The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-08-30


velvet boxes. wis my faver was !
playin' faver. Oh, dear! / Wis, nv
1aver wasa faver like uvcr dirlses. {
WIS you was my faver.'
p to-day, as the little girl crept
slowly down to the studio, her heart
ionged as never before for father
ike the father of other children. For
poor, wee sinner!-mamma was out
delivering work and Satan had found
work for the idle baby fingers. She
a dropped the father in the velvet
box, she had dropped him on the floor;
and he was broken into a hundred
fragments.
She knew that mamma would weep.
n knew that mamma would grieye.
n II dreaded the effects Of her dis
opedlence. And, furthermore, the little
child felt she would deserve the misery
OF seeing her mothers grief, for time
leave the velvet box alone.
Me don't like dear to cry,'' said the
little neighbor; me wis me had a
taver what wouldn't break. Me wis
me wis
The studio door was unlocked, but
the artist was absent when his little
nelghbor entered. He had gone after
some color that he had suddenly need
ed, no doubt; the child often found the
studio empty, SO it did not surprise her
IN the least. Leaving the door ajar
thai n might hear m when she
passed through the hall, or her friend
when he returned, she began her usual
tour of inspection.
There was a new canvas on the easel,
a very large canvas with a great many
people on 1T, some outlined, some dead
colored, and some nearly completed.
The picture represented, though the
little neighbor did not know, a scene
from the verses Of a very famous poet,
and was intended to express the folly
OF strife, and the trouble that awaits
those who do not let the cloak of love
hide one another's shortcomings. And
there was one man who seemed to
stand very lear the little neighbor.
lie was a tall man, with blue eyes and
fair curls, like the little neighbours,
u toh his eyes were so sad, SO full of
vain regret!
The little neighbor looked at this
man long and fxedly. How familiar
that face seemed to be! Where had
she seen that face before? Her little
brain turned v all the events of her
four years of existence. Where?
Where? Where had the child seen that
face before? Suddenly the little one
remembered.
"Faver!" she cried, loudly, gladly.
"Faver-me faver!'
Yes, her father, older, sadder than
the father in the velvet box, but still
the father of the artists little neigh
Dor. But how had he come on the
artists canva when the child had left
him broken in the velvet box? The
little girl did not know, the little girl
did not care; her darling was whole
again and before her in all his fresh
ness and beauty-that was enough to
know. A hassock stood near, and,
dragging it to the canvas, the child
stood upon it, and her face was level
with the painted face. 'Faverv' she
cooed, lovingly. 'Me's ~faver!">
The rosy lips touched the painted
race IN a lender, loving kiss, and then
the door opened and the artist and
another stood upon the threshold.
"Marjory Somers!!' the artist
gasped, as the little n%eighbor turned
to greet him. The child's lips were
wet with paint, and the ''faver'' on the
canvas had been utterly obliterated by
the child's kiss.
Me faver!" cried the little neighbor.
Hes me faver."
Then the other brushed past the ar
fist into the room. His face was like
the face spoiled by the child's kiss
like the face Of the broken father in
the velvet box.