The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-03
Our Daily $bcrt Story

want it. It did not harmonize with the personnel of her idea.
 '.rhfs will never dol" she thought as he came for the next sitting with his eyes soft and brightly lustrous. T am not seeking the picture of jovial, light -hearted farmer. I had staked all my chances of success on that grave, serious expression of weariness and strength combined. I must work him into the mood someway."
 He paused before the easel on his way out.
 Nothing but splashes of color. she laughed After he had gone she re- mained before the easel in brown study. An expression partly quizzical and partly contrite crossed her face.
 Its mean" she thought. but I'll do it. The end will justify the means"
 The next day she gave him a picture of her sketches to look at while she was getting ready to work. One was a sketch of herself that fellow stu dent at the Academy had made.
 Instantly his face grew full of ex- pression as she meant it to be, but still that provoking radiance illuminated 1t.
 May have it?" he asked.
 "I have promised it to the artist who sketched it," she said, splashing some brown ochre preparatory to an eye production. Encouraged by his ex- pression she began to paint rapidly, then relenting, "He was only a mere boy. Of course. I wouldn't give my picture to man."
 A look like the rushing of sunshine in a dark place flashed across his features.
 T am only chasing his features from one expression to another" she thought ruefully. This see-saw must stop.
 T am going to the city to study again in October" she said bluntly.
 At last! Just the expression she wanted! Leaving him to his. refiec- tions and apprehensions. she painted rapidly and in silence. At the end of the afternoon she looked at her work with satisfaction, but Dorr was jisap- proving.
 DO I look as glum as that" he asked. Why didn't you tell me to look pleasant"
 This expression is more effective from an artistic standpoint" she said cheerfully, T feel that am going to succeed, and you shall not gaze upon the picture again until it is hung
 The days and the work went eteadi- ly on. Dorr came daily to pose, and gazed pensively up through the sky lights of Ruth's studio, seeing in his gaze visions of harvest meadows and pastures green, towering stalks of corn bearing their burden of grain which awaited only the first touch of frost to bring their fulfillment. And while he sat and dreamed and lowered between his hopes and his despair, Ruth paint ed as one inspired. putting her whole being and his into the picture. In October. Ruth took the Last Load" and went to the city. One day there was an exhibition of pictures and her name was on everyone's lips. Her painting had excited unusual and marked attention. She wrote Dorr and asked him to come and see 1t. Togeth- CT they went to the gallery. It was quite early-long before the popular hour for visitors. Dorr stood spell bound before the masterpiece. The meadow, the tottering load of hay and the tired horses were true to life, but his eyes were riveted on the man standing at the horses heads The 1.-the form with shoulders that seemed made for a bulwark, lean of hip and small of waist was at once athletic and magnetic. A low-setting sun sent slanting rays where he stood, making the fork gracefully poised on his shoulder gleam like gold. In his up- lifted face, the face of a man who ha as toiled the livelong day, was the tenac- ity of purpose and the grim constancy that make men. Behind the weariness and gravity were nobility and depth os heart.
 There was a little heartache under heath bis pleasure in her success. Ruth" he said wistfuIly, If I did look like that--if were like that. would you care for me?"
 "Dorr. the picture painted Itself, and from every stroke of the brush I knew that l did care--had always caredp
 "Ruthn