ait for things," said Larry. "It goes right on; it
does n't care. I 'm hungry and ragged, and I have n't no place to
sleep; but the world ain't a-waitin' fer me ter get things ter eat, ner
clo'es to me back, ner a soft bed. It ain't a-waiting fer nothin', as
I can see."

"It does not stand still," replied the voice; "but it is waiting,
nevertheless. If you are expecting a dear, dear person--your mother,
for instance--"

"I ain't got no mother," interrupted Larry, with a sorrowful sigh; "she
died."

"Well, then--your sister," suggested the voice.

"I ain't got no sister. I ain't got nobody. I 'm all by meself,"
insisted the boy.

"Then suppose, for years and years you have been dreaming of a friend
who is to fill your world with beauty as no one else could do,--who
among all others in the world will be the only one who could show you
how fair life is. While you would not stand still and do nothing what
time you were watching for her coming, you would be always waiting for
her, and when she was there you would be glad. That is how the world
feels about its geniuses,--those whom it needs to make it more
wonderful and great. It is waiting for you. Don't disappoint it. It
would make you sad unto death if the friend of whom you had dreamed
should not come at last, would it not?"

Larry nodded his head in assent. "Does it always know 'em?" he asked.
"I mean does the world always be sure when the person comes, it 's the
one it dreamed of? Mebbe I'd be dreamin' of some one who was
beautiful, and mebbe the real one would n't look like what I thought,
and I 'd let her go by."

"Ah, little Lawrence, the world has failed so too. It has let its
beloved ones go by; and then, when it was too late, it has called after
them in pleading to return. They never come back, but the world keeps
repeating their names forever. That is its punishment and their fame."

"What does it need me for?" asked Larry.

"It needs you to paint for it the pictures you see amid the clouds and
on the earth."

"Can't they see 'em?" queried the boy.

"No, not as you can. Their sight is not clear enough. God wants them
to know of it, and so He sends them you to make it plain to them. It
is as though you went to a foreign country where the people's speech
was strange to you. You could not know their meaning unless some one
who understood their language and yours translated it for you. He
would be the only one who could make their