Several weeks afterward, there came a visitor to the home of the Wests.
It was a good old Friend, whom everybody loved--a-white-haired,
pleasant-faced minister, whose words were always wise.

Benjamin's parents showed him the picture. They told him how the lad
was always trying to draw something. And they asked what they should
do about it.

The good minister looked at the picture for a long time. Then he called
little Benjamin to him. He put his hands on the lad's head and said:--

"This child has a wonderful gift. We cannot understand it nor the
reason of it. Let us trust that great good may come from it, and that
Benjamin West may grow up to be an honor to our country and the world."

And the words of the old minister came true. The pictures of Benjamin
West made him famous. He was the first great American painter.




THE YOUNG SCOUT



When Andrew Jackson was a little boy he lived with his mother in South
Carolina. He was eight years old when he heard about the ride of Paul
Revere and the famous fight at Lexington.