The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-07-12
Polty's Paint-B ox.

hA
b When I was a little girl, and all my
dolls were rag-babies, my mother made
their cheeks rosy for me by rubbing
them with bunch of reelection thread,
and size marked eyes, nose and mouth
on each one with her lead pencil.
They made sensation the next day, I
can tell you, when 1 carried them into
Aunt Patty's school-room. All the little
girls there had rag babies, it is true, but
not one of them had pink cheeks. And
go dear F." sighed little Polly Colt. "I
wish 1 had "A paint-box F"
"Have you got a paint-box, Maidie ?"
asked lilly Hebron.
"Only pink for cheeks" said; "but
once 1 had little piece of cake of
green"
"Ho can paint green any time"
said Tilly's brother Ben.
"How? ?" asked three or four of us
together.
"With clover leaves" he answered,
triumphantly and opened his spelling
book in proof of it to the picture of the
apple tree with that bad boy in the
boughs, and sure enough it was as bright
q green as you ever saw.
We were all beginning to pick clover
leaves by the doorstep when Aunt Patty's
voice called at the window, "In in |
in!
But as we went in Polly Colt whis-
pered to me that she had thought of
something real nice, and she guessed she
should have paint-box of her own in a
day or two.
The next morning when 1 went to
school, she was waiting for me under the
big apple-tree with something in her
apron. 1t was pasteboard box.
My paint-box !" she whispered, hur-
riedly. It's secret, but I'll tell you,
Maidie." =. ~. "a. N' ea
Such funny little secret We crept
in behind the lilac bushes, and hid our
selves in an angle of the wall. And
there we painted picture after picture
in our biographies, with the greenest
trees, the sweetest blue skies, and the
most purple castles, that anybody ever
saw.
How surprised the other girls were
when we ran among them just before
school began and showed them our beau
tiful pictures. There was splendid
yellow lion among Polly's. and the boys
crowded around to see that.
Where's your paint-box ?" asked
Ben.
"Oh, Polly, do show us your paint
box !" exclaimed Sarah Starr, and lilly,
and all the rest.
But Polly wouldn't. She told them
our paint shop was behind the hlacs, but
none of them must come in.
"We'i paint your pictures, though, :"
she said; "any of them you want us to,
for two pins apiece. "
Such mastering of pins as there was
then One of the boys found two bent
ones in his jacket, and gave them to us.
he wanted yellow lion. 1 ran behind
the hlacs and painted it for him while
Polly was getting directions from the
rest; but the minutes flew so fast we had
only time to do some beautiful purple
Turks in Sarah STAIRS geography when
Aunt Patty called us in. We read and
spelled, and said the multiplication
table all around. Then the girls sewed
patchwork till recess, and the boys
marked ON their states. 1t seemed such
long, lorg morning but at last recess
Oaho, ahu VIC UOuuuou out luuo tuc
yard. --i. 'fi't
Ben and the other boys ran into the
road to play, but the girls all crowded
around Polly and me with their geogra-
phies and pins. It was such fun ! We
wouldn't let one of them see us at work,
but we painted their pictures as fast as
we could. Polly said maybe we could
get pins enough to make pin bail fol-
each of us. ..... 49,.
l know we could have done it, too, il
it hadn't been for that dreadful Ben. ]
bad just finished great pink pagoda il
one of the girls books, and was begin
ming blue queen for lilly, and Polly
was painting camels, when all of a sud
den there was a great shout right ovel
our Leads, and, when we sprung up
there were all the boys heads in row
stretching over the wall to look at us
They had gone away round in the lot
and climbed up there without one bit o
noise, on purpose to find out abou
Polly's paint-box and oh, how they die
laugh
For there it was tipped over on tn,
grass, and all the clover-leaves, and but
tercups, peopy petals, violets and rose
were tumbled out in plain sight Ant
then, of course, at the cutlery the girl
came pushing in through the lilacs t,
see what it was all about, and after tina
there couldn't be any more secrets abou
Polly's paint-box.
But it made great deal of pleasur
for us all for the rest of the summer, an,
we searched the fields and gardens TO
different flowers and berries to fill ou
paint boxes. The strawberries and rasp
berries gave us lovely colors, and tn
wild scoke-berries yielded fine red
The hardest color to get was real tru
blue, 80 many blue flowers painted onl
purple; but sometimes we found it, an
when we could not we borrowed Q
Polly, for she was richest in resources
and had coaxed her father until he CAV
her little bottle of blue ink.
Now 1 will give you a recipe for
"Polly's Paint Box" but, of course,
can be greatly varied as the weeks pass
bringing different flowers:
YetloW-Take buttercups, dande
lions, celandine, or yellow lilies.
Red-Dark red roses, red dahlias
scoke. berry juice, or peonies.