Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/189

 Twenty minutes passed, and Mr. Townley started to go through the drawings again. But this time he went quickly and sorted the comic pictures of insect and caterpillar life into one pile. There were eight of these, and Mr. Townley said that he would like to use them in the Age.

"I will use one every week," he said, "as long as you care to draw them, and probably when you have studied our requirements a little you will do other things that we can use. But my dear boy, I hope you won't get into a comic weekly rut. Mr. Ruggles has told me that you are very serious about art, that you wish to go to Paris and study. I think that with hard work you will become one of the very, very best—but not without the hard work. And just because you find that you can make a living by drawing caterpillars, don't for Heayen's sake pull up short and stop drawing pictures of the things that seem beautiful to you."

Edward touched one of the caterpillar drawings with a timid forefinger. "Can I make a living doing those?" he asked.

"We will pay you ten dollars apiece for them," said Mr. Townley, "if that is satisfactory, and if the pictures catch on and people like them, as I think they will, we will pay you more."

"And I'm to do one every week?" Mr. Townley nodded. "Gee!" said Edward. "That's a lot of