[Percival-users] Tom. He reached home out of breath, and found that his fath

[Amalong S. <muc...@ma...>]

 for. He had an old timepiece that some one had given him, and would
spend hours in taking it to pieces and putting it together again; but he
could not prevail upon his mother to let him touch "the clock." The
lessons were soon learned, and then Charlie got to his painting. What a
happy night he had, cutting out pictures from some illustrated papers,
colouring them, and chattering incessantly, unless he was putting in any
particular touches that he seemed to think required profound silence and
holding of the breath! "There, mother!" he exclaimed, holding up in
triumph a picture of a very stylish lady that he had finished, "that's
the way you should be dressed if I had my way; isn't she a beauty?" "She
looks gay indeed, Charlie," said his mother, smiling; "but I'm afraid
that style of dress would not quite suit me. Let me see, what has she
on? A bright blue dress, a scarlet cloak"--"Like Mrs. Greenwell's, you
know, mother," interrupted Charlie, "and a blue bonnet with a green
feather on it." "Wouldn't a blue feather or a black one have looked
better?" said his father, looking up from his newspaper; "blue and green
are not considered pretty together." "Well, I don't know why they
shouldn't, father." Charlie felt touched at his taste being called into
question. "The forget-me-nots, the bluebells, and the blue hyacinths
grow amongst green leaves and grass, and I'm sure God would not have put
them there if they didn't look beautiful." "You have conquered me there,
Charlie," said his father, laughing; "still I am not reconciled to the
blue bonnet with the green feather." When it was Charlie's bedtime, he
gathered up all the cuttings of paper and burned them, washed his
paint-brushes, and put everything tidily away into a drawer that his
mother had given him to himself, so that he might have no excuse for
leaving things about. The contents of that drawer were