She possessed the genius of
music, which is melody, unweakened by those exaggerated affectations with
which it is often encumbered by what is pretendingly called science.
Drawing her daughter nearer to her knee, she commenced one of the songs
then much used by the mothers of the Colony, her voice scarcely rising
above the whispering of the evening air, in its first notes, but gradually
gaining, as she proceeded, the richness and compass that a strain so
simple required.
At the first low breathing notes of this nursery song, Narra-mattah became
as motionless as if her rounded and unfettered form had been wrought in
marble. Pleasure lighted her eyes, as strain succeeded strain; and ere the
second verse was ended, her look, her attitude, and every muscle of her
ingenuous features, were eloquent in the expression of delight. Ruth did
not hazard the experiment without trembling for its result. Emotion
imparted feeling to the music, and when, for the third time in the course
of her song, she addressed her child, the saw the soft blue eyes that
gazed wistfully on her face swimming in tears.
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