Felix O'Day

Kling's. Long before the month was out he had not only earned his entire wages five times over by the changes he ha

the necessity of either paying Felix's price or going away without it, O'Day having promptly quadrupled the price on a piece of old Dresden, not only because the purchaser wa

d "plugged-up" sideboards and chairs with their legs shot full of genuine worm-holes; ancient Oriental stuffs of the time of the early Persians (one year out of a German loom), rare old English plate, or undoubted George III silver, decorated with coats of arms or initials and showing those precious little dents only produced by l

prings, had given her heart to him at once. She had never forgotten his gentle treatment of her dog Fudge, whose attack that first morning Felix had understood so well, lifting and putting the refracto

books of fairy-tales which the old hunchback, Tim Kelsey, had lent her. At first this natural shyness had held her aloof even from O'Day, content only to watch his face as he answered her childish appeals. But before the first week had passed she had sli

d. She was Masie, "dot little girl of mine dot don't got no mudder," or "Beesvings, who don't never be still," but that was about as far as his notice of her went, except sending her to school, seeing that she was

r eyes and a voice of surprising sweetness, always maintained that it was a s

nd a good friend of ours who wouldn't go back on us, and never did. But that wife of his, John! If she wasn't as fine as the best of em, then I miss my guess. She got it from that father of hers-the clock-maker that never went out in the daytime, and hid himself in his back shop. There wa

half asleep by the stove, his tired legs outstr

s child, I know. But what I say is that the mother is stamped all over the

l of the unhappy young mother looked through the daughter's eyes, that the sweetness of the child's voice was he

d of filial duty on hers would have clouded their perfect union. He would have had matters of education to insist upon-perhaps of clothing and hygiene. She would have had her secrets-hidden paths on which she wandered alone-things she could never tell to one in

ose, the opening chalice of her budding girlhood widening hourly at his touch-a sight

his life a certain content. Springs long dried in his own nature bubbled again. He felt the sudd

him whenever he appeared in the store, and so did Kling, and even the two Dutchies when Felix would drop into the c

interest, never too busy to answer her questions, never too preoccupied to explain the different objects he was handling. If she were ever in the way, she was never made t

door opened and an old fellow strolled in-an odd-looking old fellow, with snow-white hair and beard, wearing a black sombrero and a shirt cut very low in the neck. But for a pair of kindly eyes, whic

our window," began the new cu

Felix. "There are half a

out. It is the Florentine, there in the corner-perhaps

or three pictures in the Uffizi with similar frames,

ay much for it anyway. But I would like to measure it; I've got an Academy picture which I think will just fit it, but y

e! Squeeze in there, Masie, dear, and let me know how wide an

and candelabra crowding the window, her steps as true as those of a kitten. "Twenty inches by thirty-one-no, thirty," she la

s thirty?" repea

she crept back and laid

hought I was about right. I carry things in my eye. I bought a head once in Venice, about a foot square, and in Spain three months afterward, on my way down the hill leading from the Alhambra to the town, t

o Masie's astonishment. "It's just before

right! How long sin

e five y

a lot of them still-bought a whole chest of embroideries once in Seville, or rather, at that hospital where th

ng on the line in the second gallery on the right as you entered. And before the two enthusiasts were aware of what was going on around them, Masie and Fudge had slipped o

it, if you don't mind. Come down and see my stuff! It's only in 10th Street-not twenty minutes' walk. Maybe you can sell some

No, I wish she were. Sh

your

'D

eek. My name is Ganger; I'm on the fourth floor-been there twenty-

the Academy as guardians and protectors of masterpieces painted by the denizens of this same old rattletrap, the Studio Building. Some of its tenants, too, had had accounts with him-which had been running for more than a year. Bridley, the marine painter; Manners, who took pup

the talk now, instead of "Keep at the old Dutchman and you may get it. He don't know the difference between a Chippendale s

s proposed visit, began turning over his books, looking up

. We will look after that later on. And I will take Masie. Come, child, get your hat. Mr. Ganger want

surrender. "Ven it comes to money, I know. Yo

he child cried, "and we'

asie was as restless. "Oh, I'm just as happy as I can be, Uncle Felix. You are always so good. I never had

b of bud, blossom, and leaf, having burst their bonds, are flaunting their glories, days like these are always to be remembered the world over. Bu

trees in Union Square are stretching their bare arms, making ready to throw off the winter's sleep, every tiny branch in Gramercy is wide awake and tingling with new life. When countless dry roots in Madison Square are st

summer is won, and every blessed thing that could have burst in

ese changes, her wonder and delight

d then, but a short time before-it seemed only yesterday-every stretch of brown grass had lost its dull tints in a coat of fresh paint, on which the benches, newly scrubbed, were set, a

for a mob of merry roses were swarming up a trellis in a mad climb

are admitted to the gardens within), Fudge scampering up and down, wild to get at the two gray squirrels, which so

the big stone well-head, and tell her once more the story of how it had stood in an old palace in Venice, where the streets were all water and everybody went visiting in boats. And then she mu

nd in hers had crossed the street to study it the closer. The wall was surmounted by a solid, wrought-iron railing into which some fifty years or more ago a gardener ha

ticed that he stopped suddenly and for a moment looked away, lost in deep thought. She caught, too, the shadow that sometimes sett

