The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-05-25
To REMOVE PAINT.

ing-room, and smoked and told stories
while the ladies visited and exchanged
pieces of silk neckties and ribbons for
making silk quilts. The men got to
talking about the changes that occur in
peoples lives in few years, and each
had some illustration in his own expert
ence. The young minister had been a
quiet listener, and smoked his cigar in
dreamy sort of n way, and when they
had all had an inning telling stories,
the doctor said to the minister:
Elder, you must have noticed, as
much as anybody, the changes that
time brings. Can't you tell us some
thing funny in your experience?"
Il was just thinking" said the elder,
as he threw his cigar stub in the cuspi-
dore, 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 forgefulness, and to illus
trate also how man may be reasona-
bly, smart in knowledge of the world,
and not know enough to keep his mouth
shut at the proper time. About TWEEN
| ty-tive years ago, when l wars years of
| age, my people lived in little town,
and was allowed 10 run loose about
the neighborhood. You wouldn't be-
| lieve it to look Mt me now, but / was a
terror. That is, L was full of fun, o,
so full. L was up to all sorts of mis-
chief, and my good father and mother
| feared that | would never amount to
much, and guess they fear it now, but
| that is neither here nor there. Among
my playmates was n little girl of my
own age, a bright little thing with blue
eyes and brown hair, and dimple i'll
| her cheek. If l was n terror she was a
| terroress. She could climb a 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, barefooted,
and something induced US to go into her
fathers barn. In looking around for
something to amuse us, found a couple
of pos of paint that her father had
| been using abCus the house. One pot
was red and the other 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 l rolled
up my pants and she painted clear up
TO my knees, and then she got jealous
because had more style than she did,
and so painted her legs also, but 1
striped them, the stripes of alternate
green and red running around like a
barber-pole. Being n girl we argued
that it was right that she should be
more gaudy than me. Well, L have
seen beautiful paintings since, and have
done a little with tire brush since arriv-
ing at mans estate, but L have never
seen anything that gave me the salts
faction as work of art, that the work
of that afternoon III the udio of the
| barn did. L have seen marble sculpt-
ure OF the human form divine, In the
galleries of the old and new world
since, but / have never seen any
thing that could hold a candle to
the landscape that l painted on
Susan. She was so tickled that
she had to go right in the house
and show the chrome to her mother,
| and it was not more than minute be-
fore a solitary horseman, about s years
old, with one leg green and the other
red, might have been seen going over q
picket fence just ahead of Susan's
mothers mop. l got home alive, and
presented a picture to my mother that
she had never seen in her widest dreams.
Paint everywhere. And she warmed
me, and Susans mother across the
street warmed her, and us two young
artists mingled our cries across the
dusty street / need not dwell on the
weeks of agony we endured in having
that paint removed. There was some
sort of dryer in the paint that made it
dry and shine, and it seemed to pene-
trate clear to the bone. At least it did
on me, and / suppose Susan was made
of the same kind of clay. Any way, all
| the time we lived in that town after
that, Susan wore stockings, and L
Judged she was having the same trouble
| was, being washed every night in
Jbenzine, until L almost wished there
was no such thing as being an artist. L
had almost forgotten the circumstance,
in busy life, until last winter was
down to Chicago to missionary con-
vention. There were delegates from
all over the country, and many
of us took our wives. One evening,
after the business of the convention
was over, 4here was reception at the
residence of one of the directors of our
society, and 1 was introduced to the
wife of brother minister. There was
something about her eyes that seemed
sort of familiar, and finally she told me
who she was, and, as sure as L am smok-
ing this 5-cent cigar, it was Susan.
Well, we talked about old times and
old friends for long time, and of the
good work her husband was doing out
West, but for the life of me could not
keep my mind off of the paint. Here
che was grown woman, the glorious
byes sire had in youth were even more
| beautiful, and her smile was enough to
oreak up a prayer-meeting, but L could
snly see her as she looked when i got
through painting her. Becoming famil-
lar, finally said: BY the way, Susan,
1 would like to ask you one question,
and she said, Certainly and 1 allowed
my eye to twinkle little, and l asked:
| % C,,aoD tall mo JiJ vo,, axa, e,,at boI