"Give us, therefore,"--let us cry with Carlyle,--"oh, give us the man
who sings at his work! He will do more in the same time, he will do it
better, he will persevere longer. One is scarcely sensible of fatigue
whilst he marches to music. The very stars are said to make harmony as
they revolve in their spheres. Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness,
altogether past calculation its powers of endurance. Efforts, to be
permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous, a spirit all sunshine,
graceful from very gladness, beautiful because bright."
"It is a good sign," says another writer, "when girlish voices carol
over the steaming dish-pan or the mending-basket, when the broom moves
rhythmically, and the duster flourishes in time to some brisk melody. We
are sure that the dishes shine more brightly, and that the sweeping and
dusting and mending are more satisfactory because of this running
accompaniment of song. Father smiles when he hears his girl singing
about her work, and mother's tired face brightens at the sound. Brothers
and sisters, without realizing it, perhaps, catch the spirit of the
cheerful worker."
There are singing milkers in Switzerland; a milkmaid or man gets better
wages if gifted with a good voice, for a cow will yield one-fifth more
milk when soothed by a pleasing melody.
It was said by Buffon that even sheep fatten better to the sound of
music. And when field-hands are singing, as you sometimes hear them in
the old country, you may be sure the labor is lightened.
It is Mrs. Howitt who has told us of the musical bells of the farm teams
in a rural district in England:--"It was no regular tune, but a
delicious melody in that soft, sunshiny air, which was filled at the
same time with the song of birds. Angela had heard all kinds of music in
London, but this was unlike anything she had heard before, so soft, and
sweet, and gladsome. On it came, ringing, ringing as softly as flowing
water. The boys and grandfather knew what it meant. Then it came in
sight,--the farm team going to the mill with sacks of corn to be ground,
each horse with a little string of bells to its harness. On they came,
the handsome, well-cared-for creatures, nodding their heads as they
stepped along; and at every step the cheerful and cheering melody rang
out.
"'Do all horses down here have bells?' asked Angela.
"'By no means,' replied her grandfather. 'They cost something; but if we
can make labor easier to a horse by giving him a little music, which he
loves, he is less worn by his work, and that is a saving worth thinking
of. A horse is a generous, noble-spirited animal, and not without
intellect, either; and he is capable of much enjoyment from music.'"
A spirit of song, if not the singing itself, is a constant delight to
us. "It is like passing sweet meadows alive with bobolinks."
"Some men," says Beecher, "move through life as a band of music moves
down the street, flinging out pleasures on every side, through the air,
to every one far and near who can listen; others fill the air with harsh
clang and clangor. Many men go through life carrying their tongue, their
temper, their whole disposition so that wherever they go, others dread
them. Some men fill the air with their presence and sweetness, as
orchards in October days fill the air with the perfume of ripe fruit."