Tales out of school

by Frank R. Stockton

He had such strongly marked Indian features that his face was not pleasant at first sight, but he was always in such a good humor that one soon forgot he was not handsome.

This sculptor worked in plaster. He moulded different parts of the body, and hung them up on his walls. The legs, arms, &c. were provided with wooden pegs, so that they could be properly fastened together. When he wanted to make an image he would take down the different members he required, and put them together. If they did not fit properly he would cut out blocks of plaster, and patch them up.

These statues were all colored, and the sculptor had as much difficulty in getting his colors as the painter, only he did not require so many.

One of the queer things about his statues was that they all had glass eyes! And this is the way he made them. He put fragments of window glass, cut in the shape of eyes, into a frying pan pierced with holes about an inch in diameter. As soon as the heat softened the glass sufficiently he would press the pieces down into the holes with a metal stick, and thus they would be rounded like eyes.

He procured his tools how and where he could. Old nails, old brushes, worn-out knife blades, and even sheep bones, furnished him materials.

But he took great pleasure in making these images that he thought so lovely, and which charmed his neighbors. And, occupied in this fascinating business, he had no time to think of his poverty, and troubles. He was as happy as the day is long.

THE WONDERFUL ASH TREE.

The people who used to live in the northern parts of Europe were not very pleasant people, if we are to believe all the blood-thirsty stories we have heard about them, but they had a religion, although it was rather a queer one. There is one thing, however, to be said of their gods and goddesses, which is very much in their favor. They were generally honest, and tolerably strong-minded, which is much more than we can say about some of the gods of ancient Greece and Rome. Mercury, you know, was a great thief, and even Jupiter was none too good.

THE GOD YMER.