The door opened, and Brightie came in.  The brave old woman broke down as she clasped Hazel in her joy at the improvement in her.  The two cried together for a little while; there was so very much to be glad about that the gladness was too great for self-control.

A few days later, a girl with a white but radiantly happy face is resting in a cane armchair, her feet supported by a footstool, in the garden of a pretty country house at Fridorf.  The sunshine is hot, but she is shaded from it by a trellis work of young-leaved creepers overhead.  Lilacs and laburnum trees bloom abundantly around.  The lawn before her is smooth and green, and beyond is the sea.

“How wonderful God’s love is!” the girl says, presently, reaching out her hand to an old woman with a peaceful face who shortly joins her, and who clasps and retains the hand with an answering look more eloquent than speech.

THE END

Footnote: 

[1] Sesame and Lilies.  By John Ruskin LL.D. 1.  Of Kings’ Treasuries. 2.  Of Queens’ Gardens.

HINTS ON MODELLING IN CLAY.

By Fred Miller.

Modelling in clay is a very agreeable change in one’s artistic occupation, for it is quite unlike other branches of art, and calls into play a different set of faculties for its performance.  It needs a greater amount of “hand cunning” than does painting, and is in that sense akin to wood carving, to which delightful craft it is, indeed, almost indispensable, and, I might add, part of the necessary training one has to undergo to become a carver in wood.  And as on another occasion I am going to write a few hints on wood carving, the present article may be taken as a prelude to the one on that subject.

The materials necessary to try one’s hand at modelling are very inexpensive.  The clay is the most essential thing, and this can be purchased at one or two artists’ colourmen, or, better still, at any pottery.  I have had clay sent me from the potteries in Staffordshire, and those of my readers who live near a pottery would have no difficulty in supplying themselves with clay.  The clay used for flower-pots does for coarse work, but is not sufficiently carefully prepared for fine work.  It burns a rich red colour, and is, of course, terra-cotta.  The clay used in making the terra-cotta plaques and vases is what you require for fine work.  There are two or three firms who supply London shops with terra-cotta vases, etc., and I have no doubt that clay might be purchased of them.