Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1872-10-16
week / will be the wife of Lucas

week 1 will be the wife of Luca:
Smart! - Sd p h4g .aq
Old Smythers could only answel
eyes" His child seemed to him {
i very princess, SO proudly and SO com
mandipgly she stood before him, will
her blonde braids resting like crown
upon her forehead. But the rich mil.
Ter plucked him by the sleeve, whisper.
4 ing: f7s#
/ Let us go home. Your princess
is too grand for my mill, and there are
other girls in Ghent Pc
The old man, without word, pulled
him down into chair beside him, and
j. the two sat close together, eagerly wait.
ing. .-..-..... s.s-
Anna seated herself at the table, and
I cut from roll of parchment bit OF
the size of bean, mingled the colors,
and bending her head low began to
paint. 1t was as still as death in the
room. The master worked on, appar-
emily Indifferent as to the result.
Franz Mieris stood with disturbed face
before his easel, and painted the por-
trait of a Judge with a green necker-
! chief and blue nose. Near the half
! drawn curtain, in the back ground,
stood Frau Katherine, deadly pale with
folded hands, and over her leftzshoul-
der looked the sculptor's intelligent
/ face, a clear beam of love streaming
from his eyes upon the painting maid
en-. The wild roses outside the window
pressed curiously against the panes,
and beetles and butterflies nearly beat
out their brains upon the glass, while
the sparrows loudly related to each
other, and every one who chose to lis
ten, that inside the studio there, every
thing was not quite as it should be.
! Now and then Annals glance hastily
/ sought the face of the rich miller, and
I the faintest intimation of a sportive
smiling fitted across the deep earnest
! ness of her sportive face
At last she. arose, and stepped to-
ward Gerhard Dow, she said, "your
eyes shall first behold my trial piece
/ Tell me if it is a good work " a..
Gerhard Dow laid upon the palm of
his broad right hand the tiniest paint
ing that ever artist fingers had created,
and gazed upon it in amazement.
Child, you have learned more than
[ could have taught youl Such work
as this, neither myself, nor any other
painter in the Netherlands, could
/ equal. I know not who has secretly
instructed you. Thank him, not me,
for your success. You nave created
the most exquisite miniature genre
picture that my eyes ever beheld
! So saying, he approached Herr
| Smyther and Lucas Smart, and held
out his hand Franz Mieris came near
and peered over their shoulder, and all
three gazed in amazement upon the
wonderful miniature painting, whose
every line was executed with the most
enchanting clearness and delicacv.
There was Windmill with its sells, a
/ stout miller who strikingly resembled
/ Lucas Smart, horses with sacks, carts,
and many people crowded together,
but each figure entirely perfectly per-
feet and distinct in its kind
The stern judge showed his little cap
from one ear to the other, and said
/ slowly: l-n"
Z" You are right! nobodJ can equal
that We need no other fortune! Lu-
cas- Smart, put the princess out of your
mind. AS you said, there are other
maidens In Ghent We will go to-
gether and search for one AS for An
na, she may stay here and paint -
la-"No, no take me will you - cried
the lovely Anna. C can go OF paint
/ ing at home, if you will allow some one
to go with me who has been my chief
instructor ~
Before the old man could reply.
Jacob Heers burst from his retreat, and
in his joyful confusion fell, ,bymistake,
| upon the neck of the rich miller, and
embraced him so long and ardently
that Gerhard Dow himself laughingly
rescued the astonished man. Then fol-
lowed chaos of questions and ans
wers, laughter and tears, until, at last,
the lovers stood hand in hand before
the amazed father. --
But can he do any thing in particu-
lar ~ asked Herr Smythers at last,
pointing to the young sculptor.
{" Certainly ~ cried Franz Mieris,
with a sneer, 6 he knows how to break
stone, and"
=" And to love your daughter faith
fully!' interrupted the lovely Anna,
and hid her face upon her fathers
breast. s.. 4gg
Franz Mieris slipped his arm in that
of Lucas Smart, and drew him away to
show him the wind-mills of Leyden.
The little genre-painting of the sub
sequently famous artist, Anna Heers,
is still exhibited as one of the marvels
of Ghent The charming lady execut-
ed many beautiful pictures in the days
of her success, but she never again ap-
piled her pencil to miniature. The
wonderful painting remained the only
one of it's kind-one of the marvellous
creations of that most famous of mas
ters, Love. ..-.