Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/320

Rh adventures in the five years since he left the forest.

His father sat opposite, silently smoking, but his mother drew her stool close beside his, that she might stroke his hand or the fine cloth of his sleeve.

Hansel had so much to tell that it was very late indeed before they retired to rest. He had seen so many wonderful things—such splendid galleries of pictures, and halls full of statues, and had met such great men; for the great men came to his master's studio to have their busts made; and, when some of them died, the city they had distinguished would commission the artist to make a life-size marble or bronze statue.

"And canst thou make a statue?" inquired the charcoal-burner with a smile.

"Why should not the boy make a statue, or aught else?" broke in Gretel sharply. "He could ever turn his hand to anything. Did not the honorable Herr