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.ought to just grow into it.
Cupynylit, 1909, by Dru. cl 0.
Cook Publishing Company.
You VIII. No. 23. lf,E;",“,:‘,‘;f"
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING CO., ELGLN, ILLINOIS, AND 36 Wasmnsrou S'r., Curcaco.
June .5, 1909.
By Zelia Margaret Walters
EVocation for Miriam .
very dilferent for; you, daughter,”
“ I HAD thought of something very,
said Miriam’.-i fathcr.
“ Of course
' I know,” he hastened to add, in answer
to her unspoken protest, “that a parent
cannot select a child's vocation quite by
himself, But I've thought of this for a
long time, and it seemed to me.y0u were
exactly fitted for it. You‘see-I need a
helper in my church work, and you‘ are
such a splendid hand with children and
with sick and discouraged people that you
I would pay
you a salary, not so large as you would
‘get in the city, but your expenses would
be much smaller. -And then you would be
at home. We would all have each other.
I came to this new field partly to make
thiscpportiiiiity for you. I could hardly
ask you to undertake it in Covington,
where every one had known you since
kindergarten days. Ilut here the people
think you are a young lady, though you
still seem a little girl to your mother and
me. Now, don't you think you would be
happy in such work as this?"
“Perhaps I would, father. But I don't
think I ought to throw my talent away.
Miss Estep says it would be a sin-to
waste such a gift as mine. it was she who
urged me to send my drawings to that
magazine.”
Mr. Avery looked for a moment as if he
wished Miss E.-ilcp lived in some other par-
ish. But he said, gs-ntly: “ Are you sure‘
Miss Iistep is an authoritative art critic?"
“ No, I'm not. But you can’t deny this.”
She lifted the hit of blue paper under
her hand.
“ A check, father, for the very first
drawing I sent, and such a simple little
thing! I can make quantities as good an
better. I ought to make a splendid in-
come."
Miriam’: eyes shone as she looked out
into that imaginary world conjured up by
the check.
Mr. Avery sighcd a little. He knew
that arguments were futile in the face of
these hopes.
“Oh, father, you are not going to keep
me back, are you ?" said Miriam, tragically.
“ Of course not, my dear,” was the
prompt answer. “Wc will make the ar-
rnngcmcnts at once."
In the next two weeks all the arrange-
ments were made. Miriam was to go to 3
second cousin of her father's who kept a
boarding-house in the city. She could not
expect much attention from the busy
woman, but she would at least be in :1
safe place. Miriam was to attend an art
school mornings, and was to use the rest
of her time making drawings to sell.
Miriam was so elated that she scarcely
noticed her mother's reddencd eyes as she
went about preparing things for the flight
of her first bird from the home nest. She
,did have a momcnt of dreadful all-alone
ness when her father said good-by in
the strange city, leaving her in the care
of a busy-looking woman whom he ha'd
introduced as Cousin Anna.
Cousin Anna took her straight up ‘to
her room. Such a plain box of a room it
was! Iier hostess excused herself at
once. saying: “.' must no down to the
kitchen. There's no telling what’i:hose
girls are doing when I'm not there." '
Miriam fought back her holnesickncss the
first few weeks, and went resolutely to
work. The art school she found delightful.
She had never had really good instruction
before, and she was quick to appreciate it.
There was one dreadful disappointment
right at the first. ‘Vhen she took several
of her drawings to the ofhcc of the maga-
zine that had sent her her first check, she
found that they had suspended publication.
So the market that she had countcd upon
certainly to help pay her expenses was
closed to her.
After one heartsick day, she decided that
all was not lost, and she sent the drawings
to the other papers. In due time they all
came back, with a polite intimation that
they were not quite suited to the needs of
those magazines.
“If one magazine thought thcm worth
buying, surely there must he otlit-rs,” rea-
soned Miriam.
She was her fathcr’s daughter, and dis-
couragement was out of her calculations.
She tried again and again. lint there
seemed to be not- another magazine any-
where that wanted one of Miriam‘s draw-
ings. Pride would not let her appeal to
her parents, though her money was almost
one. ‘
Then one day, when the last one of the
drawings out came back, she did up what
she thought her best ones in a portfolio,
and set out for the home of the art critic
on one of the magazines.
Miriam did not know, in hcr inexperi-
an
The lady looked over the drawings ‘slowly
and carefully.
“ Have you a. home, my dear?” she asked,
suddenly.
“Oh, yes!” said Miriam. “A good
home," she added, with iilling eyes. ’
“Then I advise you to go home and try
something else. You have a pleasant little
gift. But I do not think with your utmost
endeavor you will ever be a great artist.
And," she added, smiling, “it's a sorry
outlook to try to make a living unless you
are pretty close to the top in your line.
You could perhaps sell some drawings
after awhile, but your market would he
low-priced and uncertain. It would be a
heart-breaking quest. I know, my dear.
