The daily Alaskan., 1909-01-13
The Priceless Gift.
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dents are given exactly as they oc- cured in the latter half of the eight eenth century,
 Alvin Marston, cabinetmaker had a son, John. whom the father was bringing up in his business. But the young man was of very different tex ture from that of a builder of furnl- ture. He was of an ideal, dreamy na- ture and instead of attending to his duties spent his time in making little sketches. Was there a clean, smooth board or an unpublished dock in the shop there was sure to be a pencil drawing on 1t which could at once be recognized as a likeness of some of tue worlmen. Alvin MarSton saw some of them and STras pleased with them. He was more pleased when he learned that his son had made them and, re- linquishlng his design of teaching the boy trade, put him in way to take drawing lessons. The student improy- ed rapidly showing sufficient talent to warrant becoming professional artist Then he fell iil.
 There being no one ln the family to nurse him, country girl was called in for the purpose That was long before trained nurses were thought of. Mary Reyes was not made attractive by the uniform that now decorates the nurse. She had no beauty to win the young artist, nor had she mental en- dowments above her station. She was a plain country girl, nothing more. But John MarSton was imaginative. He saw her moving about the room miuistcring to his comfort, and of the commonplace figure he made a Venus, while the ordinary face in his eyes be- came paragon of sweetness.
 Tho invalid recovered and married Mary Reyes. He lived with her sev- eral years and had children by her. Had 1t not been for his talents doubt less there would be no especial story In his life. 1t was only too evident that he was born for higher life than the one he was leading. His pictures eX- cited the admiration of critics, and the young man grew ambitious One day he said gooLby to his wife and chil- drcn to go 10 London to study art He dld not return to them for more than thirty years.
 The cabinctmaker's son became a great artist. In portrait painting he was the only rival 10 the celebrated Sir Joshua Reynolds. His name, his fame. his praise. were on every lip. He was invited into the houses of the mo- bility and was paid enormous sums for painting their portraits.
 Why dld he never return to his fam fly? Who knows? Possibly before he left home the beauties he had himself created had fallen away and he saw the ordinary woman, neither endowed whh beauty of person nor of mind. Perhaps the scales were removed from his eyes by visions of the women of the capital. One of these after he be- came famous wove- about him a spell. She had a beautiful body and a cor rupt soul. There was the same imag- native process in a different form as had moved him in the case of Mary Reyes. Mary had a pure spirit but an ordinary face and figure, on which be had built a thing of beauty. On the woman he met iu London, beautiful without and rotten within, he built superstructure that enthralled him. She was the mistress of the greatest sailor of a nation of sailors. She was pleased to bewitch the famous painter, but she laughed at bis bewitchment' He stretched forth his hand to grasp a rose and plucked q thorn.
 And now comes something more per feet than any of the beautiful creations of the artists.
 An old man, he returns to the wife and family he has neglected for the greater part of a lifetime. Ills wife, tco. has grown old She knows of his triumphs and of his desertion of her in heart as well as in person. We may eyDect that she will receive him as stranger, that she will reproach him with his neglect and that she who had the first right to share in his triumphs has been denied them, that, 1T possiole' they would have been given to others others signauy unworthy of them.
 When the aged invalid rode up to her door she went out wltb open arms to receive him. He tottered into the house supported by her She spoke no word of reproach. The love he had slighted for more than three decades was still there for him. As she had nursed him in his youth she nursed him ia his old age.
 Again he saw her ministering to him not as a youth. in youth herself with life before them, but as q decreptt old man, The dreams they then dreamed had been far more than realized, but not for her, and they could not now be recalled that she might enjoy them. He remembered his trlumphs and how unworthiy they had been bestowed And vet she was caring for him as tcnderly as if he had shared them with her
 A poet has created a fancy of
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