Oh, Helen fair, beyond compare,
I'll mak' a garland o' your hair
Shall bind my heart for evermair
Until the day I dee.
And Nellie Sinclair never in all her life sang that song so well as she
did that night; and she never sang it again. Robert, who was lying in
the room, heard her glorious voice, and marveled at the complete mastery
she showed over the plaintive old tune. It was as if her very soul
reveled in it, as the notes rose and fell; and it stirred the boy into
tremendous emotional excitement, as the tragedy was unfolded in the
beautiful words and the sadness of the old tune.
It was a memorable night of quiet happiness for all, and there was so
much of tragedy lying behind it unseen and unknown. But so often are the
sweetest moments of life followed by its sadness and its sorrow.
CHAPTER IX
THE ACCIDENT
Next morning at five o'clock Robert leapt from his bed, full of
importance at the prospect of going down the pit. Stripping off his
sleeping shirt, he chattered as he donned the pit clothes. The blue
plaid working-shirt which his mother had bought for him felt rough to
his tender skin, but unpleasant as it was, he donned it with a sense of
bigness.
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