Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-14

twenty dollars month would amount to two hundred
and forty dollars year. Suppose we say two hun
dred since am that even that amount will allow
you generous margin Will that Satisfy you if 1
pay the first two hundred dollars you in advance?
The light of cupidty leaped into Jim CLOVIS eyes.
"Cash?" he asked the question almost breathlessly
Cash. repeated the artist, and he then and there
took from his pocketboo four crisp ffty-dolar bills
For the first time the boy breathed deeply as Jim
Glow silently took the money and passed to his wife
who stood in the doorway
Il reckon its for Henrys good,'s she hesated, but
she clasped the money with as much msery eagerness
as Jim had done.
And why not, since all their hard lives had been
cramped and circumscrbed by the lack OF this very
boon; since because of that lack their brows were
wrinkled and careworn before their time and their
hearts were heavy and dull and cold?
For the first time the artist seemed to notice that
the youth still cutched the hem of his coat as if fear
ing to let him go.
Get your clothes together, Henry" he directed
kindly; I'VE shall start at once. l am loanng this
money to your son." he added turning to the father
as Henry stumbled into the house, blinded by this
wonderful good fortune, and have no fear but that
he will be able to pay it back some day Every three
months after this first year | shall send you fifty
dollars until he is able to send it to you himself"
After all the CLOVIS without their parental
feeling, for twice before his boy left Jim had almost
taken back the bargain and the mother as she packed
her sons belongings in the battered little canvas
telescope" that had done duty many years for the
tew trips the family had made, cried them, and
she wept and chung around his neck at the roadside
and mpored him to take of himself not to for
get them, and to write to them every once in way"
Thus Henry Glow went out into the world to make
tor himself the place that he craved There is no need
to tell of all his struggles from obscurty fame nor
how the rough places smoothed over by the
friend who had absorbed trace of the largeness of
God into his soul. 1t is enough to say that he
worked; that the laziness with which he had been
charged existed no more that he shaved night and
day. that he bent to this heavensent task with all the
energy and v1gor that had been born of his years of
longing, and that did come in full measure
OF course, he came back to the valley farm after
his long soJourn abroad and he came once year after
he had opened his studio in the distant city And
then began the curious development which makes this
not at all the narrative Of Henry CLOVIS dreams and
struggles, but of Jim Glow and his wife
The beginning g was in that Summer when Henry
painted The Brook. During a preceding Winter
of his pictures had taken prize and had been sold
FOR thousand dollars and the CLOVIS began for the
hrSt time to have respect for Henry's work Jim
frequently paused in his labor that Summer to go be-
hind his boy and watch with puzzled wonder the
incoprehenSble of color that appeared roughly
here and there. The rudely outlined course of the
brook had no perspective to him yet, nor was his
unframed eye able to carry field and rock and and
till to their relative places upon the picture He noted
WIN particular perpeNty that Just below the white
and gray of the steep little tumbng shadows, there
was great oval section painted almost exactly like the
sky above it-deep blue with splotches of blended
wlite-and he could not understand it. 1t was all
jargon him. but he came back to- the canvas again
and again. scratching his head when the picture was
done and Henry was putting finishing touches to
the foreground he hurried to the house and got his
wife. At last he the pool of clear pellucid water
rejecting the blue and white of the sky above it. and
she must see it, too
1t was two Summers later that when Henry came
home, he handed to his mother folded parchment
1t deed for the broad acres of rich bcton-land
just across the other side of the creek into which
hope1essly longed all his life Their appreciation of
art took another bound. Why the money for this
great purchase had been literally wrested from field
and tree and hill and sky! Sometimes both the man
and the found themselves pausing to look at
these things as if they startingy new objects
They were growing old now, and this comfort and
plenty with which Henry had provided them brought
measure of peace and gentleness WE'LL just as it
brought them altered perspective of Henry himself
Why, when he was just little shaver" Jim would
mildly boast to the neghbors he used to set by the
hour n look at the clouds n n things Course
lowed him ter hev paints N brushes n tne-to prac-
tse till he got to be what he is now"
we allus knowd there suthin in Henry" Mrs.
Glow would prdefuly add, and they really believed it.
AS the fame of the artist grew, so grew their pride
in him and in his work They even began to pay some
attention to other pictures than Henrv but the real
bursting OF the Chrysais Summer evening
lust after the boy-tieW boy-had gone back to New
York Jim was sitting the kitchen steps, musng
out across the valley but knowing the trend of
his thoughts when the miracle happened and the
scales fell from eyes that had been unseeing for life
time,
Maggie, come out here!" he called softly as one
speaks when thev fear that baby may change its
pose, or rare bird may fly away.
Wondering at the in his tone she came, and he
pulled her gently down beside him the steps.
Look! he half-whispered directing her gaze to the
horizon EFF Henry cd only tibet, now!
All the evening the western sky had hung low full
of tumbed and shredded darkgray Clouds though lust
above the hilltops a long, hazy clear space Like
a great glowing crimson ball the dropped slowly
across this narrow strip, from coud-edge to horizon.
As thev looked absorbed fascinated the scarlet SLOWLY
blended IN transition to ruddv gold and in the deeper
receses OF the clouds, where buegrav had acted
foil for the bright red, came exquisite violet tints
Slowly the vast panorama Of color went then sud
denly if light had been turned off the color de-
parted entirely from the nderside of the Clouds leav-
ing them dull and dark; but in the clear strip was left
the melting tints of the afterqlow
Still the couple upon the kitchen steps sat n hand
in hand. rapt and speechless, and they were sitting
there still when the first pale star points began tc
gleam through the falling dusk away yonder where
the marvel had disappeared
They were nearing, sixty now and they had just
their first sunset!