“I see no way. That is why—one why—it is disagreeable. I am here in the midst of a lovely country, but if I do the housework as it should be, as Miss Brook assures me it should be, I shall have no time for anything else.”
“There you go again, twisting your mind out of balance toward the other side. If I were you, I would certainly combine art with dish-washing and literature with my other domestic duties. You can, easily.”
“Please tell me,” begged Isabelle, now interested and smiling, and in this new mood forgetting to take account of her hands otherwise than that they fulfilled their present task well.
“That window over the sink looks out upon as lovely a bit of country as God ever made. Now, suppose you take a large sheet of wrapping-paper and cover the lower sash before which you stand, leaving out the size of one pane. Then through that loop-hole, as it were, do your studying. Take the foliage, as it expands. Note the different tones and shades of green; the forms of the young buds, their manner of growth from the first appearing to the full perfection. It seems to me that will give you a knowledge of detail which will help you wonderfully in your ‘technique’ when you come to put your brush to canvas. So with the cloud and sky tints; they are never-ending in variety. I would keep a little note-book beside me and jot down the colors your studies suggest to you; then when you have leisure verify these suggestions by actual trial. You can vary your outlook continually, and I think you will become so interested in the experiment that you will acquire the other knowledge—of how to despatch the dish-washing neatly and rapidly—without thinking much about it.”
Belle mused for a few moments; her face softening under the conviction that she would not thus be debarred from all connection with the one sort of labor she had heretofore loved. Then she asked: “You said literature, too. How can I read while about the house?”
“This way. Have a wide piece sewn across the bottom of your gingham aprons, with pockets stitched in it; and in these pockets carry one of your ‘Handy Volume’ series or one of your art ‘Primers.’ Take out your book from time to time and memorize anything which pleases you. You can thus, if you choose, gain more actual understanding of the world’s best minds during one dinner-getting than during a class-hour at school. I know; I’ve tried it myself.”
“Oh, Mother! is that the way you came to know so many of the poets by heart?”
“Yes, dearie, the very way. And the knowledge has been ‘meat and drink’ to me many and many a time. When you were all small, and my darkest hours were upon me, I had to get right straight out of myself to enable me just to live. If I had dwelt upon my own hardships, I should have broken down physically long ago. But I just wouldn’t. I said to these sweet singers and teachers: ‘You must bear my burdens for me. God made you stronger than He made me, and I shall utilize you!’ The beauty of it was that they did support me, and lost no whit of strength themselves.”
“My set of poets is so nicely bound. They were my prizes at school, you know. If I had a cheaper edition—”
“Darling, would you rather have a white book or a white soul?”