Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-02-05
IAN ORDER FOR A PICTURE"
BY ''MINIMUM. :"
"Port Louisa I"


culiarly solemn style of Mississippi
river crafts, few people struggled
down TO the landing to meet the bar
rel of -four, the sack of sugar, and the
solitary passenger who came ashore;
then silence fell again upon the port.
The passenger was q painter. He
bad Travelled much by land and sea.
he had made t9ilsome journeys with
Edwin Weeks in Morocco. He had
haunted Madrid with John Sergeant.
He had fingered On the boundary
coast with the summer students and
artists who flock thither from Paris
He had illustrated books in New Or
leans, had painted the Mountain of
the Holy Cross In Colorado, and the
Merced Falls in the Yosemite. All In
fortnight less that seven years. Now
he had come home. HOme2 Ugh!
He shivered and drew his cloak arouad
him. That was a STACEY thing in
sounding, but dismally prosaic In the
acting. He shivered, remembering
the ague which lay dank on the banks
of the long MuscatiDe slough, just in
from the river.
The cloak was Norman's only af-
fection, if SO one might call it. He
had begun wearing q cloak in his
early sentimental days, when he first
appeared in the New York studios as
an untutored genius of the West.
That first cloak did not wear out un-
til a lucky picture gave him money to
go to Paris. There he fell in with
Henry Bacon, and much admiring
that poetlcal and versatile artist, he
continued to wear a cloak, copying
that fashion with many other medi-
aeval ways, which sit very well upon
the painter of ''The Burial at Sea-"
IFS Mr.. Bacon a very gloomy
maD2" asked Norman's S wife next day,
as he sat talking with her, groaning
in spirit at the hideous fashions of the
rag-carpet on the floor of her fathers
log house.
''Oh, no, indeed He told me that
he never was jollier in his life than
when painting that picture of the sea-
burial. He had foolish fashion of
saying You" to people about that
time that was rather startling. You
see, all OF the faces in the picture are
copied from life. There is his chum,
Walter Brown-had q picture at the
Salon last year, by the-by, and several
others. Well, every one who came
into Bacen's studio that winter tried to
be witty by asking, Who is the model
for the corpse Bacon's You was
ploed curdling in its picturesque in
tensity."
Picturesque intensity?
Yes. Why2 What makes you re-
peat my words, Letty?"
''Oh, | was wondering If you talk
In that way out In the world. It is
the first word with any meaning in it
that [ have heard from you since you
asked me to marry you"
"Flddle-dedeel Don't let's quarrel,
Lefty; that's good girl"
Il don't want to quarrel. But do
wonder W hatever made you come
back TO me-
Norman puffed silently at his cigar
and looked out of the window. The
great river lapsed silently in the dis
tance. The swash of the current on
the islands and against the soggy
banks did not reach him where he sat.
But he saw the ruin of the new in the
little village, the desolation of the
falling warehouses, the decaying
Warf, the broken timbers of the small
wooden churches, the fastening an
Inhalation of the once thrifty port.
The trees close by the shore dropped
their branches In the fantastic he!o-
leSSness Of trees not above the high
water mark of the river.
Picturesque intensity" said Nor
man Il came to make sketches aud
to fall off getting the ague if possible.
Do you ever have it, Letty3'
mo"
''Letty9"
''NVell9"
How old are ou2"
Twenty six. Whyg'
and l am So"
Il know IT,
After long pause:
You are my wife9"
II know it"
Il have come for you.
"Ah! why didn't you say so be-
tore2''
'You haven't acted as though you
cared You never have written me as
though you cared whether I ever came
back or not.
4 don't at this minute remember
your ever expressing wish to have
me with you. It would have been q
great nuisance to have had wife to
hinder your growing fame all these
years. Besides my father needs me
TO keep house-aore than ever since
my mother died"
Lefty, don't you love me any
more9"
Yes"
Norman stood up. He threw his
cigar out Of the window and stretch
ed bis arms above his head yawning
''Do, oh? Well. you didn't act much
like it yesterday. Why didn't YOU
take the trouble to walk over TO the
wharf to meet me. telegraphed you
I was coming. Rather dismal to lave
no one cCme to meet fellow"
Eyes, [ was sorry for you. Bat
father was obliged 10 go to his days
work at the nall, and / never 90 any-