The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-01-04

mems would have given all his
talent to have preserved that look. Il
would carry him to the very heights of
fame, He seized a brush. Perhaps he
could reproduce it. He studied it,
carefully apprehended all the possible
effects, and then proceeded to wipe the
drop of water away, preparatory 70
painting a tear.
"Holy Moses and the prophets" he
cried who has done this? He alone is
worthy to be my successor"
"Max did it," said Katrina, coming
from behind a lot of old furniture and
rubbish with which artists studios
are Uttered, dragging her lover by the
hand.
"Sor' exclaimed the father; ..then he
is the n we've been looking for all
these yearsp"
EYES," said Katrina, "the n you
have been looking for, discovered him
long since"
CHAPTER vi.
"Come, Max" said his wife, three
months after their marriage, "you must
go at it. Father is grlmbling that you
have done nothing since that famous
morning. I can hear him say under his
moustache that you're a mountebank,
like those others"
"And SO L am" said Max, coolly.
"Dear Max, you don't mean to say
you don't know how to paint beautiful
pictures after all these years of absence
and workP"
II don't mean to say anything at all
about it. 1 can paint just one thing"
"What's thatp"
"a drop O deW."
"And that is alp"
THAT is ALL"
"All-those three years"
81 learned only that; but I can do that
better than anybody, living or dead"
"Father will turn US out of the house
when he learns it."
Il am willing, so be it YOU 90 with
me- That is all that 1 learned to paint
it for"
Katrina was right. The angry father
trundled them out Of the house as soon
as he knew how limited the accomplish
ments of his daughters husband were.
But it was the best thing that could
have happened to him. For, spurred by
necessity, he began to turn his one talent
to account. In the course of q year or
two Klopstag society was fairly buzzing
with a new specially in art. A dozen
pictures of the sort had been produced
and had become the 'rage." Everybody
wanted one. Competition raised the
prices to enormous figures. and Max
was both famous and rich. His father
in-law became ~reconciled, especially
when a grandson appeared who babe
fair already in his youth to inherit the
talents of his father and the genius of his
great ancestor.
The fashion of Max's pictures, like all
other fashions, died out, and in time only
a few masterpieces remained in the
Klopstag gallery, where visitors may
now see them, if they will look sharp.
They + pictures of flowers, fruits,
branches, blossoms, twigs and leaves.
On each of these objects are one or more
drops of dew, so perfectly crystal and
pure, so fresh and moistureful that they
all look as if they had been painted at
sunrise. These diamond d~ew-drops
suffuse the bloom and bushes of the
peach like the tear that trickled and
fingered on the cheek of the vexed
beauty; they shine in opalescent clusters
on the gossamer wet stretched across the
sprig of currant bushes; they drip at the
apex of green leaves; they refine even
the chaste hues of the lily and the rose.
The morals of this story are packed
into it as tight and close as chestnuts into
a chestnut burr, and equally hard to get
at; so IL will scarcely be worth while to
try. However, one may learn from it,
if they have the time, that appearances
are deceitful, and that one talent is not
to be despised, if you only make the most
Of it.-Paul Lincoln, in Detro.. Free
Press