The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-06-24
Sevenoaks Snooks.
He Came to Grief Through Forget
ting to Be Honest.
BY CHARLES BATTELL LOOMS.

q nate 10 say tnat SeVenoakS SnoOkS
of Upham was a downright wicked boy.
L don't suppose that he thought he was
wicked-many of us are wicked without
realizing it, but he was old enough and
shrewd enough to have known that the
things that he did in the matter of Alon-
20 Freeland's horse were not the things
that a really good boy would do.
1t all came about through the power
of turning things to stone that he pos
sessed, like many fairies of the present
day and many witches of the past. We've
all heard Of Pygmalion, who turned a
statue into a living being, but SO far as
1 know no Yankee boy but Sevenoaks
ever possessed the opposite gift, and in a
place like New England, where there is
stone enough in all conscience such gift
was distinctly out of place.
When Sevenoaks discovered that he had
this power he said nothing about it to
any one but after that every now and
then farmers in the vicinity found petri-
fled frogs and toads and snakes when
they were blowing, and although the To-
cal wise men accounted for them very
satisfac torily as remains of the stone age,
no one ever happened to hit upon the
real reason for their petrifcation. It is
a wonder that he never used his power
on people. If he did, one of the Won
ders of. the world might have been a
farming community done in stone, with
perhaps score of sleeping beauties
among them-for Yankee maids are very
pretty. But it was only when he de-
sired to that he could transform objects,
and then they did not remain stone for
very long time. That Is why sundry
stone toads that were presented 20 the
In nd
the Museum of Art lin Boston have dis
peared. They turned to flesh and hoped
away.
Just after Sevenoaks discovered his
power a Mr.. Edward Everett Jones of
Boston bought a hundred acres of land
in Upham and put up a veritabie palace
on It, with stables and lawns and gardens
and ponds and shrubs and trees and sum-
mer houses until you couldn't count them
without getting a headache. This Mr..
Jones was fond of encouraging young
men. and he also employed all the people
in the nelghborhood to work for him so
that his money would do good to those
who lived near him.
One day Sevenoaks was helping his
father. who was setting out some trees
in front of Mr.. Jones house. Mr.. Jones
came out and said:
Good morning These are fine, healthy
looking trees. 1 think that when this place
is finished 1 ought to be proud of it, don't
you?''
YES, sir" said Mr. Shocks, but it's
pity you couldn't get some of those
iron statues to put up. They're very
pretty when they are whitewashed.
Makes em look like marble
81 dare say" said Mr.. Jones' smiling
as if there was a joke somewhere in
sight, but I think that paint is better
than whitewash, and. really, when you
come down to 1t, marble is better than
IRON"
Yes, but marbles expensive round here
since the quarries were worked out"
and sculptors are scarce. too said
Mr.. Jones, laughing, and then he went
into the house.
But this conversation had put mis-
chievous idea into Sevenoaks' head. That
afternoon he found Mr.. Jones feeding his
goldfish in the artificial pond, and he said
to him.
"Mr. Jones, I'm pretty handy with my
chisel, and here's a frog that L carved out
Of a chunk of marble"
And as he spoke he handed a white mar
Bile frog to Mr.. Jones. 1t was as beauti-
full as such a hideous thing could be. and
Mr.. Jones, thinking of the workmanship.
was lost in admiration.
MY boy. where did you study? Dear,
dear, I wish my friend MacMonnies could
see that"
"oh. that isn't anything" said Seven
oaks. 81 could show you marble cat
that was much harder to do"
Bring it TO me and I'll pay you a good
price for it."
Now, of course. seyenoaks was telling
lies, but as yet he had no wish to make
money fraudulently, so he said:
II don't want 10 sell 1t, but I'll be glad
to give it to you You've given us work,
and We have no use for marble cats, for
they can't catch rats"
Not even marble ones, suppose" said
Mr.. Jones, laughing. "Well I'll be glad
to look at the cat"
Keep the frog for a paper weight. sir,
said Sevenoaks, and ran off home 10 get
the cat.
The cat was still alive. She belonged
to no one in particular. but lived a rowing
life. dining for the most part on birds and
field mice. Sevenoaks found her curled up
asleep under maple tree. He stroked her
fur gently and thought of her as marble
cat, and in a moment she was a marble
cat. But such a piece of marble as no
sculptor, from Thorwaldsen down, ever
thought of carving. Every hair was as
fine as it had been in life; her whlskers
stood out straight and the small hairs In
her ears were all there, but in marble.
Mr.. Jones could not say enough about
II. my boy, you are without doubt the
leading sculptor in the world" For
moment Sevenoal1s wished tat he vas.
He had a love FOR the beautiful. and he
wished that he could have carved this cat
with mallet and chisel instead Of doing At
by mysterious power.
boy. III give you hundred dollars
for this" said Mr.. Jones.
This was a temptation, and Sevenoaks
fell, because one hundred collars 20 him
was as much as ten thousand would be 10
you, my son, ard as the cat had been
vagabond. he handed her over 10 Mr..
Jones, who gave him in return a cr!so
hundred dollar bill.
Thanks, awfully, sir. Would you ike
to see a horse that I'm at work at?"
81 would. indeed l mean to follow you
up
81 hope not too quickly" said Seven
oaks TO himself, "or l won't have time to
change it,"
But out loud. he said: Come 10 nv
shop this afternoon, If you will. sir End
I'll be glad to show IL TO you"
Sevenoaks ran or home, and Mr.. Jones
carried his marble cat into the house.
put ii down on his center table and sat
and admired it for two hours.
AS for Sevenoaks he scampered off home
and hastily got some pieces or marble out
OF an abandoned quarry that lay back q
his fathers house. These he scatt5 red
around his fathers workshop. Mr.. Shocks
had been a stonecutter when the quarry
was In operation.
little fun with Mr. Jones, and until the
latter had paid him the money he had not
expected TO carry the joke very far. Far