Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-03-13
The Little Wizard

seemed that nature had done him g
great injustice, for he appeared unable
to use his hands. Other boys whit
tied and played ball and dug in the
earth, but this little fellow had no use
for his hands at all. He used to sit al
day with them idly folded in his lap.
One day a stranger passed his sun
ny nook in the garden and looked down
at the idle hands, then to the blank
face of the boy.
Il beg your pardon he said politely
"but see you are not using your hands
Now l need an extra pair of hands;
wonder if you would let me use yours
Alfred looked up frowning, and was
about to refuse, but the pleading in the
strangers gaze pentrated to some hid
den recess in his heart and awakened a
slumbering impulse Of helpfulness.
Eyes, you can use my hands" he de-
cided. 81 do not use them myself. But
what do you want to use them for?
Il am a sculptor" answered the
stranger. 81 need your hands to help
me mould the clay and chisel the mar.
BILE. My own fingers sometimes grow
stiff and feeble"
! So he borrowed the child's hands
and took them away to his home,
where he used them early and late in
modelling his clay and chipping away
! his marble. But when the people OF
| the village where Alfred lived saw this
they jeered openly.
"See." they cried. "Of surety his
mind is vacant He cannot use his
hands himself, so he lends them to a
stranger. Oh, foolish lad, do you not
on you?'
| Rut Alfred only smiled. II did not
know how to use my hands myself.
he said gently, so why should l not let
the stranger use them?"
1T Is hopeless they cried, shak-
ing their heads. "The boy is an idiot.
No one else would be so foolish"
Soon the sculptor came and, with a
smile of thanks, returned the hands.
Alfred folded them across his knees,
as usual But, strangest of all things,
the hands would not stay folded. Lift
ing themselves, they caught up bits OF
soil from the garden and moulded them
into wonderful images.
Mechanically the hands worked until
they had long row of images drying
in the sun. The villagers passing by
stopped open mouthed to view them.
What wonderful thing is this?' they
cried. "Who modelled these perfect
figures? Does the stranger linger by
the roadside?'
"The stranger is gone" Alfred in
formed them.
yEnn 10
earthen fgures?"
fred, simply.
AS first they would not believe, but
when they saw the skilful manipulation
of clay under his fingers they cried out
in establishment. ut is gift!" they
cried. "The sculptor left gift! The
idiots hands can model even as the
hands of the master"
Alfred so enjoyed seeing the figures
mature under the guidance of his now
skilful hands that he did not observe
the stranger, who suddenly stood be.
fore him.
81 see that you do not use your legs"
said the stranger.
II do not have to use my legs" an
swered Alfred, not looking up, for
at least I can use my fingers
"Then if you are not using them.
may borrow them from you?" asked
the other
Alfred frowned darkly. for he did
not like to be disturbed; but when
he glanced up and saw the palsied,
shaking limbs of the man before him
his heart leaped in pity
id
use them, anyway"
So the stranger took the limbs away
with him, and once more the villag-
ers censured. "Still is his mind wan
dering," they exclaimed. ITO let a
stranger walk away with his legs!"
81 could not use Them" answered
Alfred, indifferently, "and he was so
very very DID,"
$50 DID," they scoffed, that very
likely he will forget to return them"
But Alfred was modelling the de-
crepit figure of the aged stranger, and
he did not reply.
The boy scarcely missed the unused
limbs. so absorbed was he in his new
work Indeed, he had nearly forgot
ten about them when one day the old
man returned them with his blessing.
"They have made me young again"
he cried, and Alfred. glancing into his
face, saw that it was true before the
figure vanished. He crossed his re-
covered limbs beneath him and bent
over his clay again, but they refused
to be so disposed Of Into the air they
leaped, bearing the astonished boy
with them. They danced, they caper-
ed like mountain sheep upon the cliffs,
they ran long distances with incredible
speed And the village cried out In
great establishment.
"a gift" they cried again. "The
stranger left a gift! He is as fleet OF
foot as deer, and nothing can trip
or upset him." It was true. The idiot
boy who could not walk step with
out falling did not stumble now nor
falter.
Joyfully he sought the mountains
and made his way to where white
marble showed it's snowy surface in