San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-06-07
TO REMOVE PAINT.

ter supper the gentleman WcHS W I'll
smoking room, and smoked and toll
stories while the ladies visited and OK
changed pieces OF silk neckties au'
ribbons for making silk quilts. Tn
men got to talking about the change
that occur in peoples lives in II few
years, and each had some illustration
in his own experience. The youns
minister had been a quiet listener, ant
smoked his cigar in dreamy sort o
way, and when they had all had al
inning telling stories, the doctor sale
to the minister:
Elder, you must have noticed
the changes that time brings
Can't you tell us something funny il
your experience?"
IL was just thinking" said the ED
er, as he threw his cigar stub in the
cuspidore, and took fresh one and
lit it, "of something that happened to
me last winter in Chicago, and l will
tell it to you to illustrate how added
years bring intelligence to the most OF
us, though it cannot bring forgetful-
ness, and to illustrate also how man
may be reasonably smart i'll knowledge
of the world, and not know enough to
keep his mouth shut at the proper
time. About twenty-five years ago,
when | was eight years of age, my
people lived in little town, and l was
allowed to run loose about the neigh
borhood. You wouldn't believe it to
look at me now, but l was a terror.
That's, | was full of fun, O, so full.
l was up to all sorts of mischief, and
my good father and mother feared that
l would never amount to much, and |
guess they fear it now, but that is
neither here nor there. Among my
playmates was little girl Of my own
age, a bright little thing with blue eyes
and brown hair, and a dimple in her
cheek. If l was terror she was a
terroress. She could climb fence
quicker than could, and outrun me
and wasn't afraid Of anything, and we
were the best friends you ever saw.
Her name was Susan. One day we
were playing in the back yard, bare
footed, and something induced us to
90 into her fathers barn. In looking
around for something to amuse us, L
found a couple Of pots of paint that
her father had been using about the
house. One pot was red and the 9th
er green. We took the brushes and
painted the stall in the barn red, and
one wheel of her fathers wagon green,
and finally she suggested that we
paint our feet. So l painted one of
her feet green and the other red, and
she painted mine, and then [ rolled
up my pants and she painted clear up
to my knees, and then she got jealous
because l had more style than she did,
and so painted her legs also, but l
striped them, the stripes of alternate
green and red running like a barber
pole. Being girl, we argued that it
was right that she should be more
yaudy than me. Well, | have seen
beautiful paintings since, and have
lone little with the brush since a.
irving at mans estate, but l have
never seen anything that gave me the
as work of art, that the
work of that afternoon in the studio of
he barn did. | have seen marble
sculpture of the human form divine,
n the galleries of the old and new
world since, but l have never seen
anything that could hold II candle TO
susan. She was so tickled that she
lad to 90 right in the house and show
he chrome to her mother, and 1t was
lot more than II minute before a
solitary horseman, about s years old,
With one leg green and the other red,
night have been seen going over 4
,icket fence Just ahead of Susan
mothers mop. / got home alive, and
presented Il picture to my mother that !
ne had never seen in her widest /
Ireams. Paint everywhere. And she |
warmed me, and Susan's mother ,
cross the way warmed her, and Us !
wo young artists mingled our cries !
Icross the dusty street. | need not ;
Iwen on the weeks Of agony we en- ,
iured in having tina; paint removed. ,
There was some SOFT Of dryer IN the ,
.aint that made it dry and shine, and
/ seemed to penetrate clear to the
zone. At least il did on me, and
suppose Susan was made of the same
lay. Any way, all the time we lived
n tina. town after that, Susan wore
ane Judged she was hay-