"see what happens to those who are forced into traps! I

ace. "Do you think the iron hurts it,

nder; it would

t the vine's

ooked after it, nor cared what might happen when

m building, where a final dash brought him to Ganger's, his nose having sniffed at ever

s perfumes do for us all. A crumpled glove, a bunch of withered roses, the salt breath of an outlying marsh, are often but so

kindred spirits across the sea, when the door was

he's no relation of yours, you imp!"-with a bob of his grizzled head at Fudge-"He's a landscape-painter and a good one-one of those Hudson River fellows-and would be a fine one if he would stick to it. Give me that hat and coat, my chick-a-biddy,

the strangeness of the place and a certainty of mice behind the canvases. Felix knew the old fellow's kind, and recognize

. What a jolly place you have here! Don't move"-this to the model, a slip of a girl, her eyes muffled in a lace veil, one of Ganger's Oriental c

Eastern painter, fresh from Cairo, where I have lived for half a century-principally on Turkish paste and pressed figs. My specialty at present-they are all over my walls, as you can see-is dancing-girls in silk tights or without them, just as the tobacco shops prefer. I also do sheiks, muffled to their eyebrows in bath towels, and with scimitars-like that one above

than Ganger, but his thin, bloodless hands, watery eyes, their lids edged with re

hat he's got a loose hinge in his mouth, and he ought to screw it tight or it will c

are, and put Sam to work on it, and in a week or less out it comes just as it left the master's easel-'Found by his widow after his death' or 'The property of an English nobleman on whose walls it has hung for two centuries.' By thunder! isn't it beautiful?" He chuckled. "Wonderful how these bullfrogs of connoisseurs swallow the dealers' flies! And here am I, who can paint any blamed thing from a hen-coop to a battle scene, doing signs for tobacco shops; and there is Sam, who can do Corots and Rousseaus and Daubignys by the yard, obliged

is exertions. "Don't pay any attention to him, Mr. O'Day. What he says isn't half true, and the half that is true isn't worth listening to. Now tell me about that frame he's or

!" shouted Ganger, "how do y

ture will never b

tween puffs from one of his host's corn-cob pipes. "He

ng. What were you going to give him in retur

wedding-chest-real, too! I bought it forty years ago in Padua. There are some old embroideries down in the bottom, or were, unl

tinued dumpings, was growing larger every minute-the last to

he Florentine frame at ten dollars and the vestment at fifteen. What others have you, Mr. Ganger? Th

u'd want all there was in the chest! And you say there are people out of a l

r. Kling's customers do, and if they choose to say their prayers before a chasuble on a priest's back on Sunday and make a s

ey are too modern for you-I make 'em up myself. Get

ver, her spangled veil having dropped about her shoul

beautiful, Uncle Fel

might better look again. What else have

f push-carts, and Jane Hoggson's mother sews them together. But, my deary"-here he laid his hand on Masie's head-"w

hirling about the room, her way of telling ev

ere; I won't

first little girl that's ever been inside this place for ever-and ever and EVER-so long? Think of that, will you? Not one single little girl since-Oh,

icoat, and a great leghorn hat-and just look at these feathers, and you neve

x! Isn't it lovely? Can't I have them? Please, Uncle Felix!"

not by a long chalk, and-Oh, here's another hat-and, oh, such a lovely old cloak! Yes, take 'em all, missy-I'm glad to get rid of 'em-before Nat claps them on Jane and go

comes up these stairs but tramps and book agents-even the models steer clear. It would help a lot if you'd bring her. Wouldn't you like to come, missy? What did you say her name was? Oh, yes-Masie-well, my child, that's

he costumes, and many thanks for your wish to make the child happy," he answered at last. "I am rather foolish about Masie myself; and may I tell you, Mr. Dogge

to the wizened face, cried: "And may I put them on

m full of holes and do anything else you

d then with Sam, and last of all with Jane, who looked at him askance out of one eye as she bobbed him half a courtesy. And then everybody went out into the hall and said good-by once more o