I've known so many of both kinds of
artists. I seriously advise you to go home,
and try something else for bread and butter.
Keep this for the pleasure of your leisure
hours."
“I sold two drawings to the B?-
Magazine,” Miriam manage to say amid
the crash of her falling air castles.
“Well, I'm afraid that was a misfor-
tune, if it made you think of taking up
this work seriously. If you will look over
the files of that magazine, you will see
what an inferior class‘ of work they used.
You would have to he in a higher class
than that if you were going to be happy
in your work. You are really too young
to know the meaning of art yet.”
Miriam summoned grace to thank the
great lady, and carried her wounded feel-
ings bac to her room. Her money was
quite gone, and she saw no prospect of
earning any. But she could not give up.
The next morning brought such a chann-
ing letter from father, and it enclosed a
substantialvcheck. “ I've been through the
art mill in a large city myself," ran
paragraph of the letter, “ and I thought
“rum rou A noun, in nasal“
ence, how great a favor she was seeking
when she asked for a half hour of the
artist's time. But the lady had had a
glimpse of‘ the wistful-faced girl in the
hall. and she said she would see hcr.
Miriam found herself trembling as she
opened hcr portfolio.
“I want you to tell me, please," she
said. earnestly, “whether you think from
these that I shall ever do anything worth
while in art." I
this might help you through a discouraging
ime."
“I oughtn't to take it,” said Miriam.
There were the two boys at home with
their many needs, and father had hired a
young woman as secretary and helper-
the place she had refused.
“ I'll pay thorn back.” she comforted her-
self. And she used the money to pay her
hoard hill and to buy the needed shoes and
gloves.
Iiow Miriam worked that next "mc7nih‘i'
Her face grew sharp with anxiety, and her
gentle manners sharpened, too. uni:
Anna's littlc daughter was in the habit
of going up to her room. Miriam was
very fond of children, and at first she
welcomed the little one. But one day she
sent her away abruptly.
“I really cannot stand her chatter an-
other moment!" she said. “ She distracts
me from my work.”
One evening she brushed past old Mrs.
Carter almost rudely, when that lady was
beginning one of her interminable stories.
At first Miriam had given her courteous at-
tention, but now her jangled nerves made
it hard for her to be patient and kind.
On a dingy spring day, when the city’
sccmcd most hideous and her outlook on
life was the darkest possible, she went up
to hcr room to Find father there. At the
sight of him the floodgates opened; with
his arms about her, she cried as if she
could never stop. ‘
.And her father! How good he was!
Not one word of reproach for her poor
judgment and wasted year. He only told
hcr how they had missed her, and how they,
wanted hcr at home. How good it was to
be muilrd, to belong somewhere.
“Daddy, I'm ready,” she said.
were right, as you usually are." At last,
smilcs breaking through her tears, she
continucd, “I am not an artist. But. I
can't help longing to be one. Why do you
think I was given this bit of a gift and
this great desire, it it was only‘ to be
disappointed?"
“ it is hard to tell, daughter. I wanted
to he an artist, too, when I was your age.
Now I'm glad I had to walk another path.
My life has been richer as a minister than
it could have lvcen as an artist."
“Well,” said Miriam, “when there's :1
vacancy, I'm going to try the work of min-
ister’.-x hr-lper.”
“’]‘licrc's a vacancy right now,” said
her father, “and I feel sure you'll make
good."
.:....m
SHOW CH1-IERFIJLNX-ZSS AT HOME.
Whatever the reason, there are girls who
lack thoughtfulness of the feelings and needs
of the home circle, of their dearest friends,
the pan-nls, brothers and sisters at home.
They have pleasant conversation, smiles and
(‘lit-cry ways everywhere else, but either be-
('lIll‘9l'? they are sure of the love oi‘ home. or
cstccm the regard of others more, they take
no pains to cheer up the home-keepers, or
to think whcthcr the place which gives them
all they have docs not deserve some return.
Can the sorrow of a father disclosed once
to the writer be duplicated in any home
where this is read We hope not. Our
brightest smiles, our liveliest talk, our kind-
est attentions; should be given to those at
home.
The father mentioned above had been at
large expense to give his daughter schooling:
she was not yet through her course, and came
home for vacations. She took no pains to
com-cal that home was disagreeable to her.
She gave what little help she oifered around
the house ungraciously and grudgingly. She
lay abed u the morning till all the rest
had linished hrcakfast and gone to their
She said openly that she was at home
because she had nowhere else to go, and
should not come there when she was able
to find any more lively place. Yet to every-
body cise her home was pleasant and her
rciatlvv-1 especially dclightful and loving peo-
ple. Wlmt the mattcr was, her father could
not discover, and. in his sorrow at his child‘;
lui.'i';IilIIiIl(', he told his trouble to his friend.
“it is simply uer ignorance of the value
of hoinc and its unrivaled blessings. She will
learn only by bitter experience when’ home‘
11 lost to her," was this friend‘: comment
upon the story. -