The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-06-07
"MuRiLLO's BOY.

"MURILLO'S BOY"
One fine spring morning, n great
many years ago, 1--WE or six young men
were assembled in large painting.
room in one of the great Spanish citins,
while grave, dark-haired, rather sad
looking man, In rich dress OF purple
velvet. was going from picture TO pict-
IRE, and saying few words upon each,
TO which his pupils listened very re-
spcctfully Aud well they might; for
this man was himself one of the great
est painters living, and his name was
Estebm (Stcphcn) Murillo.
But it was plain, that the pupils had
not been working Us we'll rs usual that
day; for Murillo had great deal OF
fault finding to do. Ono student had
painted an arm wrong; another had
spoiled the effect of his sunset; Il third
had made bad fault In the shading Of
his sky; and so on. and so on. till At last
the master lost patience altogether, and
cried angrily:
Really, gentlemen, this Is too bad!
You don't seem to remember anything
that tell you. II you can't do better
than this, that poor little monkey OF Il
Sebastian, yondcr, has us good d chance
OF becoming a painter as any Of you!a
The ''poor little monkey was u
Moorish lad of fourteen, one Of Murillo's
servants, who had TO sweep out the
painting room, grind the students coll
ors for Them, and do other jobs about
the house. His face flushed rs he heard
his master speak SO contemptuously Of
him. but he said nothing. and the lcct-
urc went on.
When the pupils came in the next
morning one or two of them noticed
that their pictures were not whore they
had left them, and Manuel Suarez, II
little hlack-eycd Il How with pretty
hot temper of his own, found bis brushes
all smearcd with paint, and flew into a
passion ut once.
The Zomhi'' Ga miscliicvous fairy of
the robin Goodfellow' sort, supposed
to play tricks Mt night) must have been
Mt work hcrc' shouted he, shaking his
fist; II cleaned these brushes myself
last night, and look at them now''
''And he seems TO have been III uic,
too, cried another. flor here's n
child's head on my canvas, which is
none of my DONG!
well" yawned Jose Nillavicemio,
the LATEST of the whole school, ''if il Is
the Zombi wish he'd just put in tho
face Of my st. Catherine while he Is
about il, for I'm sure I can't. Hollo.'
We'll might he cry .'hollo." There,
on his canvas. instead of the blurred,
unfinished head that he had left there
the night before, was face so bcnuti-
full, 50 admirably painted, aud yet 80
light and delicate, that the whole SIX
stared at il in silent establishment.
At that moment the door opened and
in came Murillo. t0s s
..Ha, VilIavicem;o" cried be, look
ing from the picture to his lazy pupil.
'sihis is better than expected OF youn'
.'l3ut it wasn't who did il, master
morc's the PITY"
"Not youp Who was II, thenp'
"Thats just what none Of us can tell
Senior Don Esteban; we found it here
when we came. y
Hum said MHillo. "Well, we can
talk of that again; lei us 90 to work
now
But, from that day forth, il really
seemed as If some mischicvous fairy
hud taken Murillo's studio for his play
ground Half-completed pictures were
finished no one knew l,ow--loosc strips
of canvas were covered with adnlira.
bic portraits of the various pupils and
one morning there appeared on the wall
q capital likeness Of Murillo, at which
the great master himself smiled approv-
ingly. But all these paintings were so
much better than anything winch the
students themselves could do, that they
were completely puzzled.
However, Murillo was not the man to
let such pranks be played upon him for
nothing; and one evening he said tohis
class:
'lt's time to put a stop to these
tricks, gentlemen. Whoever this invls-
ible painter may be, he's q man like
ourselves; and our best way is 10 come
an hour earlier tomorrow, and try il
we can't catch him at work
And so they did, sure enough; fol
when they came next morning, there,
seated before one of the pictures and
so intent upon his work that he did moi
even hear the door open, WAS the poor
little monkey, Sebastian
1t would be hard to say which was
the more astounded- Sebastian to find
himself caught, or MuriIlo and his pi'
pills to sec who their fairy really as.
Who taught you to paint, boy?''
asked Murillo at length.
'.You, MASTER replied Sebastian,
timidly.
.Why. never gave you lesson ID
my lifc!''
mo, master; but listened 10 what
you told these gentlemen, aud rcmcm-
bcrcd it,
..And you We fairly beaten us all:'
burst out Suarez, in his headlong way.
bravo, Sebastian
Bravo, Sebastian" echoed ali the
! rest.
God bless thee, my boy said Mn
rillo. laying his hand tendcrly on the
boys head. II have made something
far better than a picture this time