"Here's Mr. Bowden himself sauntering down the
field in search of a subject."

Aldred looked round and waved her hand to a tall, grey-haired gentleman,
who, armed with a sketchbook, appeared to be jotting down the outlines
of some of the corn stooks. On seeing her smiling face he came at once
in her direction, and stopped critically behind her easel.

Mr. Bowden was an artist of considerable repute; he was a friend of
their father's, and always had a pleasant word for Aldred when he
visited at the house. Therefore she awaited his verdict with some
anxiety.

"Very good, Aldred! I had heard you were fond of drawing, though I did
not know you could do so well as this. But, my dear child, it's full of
faults, all the same. The perspective of the front of the house is
completely wrong."

"I'm afraid I don't know anything about perspective," pleaded Aldred. "I
just drew it as I thought it looked. The cottage is so pretty, I felt I
simply must paint it."

"That is the right spirit. Go on and try, even if you don't always
succeed. I am glad to see you make an effort to sketch out-of-doors.
There is no teacher like Mother Nature, and the attempt to reproduce a
living tree, or a house, on paper will do you more good than a hundred
copies. Why did you make the lines of your windows run up, when they so
clearly ought to run down?"

"I don't quite understand," said Aldred, looking puzzled.

"Give me your pencil a moment, and I will show you."

"Oh, thank you!" cried Aldred, jumping up with alacrity. "Please take my
camp stool, and then you will have exactly the same view as I have. It
looks so different when one is sitting down."

Mr. Bowden good-naturedly installed himself in Aldred's place, and,
taking her paint-box and brushes, began to give her a practical lesson
in sketching from nature.

"The composition is not bad," he remarked, "but if you had brought in
that far tree, which is considerably taller than the cottage, it would
have raised the subject on the left-hand side of the picture, and given
a pleasanter result. Shall I put in a touch to show you what I mean?"

"Oh, please!--as many as you like. It would be such a help to watch
you!" replied Aldred.

"Very well, then. In the first place, I make the lines of your
perspective slope down to their right vanishing point. Is not that
better? Now, a dab of brighter blue in the sky, with a raw edge to give
the effect of that white cloud. The trees need massing tog