an impression. The road to success may be rugged,
but it is not so steep but that enough steps, if in the right
direction, be they ever so short, will in time carry you a long way
toward the top.

[Illustration: {A MOUNTAINOUS LANDSCAPE.}]

GARDEN OF THE GODS.

This, one of the grandest of American natural sceneries, is located
along the Colorado River. The river, in its years and years of
flowing, has washed out the soil, and owing to the peculiar
composition of the ground has washed it away unevenly, and these
standing peaks are so numerous and so fantastic in form, that this
location has been called the Garden of the Gods. It is most impressive
and inspiring grandeur. A trip will well repay a journey from the most
remote parts of our country to see this view, only a little of which
is in the engraving.

[Illustration: A STRANGE STUDIO.]

YOUNG ARTIST.

Albert, the blacksmith's son, will be an artist some day. While other
boys are playing ball or skating, or other amusements, Albert is using
his time making pictures. He seems to delight in it, and even when
quite a small boy, many were the scoldings he received from his
parents for a too free use of his chalk and pencil, leaving his rude
drawings on wall and fences; and in school his troubles were only
increased, for his books always contained pictures, sometimes of
horses, or dogs, or of his friends. This habit did not correspond with
his teachers' ideas of tidiness, and punishment followed punishment.
It did not help matters, though, and his drawing continued. In time he
became quite apt and could make pictures that very closely resembled
the objects he drew. His companions called him the "artist," and they
would have him make pictures of them. Some of his methods were odd
enough. To make an outline of a boy's face he would tack a piece of
paper on the side of a door in his father's shop, and by placing the
boy between the paper and a lighted lamp, would trace with pencil the
outline of the shadow as it fell on the paper. Soon he tried painting
with paint and brush. At first his efforts were crude, and to anyone
less determined and enthusiastic, discouraging. Not so to Albert. He
worked along day after day, and in time could paint well enough to
attract some notice in his little village.

About this time a great artist from the city, spending the summer in
this part of the country, heard of Albert, and by accident met him.
Quick to perceiv