age of the artist being taken into account.

Jack's gift in this line was not as great as that of Clement or Eleanor,
but this was not the only reason why no drawing of his appeared in the
scrapbook. Mrs. Arkwright demanded more evidence of pains and industry
than Jack was wont to bestow on his sketches or designs. He resented his
exclusion, and made many efforts to induce his mother to accept his
hasty productions; but it was not till the summer to which I alluded
that Jack took his place in the "Household Album."

It was during a long drive, in which we were exhibiting the country to
some friends, that Eleanor and I chose the place of that particular
sketching expedition. The views it furnished had the first, and almost
the only, quality demanded by young and tyro sketchers--they were very
pretty.

There was some variety, too, to justify our choice. From the sandy road,
where a heathery bank afforded the convenience of seats, we could look
down into a valley with a winding stream, whose banks rose into
hillsides which lost themselves in finely-coloured mountains of
moorland.

Farther on, a scramble on foot over walls and gates had led us into a
wooded gorge fringed with ferns, where a group of trees of particularly
graceful form roused Eleanor's admiration.

"What a lovely view!" had burst from the lips of our friends at every
quarter of a mile; for they were of that (to me) trying order of
carriage companions who talk about the scenery as you go, as a point of
politeness.

But the views _were_ beautiful--"Sketches everywhere!" we cried.

"There's nothing to make a sketch _of_ round the Vicarage," we added.
"We've done the church, with the Deadmanstone Hills behind it, and
without the Deadmanstone Hills behind it, till we are sick of the
subject."

So, the weather being fine, and even hot, we provided ourselves with
luncheon and sketching materials, and made an expedition to the point
we had selected.

We were tired by the time we reached it. This does not necessarily damp
one's sketching ardour, but it is unfavourable to accuracy of outline,
and especially so to purity of colouring. However, we did not hesitate.
Eleanor went down to her study of birch-trees in the gorge, Clement
climbed up the bank to get the most extended view of the Ewden Valley; I
contented myself with sitting by the roadside in front of the same view,
and Jack stayed with me.

He had come with us. Not that he often went out sketching