e was above ground now, alive, and stirrin', why take him
and fetch him to an upper crust London party; and sais you, 'Old Tenor,'
sais you, 'paint all them silver plates, and silver dishes, and silver
coverlids, and what nots; and then paint them lords with their _stars_,
and them ladies' (Lord if he would paint them with their garters, folks
would buy the pictur, cause that's nateral) 'them ladies with their
jewels, and their sarvants with their liveries, as large as life, and
twice as nateral.'

"Well, he'd paint it, if you paid him for it, that's a fact; for there
is no better bait to fish for us Yankees arter all, than a dollar. That
old boy never turned up his nose at a dollar, except when he thought
he ought to get two. And if he painted it, it wouldn't be bad, I tell
_you_.

"'Now,' sais you, 'you have done high life, do low life for me, and I
will pay you well. I'll come down hansum, and do the thing genteel, you
may depend. Then,' sais you, 'put in for a back ground that noble, old
Noah-like lookin' wood, that's as dark as comingo. Have you done?' sais
you.

"'I guess so,' sais he.

"'Then put in a brook jist in front of it, runnin' over stones, and
foamin' and a bubblin' up like any thing.'

"'It's in,' sais he.

"'Then jab two forked sticks in the ground ten feet apart, this side of
the brook,' sais you, 'and clap a pole across atween the forks. Is that
down?' sais you.

"'Yes,' sais he.

"'Then,' sais you, 'hang a pot on that horizontal pole, make a clear
little wood fire onderneath; paint two covered carts near it. Let an
old hoss drink at the stream, and two donkeys make a feed off a patch of
thistles. Have-you stuck that in?'

"'Stop a bit,' says he, 'paintin' an't quite as fast done as writin'.
Have a little grain of patience, will you? It's tall paintin', makin'
the brush walk at that price. Now there you are,' sais he. 'What's
next? But, mind I've most filled my canvass; it will cost you a pretty
considerable penny, if you want all them critters in, when I come to
cypher all the pictur up, and sumtotalize the whole of it.'

"'Oh! cuss the cost!' sais you. 'Do you jist obey orders, and break
owners, that's all you have to do, Old Loyalist.'

"'Very well,' sais he, 'here goes.'

"'Well, then,' sais you, 'paint a party of gipsies there; mind their
different coloured clothes, and different attitudes, and different
occupations. Here a man mendin' a harness, there a woman pickin' a
stolen f