"Oh, a lot of things--don"t you know?" She again looked up at him.
"Not exactly."
"We studied algebra and mathematics and English and English literature, and French, and a lot of other things."
"What"s algebra like?"
"Oh dear, do you want me to draw it?"
"Can you draw it?"
"About as well as I can tell it in words. Algebra is higher mathematics; yes, that"s it."
"And what"s the difference between English and English literature?"
"English is grammar and how sentences are or should be made. English literature is made up mostly of the reading of the great authors, such as Milton and Shakespeare,"
"Gee!" exclaimed Dorian, "that would be great fun."
"Fun? just you try it. n.o.body reads these writers now only in school, where they have to. But say, Dorian"--she arose to inspect her work again. "Have I too much purple in that bunch of salt-gra.s.s on the left?
What do you think?"
"I don"t see any purple at all in the real gra.s.s," he said.
"There is purple there, however; but of course, you, not being an artist, cannot see it." She laughed a little for fear he might think her p.r.o.nouncement harsh.
"What--what is an artist?"
"An artist is one who has learned to see more than other people can in the common things about them."
The definition was not quite clear to him. He had proved that he could see farther and clearer than she could when looking at trees or chipmunks. He looked critically again at the picture.
"I mean, of course," she added, as she noted his puzzled look, "that an artist is one who sees in nature the beauty in form, in light and shade, and in color."
"You haven"t put that tree in the right place," he objected! "and you have left out that house altogether."
"This is not a photograph," she answered. "I put in my picture only that which I want there. The tree isn"t in the right place, so I moved it.
The house has no business in the picture because I want it to represent a scene of wild, open lonesomeness. I want to make the people who look at it feel so lonesome that they want to cry!"
She was an odd girl!
"Oh, don"t you understand. I want them only to feel like it. When you saw that charcoal drawing I made the other day, you laughed."
"Well, it was funny."
"That"s just it. An artist wants to be able to make people feel like laughing or crying, for then he knows he has reached their soul."
"I"ve got to look after the water for a few minutes, then I"ll come back and help you carry your things," he said. "You"re about through, aren"t you?"
"Thank you; I"ll be ready now in a few minutes. Go see to your water.
I"ll wait for you. How beautiful the west is now!"
They stood silently for a few moments side by side, looking at the glory of the setting sun through banks of clouds and then down behind the purple mountain. Then Dorian, with shovel on shoulder, hastened to his irrigating. The blossoming field of lucerne was usually a common enough sight, but now it was a stretch of sweet-scented waves of green and purple.
Mildred looked at the farmer boy until he disappeared behind the willow fence, then she began to pack up her things. Presently, she heard some low bellowing, and, looking up, she saw a number of cows, with tails erect, galloping across the fields. They had broken the fence, and were now having a gay frolic on forbidden grounds. Mildred saw that they were making directly for the corner of the pasture where she was. She was afraid of cows, even when they were within the quiet enclosure of the yard, and here was a wild lot apparently coming upon her to destroy her.
She crouched, terror stricken, as if to take shelter behind the frail bulwark of her easel.
Then she saw a horse leap through the gap in the fence and come galloping after the cows. On the horse was a girl, not a large girl, but she was riding fearlessly, bare-back, and urging the horse to greater strides. Her black hair was trailing in the wind as she waved a willow switch and shouted l.u.s.tily at the cows. She managed to head the cows off before they had reached Mildred, rounding them up sharply and driving them back through the breach into the road which they followed quietly homeward. The rider then galloped back to the frightened girl.
"Did the cows scare you?" she asked.
"Yes," panted Mildred. "I"m so frightened of cows, and these were so wild."
"They were just playing. They wouldn"t hurt you; but they did look fierce."
"Whose cows were they?"
"They"re ours. I have to get them up every day. Sometimes when the flies are bad they get a little mad, but I"m not afraid of them. They know me, you bet. I can milk the kickiest one of the lot."
"Do you milk the cows?"
"Sure--but what is that?" The rider had caught sight of the picture.
"Did you make that?"
"Yes; I painted it."
"My!" She dismounted, and with arm through bridle, she and the horse came up for a closer view of the picture. The girl looked at it mutely for a moment. "It"s pretty" she said; "I wish I could make a picture like that."
Mildred smiled at her. She was such a round, rosy girl, so full of health and life and color. Not such a little girl either, now a nearer view was obtained. She was only a year or two younger than Mildred herself.
"I wish I could do what you can," said the painter of pictures.
"I--what? I can"t do anything like that."
"No; but you can ride a horse, and stop runaway cows. You can do a lot of things that I cannot do because you are stronger than I am. I wish I had some of that rosy red in your cheeks."
"You can have some of mine," laughed the other, "for I have more than enough; but you wouldn"t like the freckles."
"I wouldn"t mind them, I"m sure; but let me thank you for what you did, and let"s get acquainted." Mildred held out her hand, which the other took somewhat shyly. "Don"t you have to go home with your cows?"
"Yes, I guess so."
"Then we"ll go back together." She gathered her material and they walked on up the path, Mildred ahead, for she was timid of the horse which the other led by the bridle rein. At the bars in the corner of the upper pasture the horse was turned loose into his own feeding ground, and the girls went on together.
"You live near here, don"t you?" inquired Mildred.
"Yes, just over there."