Jewel's Story Book by Clara Louise Burnham
page 19 of 377 (05%)
page 19 of 377 (05%)
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"We'll have some photographs of you."
"Oh," Jewel spoke wistfully, "I wish I was pretty." "Then you wouldn't be an Evringham." "Why not? You are," returned the child, so spontaneously that slow color mounted to the broker's face, and he smiled. "I look like my mother's family, they say. At any rate,"--after a pause and scrutiny of her,--"it's your face, it's my Jewel's face, that suits me and that I want to keep. If I can find somebody who can do it and not change you into some one else, I am going to have a little picture painted; a miniature, that I can carry in my pocket when Essex Maid and I are left alone." The brusque pain in his tone filled Jewel's eyes, and her little hands clasped tighter the frame she held in her lap. "Then you will give me one of you, too, grandpa?" "Oh, child," he returned, rather hoarsely, "it's too late to be painting my leather countenance." "No one could paint it just as I know it," said Jewel softly. "I know all the ways you look, grandpa,--when you're joking or when you're sorry, or happy, and they're all in here," she pressed one hand to her breast in a simple fervor that, with her moist eyes, compelled Mr. Evringham to swallow several times; "but I'd like one in my hand to show to people when I tell them about you." |
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