Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1902 — A PRECOCIOUS ARTIST. [ARTICLE]

A PRECOCIOUS ARTIST.

Child’* DlstrvM When » l.»u y Spoiled • Fierce liog't Growl. Sir Edwin Landseer was precocious In his art; he sketched, with force and spirit, from the time he was of an age when his father, John Landseer, used to have to lift him over the stiles into the fields where his chosen subjects were gamboling or grazing. A lady whose family recollections have recently been privately collected, relates how her mother once encountered the little prodigy at work. She had to take a stroll at Hampstead Heath, carrying a book and accompanied by a favorite dog. a fine collie devoted to bis mistress, but not very cordial In his feeling toward other people. After a time she sat down under a tree and began to read, while the dog lay beside her with his head against her knee. She became absorbed In her book, and scarcely noticed that soon the collie growled slightly. Presently the growl was repeated, but still she did not look up. A third time she heard the low, menacing rumble, and at length lifted her eyes to see what was amiss. Before her, not far away, a little fellow, tiot more than eight or nine years old, was seated on a stone gazing Intently toward the dog, whose lips were drawn back angrily over glistening teeth. “He won’t bite, little boy,” she said, reassuringly, and laid her hand upon the head of her , pet, who shifted his position and assumed a more amiable expression under her touch; but the little boy was by no means grateful. “Oh,” he cried, distressfully, “you’ve spoiled his growl!” He had been sketching the dog growling, and presently showed her his half-finished work, to her amazement and admiration. By that time the dog had made friends with I lm, and the growl was hopelessly lost, but the child proceeded to draw him “smiling,” as he called it —and a collie does smile, as every owner of one knows —and the second sketch completed, he told the lady his name before they parted. She never saw him again, but she waß proud In after years to tell of the half-hour she once spent with Edwin Landseer.—Montreal Herald and Star.