Ralph Connor

“ Why, every week—"
"Let some one else talk, Harry," interrupted Maimie, with cheeks flaming. "We are going to have some singing now. Here is auntie. Mayn't we use the piano?"
"Why, yes, I suppose so," said Mrs. Murray. "I was glad to see your father there to-night," she said to Ranald.
"And Yankee, mother."
"Hush, Hughie; you must call people by their right names. Now let us have some singing. I hear Ranald is singing bass these days."
"And bully good bass, too," cried Hughie. "John 'Aleck' says that it's the finest bass in the whole singing school." ”

“ With her head low down, while she struck the chords of the hymn they had just sung, she said, hesitatingly, "I am not sorry."
"Sorry for what?" said Harry.
"Oh, nothing," said Maimie, lightly.
"Nobody is, if he has got any sense."
Then Mrs. Murray came in. "Won't you stay for supper, Ranald? You must be hungry."
"No, thank you," said Ranald. "I must go now."
He shook hands with an ease and freedom that the minister had never seen in him, and went out.
"That young man is coming on," said the minister. "I never saw anyone change and develop as he has in the last few months. Let me see. ”

“ He is only eighteen, isn't he, and he might be twenty-one." The minister spoke as if he were not too well pleased with this precocity in Ranald.
But little did Ranald care. That young man was striding homeward through the night, his head striking the stars. His path lay through the woods, and when he came to the "sugar camp" road, he stood still, and let the memories of the night when he had snatched Maimie from the fire troop through his mind. ”

“ And with that Hughie was content.
"Now let us sing one more hymn," said his mother. "It's my choice." And she chose one of the new hymns which they had just learned in the singing school, and of which Hughie was very fond, the children's hymn, "Come to the Saviour." While they were singing they heard Mr. Murray drive into the yard.
"There's papa," said Mrs. Murray. "He will be tired and hungry," and she hurried out to meet her husband, followed by Harry and Hughie, leaving Ranald and Maimie in the room together. ”

“ Not that they were done with Pharaoh and his untoward fate; that occupied them for many a day.
The class was closed with prayer and singing. As a kind of treat, the last singing was a hymn and they stood up to sing it. It was Perronet's great hymn sung to old Coronation, and when they came to the refrain, "Crown him Lord of all," the very rafters of the little church rang with the mighty volume of sound. The Bible class always closed with a great outburst of singing, and as a rule, Ranald went out tingling and thrilling through and through. ”

“ There were said to be some at Moose Creek (Mooscrick, as it was called) , but they were known only by report. The younger and more untraveled portion of the community thought of them with a certain amount of awe and fear. ”