wept, and gave thanks, just as the human heart does! It was that the people wanted; and so well did they know their want that the moment Tiny began to sing, the crowd going past him, heard his voice. And the people gathered round him, and more than one said to himself with joy, “Our brother has come at last!”
They gathered around him–the poor, and lame, and sick, and blind; ragged children, weary men, desponding women, whose want and sorrow spoke from every look, and word, and dress. Closely they crowded around him; and angry voices were hushed, and troubled hearts for the moment forgot their trouble, and the weary forgot that another day of toil was before them. The pale woman nearest Tiny who held the little baby in her arms, felt its limbs growing colder and colder, and once she looked under her shawl and quickly laid her hand upon her darling’s heart, but though she knew then that the child was dead, still she stood there smiling, and looking up towards heaven where Tiny’s eyes so often looked, because at that very moment he was singing of the Father in Heaven, whose house of many mansions is large enough for all the world.
It was strange to see the effect of Tiny’s song upon those people! How bright their faces grew! kind words from a human heart are such an excellent medicine–they make such astonishing cures! You would have thought, had you been passing by the crowd that gathered around Tiny, you would have thought an angel had been promising some good thing to them. Whereas it was only this young Tiny, this country lad, who had journeyed from the shadow of the Great Forest, who was telling them of a good time surely coming!
When he had finished his song, Tiny would have put up his harp, and gone his way, but that he could not do, because of the crowd.
“Sing again!” the people cried,–the beggars and rich men together (it was a long time since they had spoken with one voice). Did I tell you that a number of rich men had gathered, like a sort of outer wall, around the crowd of poor people which stood next to Tiny?
“Sing again,” they cried; and loud and clear above the other voices said one, “There is but a solitary singer in the world that sings in such a strain as that. And he, I thought, was far away. Can this be he?”
Then Tiny’s heart leaped within him, hearing it, and he said to himself: “If my father and mother were but here to see it!” And he sang again– and still for the poor, and the weary, and the sick, and the faint-hearted, until the street became as silent as a church where the minister is saying, “Glory be unto the Father.” And indeed it was just then a sacred temple, where a sacred voice was preaching in a most sacred cause.
I’m sure you know by this time what the “cause” was? And while he sang, the rich men of the outer circle were busy among themselves, even while they listened, and presently the person who had before spoken, made his way through the crowd, carrying a great purse filled with silver, and he said, “You are the poet himself–do with this what you think best. We have a long time been looking for you in the world. Come home with me, and dwell in my house, oh, Poet, I pray you.”