owing empire. These statues represent, in a sitting
posture, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, and the
Princess of Wales. They are larger than life, and, according to the
Australian press, they are admirable works in every respect.

They were executed by Charles Summers, a sculptor long resident in that
colony, where he practiced his art with great success, as the public
buildings and private houses of Melbourne attest. Many of his works
remain in the colony, and he may be said to be the founder of his form
of art in that part of the world. The history of this man's life is so
remarkable that I think it will interest the reader.

Sixty years ago, Charles Summers was a little, hungry, ragged boy in
English Somersetshire, who earned four cents a day by scaring the crows
from the wheat fields. I have seen myself such little fellows engaged
in this work, coming on duty before four in the morning, and remaining
till eight in the evening, frightening away the birds by beating a tin
pan with a stick, not unfrequently chasing them and throwing stones at
them. He was the son of a mason, who had eight children, and squandered
half his time and money in the tap-room. Hence, this boy, from the age
of eight or nine years, smart, intelligent, and ambitious, was
constantly at work at some such employment; and often, during his
father's drunken fits, he was the chief support of the family.

Besides serving as scare-crow, he assisted his father in his mason's
work, and became a hod-carrier as soon as he was able to carry a hod.
Sometimes he accompanied his father to a distant place in search of
employment, and he was often seen on the high-road, in charge of the
drunkard, struggling to get him home before he had spent their united
earnings in drink. In these deplorable circumstances, he acquired a
dexterity and patience which were most extraordinary. Before he was
twelve years old he began to handle the chisel and the mallet, and his
work in squaring and facing a stone soon surpassed that of boys much
older than himself. He was observed to have a strong propensity to do
fancy stone-work. He obtained, as a boy, some local celebrity for his
carved gate posts, and other ornamental objects in stone. So great was
his skill and industry, that, by the time he was nineteen years of age,
besides having maintained a large family for years, he had saved a sum
equal to a hundred dollars.

Then a piece of good fortune happened t