Nuts and autumn leaves
and red berries go best with that," he added, as he ran his fingers
through the boy's short curls.

"And an old fellow like me, I suppose, you'd paint with a foot of snow
on the ground," laughed the Judge dryly. "Well--anything to please
Olivia. Come, all of you, dinner is waiting!"

* * * * *

The warmth of the greeting was as great a surprise to the young
Northerner as the wealth of the out-of-door bloom. He had been
hospitably received in similar journeys in his own State, but never
quite like this. There it was a matter of business until he had become
"better acquainted," even when he stayed in the houses of his patrons.
He remembered one old farmer who wanted to put him in a room over the
stable with the hired man, and another, a mill-owner, who deducted the
sum of his board from the price of the picture, but here he had been
treated as one of the family from the moment his foot touched their
door-step. The Judge had not only placed him on his right hand at
table, but had sent old Bundy, the family butler, down into the
wine-cellar for a bottle of old Madeira, that had "rusted away in his
cellar," he said, for thirty years, and which he would open in
remembrance of his college days, when his guest's uncle was his chum
and classmate.

Several days had passed before he would even allow Adam to take out
his brushes and prepare his canvas for work; his explanation being
that as he was obliged to go on Circuit, he would like to enjoy his
visitor's society before he left. There would be plenty of time for
the picture while he was away. Then it too would come as a full
surprise on his return--not a half-completed picture showing the work
of days, but a finished portrait alive not only with the charm of the
sitter, but with the genius of the master. This was proclaimed with a
courteous wave of his hand to his wife and Adam, as if she, too, would
be held responsible for the success of the portrait.

The morning before his departure he called Olivia and Adam, and the
three made a tour of the rooms in search of a suitable place where his
easel could be set up and the work begun. All three admitted that the
study was too dark, and so was the library unless the vines were
cleared from the windows, which was, of course, out of the question,
the Judge's choice finally resting on one corner of the drawing-room,
where a large window let in a little more light. In acquiesc