from now, I’ll look you up, and see how you are getting on,” said
Gus, with a hearty shake of the hand; and the younger lads grinned
cheerfully, even while they wondered where the fun was in
shaping clay and chipping marble.
“Shall you stay four years?” asked Merry’s soft voice, while a
wistful look came into her happy eyes.
“Ten, if I can,” answered Ralph, decidedly, feeling as if a long
lifetime would be all too short for the immortal work he meant to
do. “I’ve got so much to learn, that I shall do whatever David
thinks best for me at first, and when I can go alone, I shall just shut
myself up and forget that there is any world outside my den.”
“Do write and tell us how you get on now and then; I like to hear
about other people’s good times while I’m waiting for my own,”
said Molly, too much interested to observe that Grif was sticking
burrs up and down her braids.
“Of course I shall write to some of you, but you mustn’t expect any
great things for years yet. People don’t grow famous in a hurry, and
it takes a deal of hard work even to earn your bread and butter, as
you’ll find if you ever try it,” answered Ralph, sobering down a
little as he remembered the long and steady effort it had taken to
get even so far.
“Speaking of bread and butter reminds me that we’d better eat ours
before the coffee gets quite cold,” said Annette, for Merry seemed
to have forgotten that she had been chosen to play matron, as she
was the oldest.
The boys seconded the motion, and for a few minutes supper was
the all-absorbing topic, as the cups went round and the goodies
vanished rapidly, accompanied by the usual mishaps which make
picnic meals such fun. Ralph’s health was drunk with all sorts of
good wishes; and such splendid prophecies were made, that he
would have far surpassed Michael Angelo, if they could have come
true. Grif gave him an order on the spot for a full-length statue of
himself, and stood up to show the imposing attitude in which he
wished to be taken, but unfortunately slipped and fell forward with
one hand in the custard pie, the other clutching wildly at the
coffee-pot, which inhospitably burnt his fingers.
“I think I grasp the idea, and will be sure to remember not to make
your hair blow one way and the tails of your coat another, as a
certain sculptor made those of a famous man,” laughed Ralph, as
the fallen hero scrambled up, amidst general merriment.
“Will the little bust be done before you go?” asked Jill, anxiously,
feeling a personal interest in the success of that order.
“Yes: I’ve been hard at it every spare minute I could get, and have a
fortnight more. It suits Mrs. Lennox, and she will pay well for it,
so I shall have something to start with, though I haven’t been able
to save much. I’m to thank you for that, and I shall send you the
first pretty thing I get hold of,” answered Ralph, looking gratefully
at the bright face, which grew still brighter as Jill exclaimed,
“I do feel so proud to know a real artist, and have my bust done by
him. I only wish I could pay for it as Mrs. Lennox does; but I
haven’t any money, and you don’t need the sort of things I can
make,” she added, shaking her head, as she thought over knit
slippers, wall-pockets, and crochet in all its forms, as offerings to
her departing friend.
“You can write often, and tell me all about everybody, for I shall
want to know, and people will soon forget me when I’m gone,”
said Ralph, lookir~g at Merry, who was making a garland of
yellow leaves for Juliet’s black hair.
Jill promised, and kept her word; but the longest letters went from
the farm-house on the hill, though no one knew the fact till long
afterward. Merry said nothing now, but she smiled, with a pretty
color in her cheeks, and was very much absorbed in her work,