"It cost too much," her mother answered. "She wanted a portrait of your grandfather and he wanted a portrait of her; and I think there never was money enough to have a good artist paint them both. I wish we were rich enough to have a miniature of you painted, Anna. Perhaps we shall be sometime. Your Aunt Anna in her last letter says she wishes we would send her a daguerreotype of you for her Christmas present.
"I know very little about these new pictures, but they are a wonderful kind which the sun makes. I have heard that they are not very expensive, and I think that if there were only a chance here in town to have the daguerreotype taken we might do what she suggests. These pictures, as I understand it, are entirely different from anything you and I have ever seen: they show the face, the eyes, the smile—everything, like a portrait—but there are no colors; the pictures are all in black and white."
Anna had really been wondering, ever since she heard of her aunt's wish, why anybody should care to have a picture of a girl who had freckles and straight yellow hair and blue eyes, instead of curly black hair and black eyes. When she heard her mother's last words she laughed merrily.
"Would my hair be black in the picture? And my eyes, too?" she exclaimed.
"Yes, I think so," answered her mother with a smile.
"How lovely! How I hope I can have my picture taken!"
Later that very day when Anna went down town on an errand she saw this notice:
COMING AUGUST 20
Prof. Aaron B. Coleman, Artist,
will open a daguerreotype gallery and furnish
perfect likenesses of his patrons for $2.00 a picture.
Abigail Silsbee joined Anna while she was still studying the notice.
"I'm going to have my picture taken!" exclaimed Abigail joyfully. "Mrs. Follen saw some daguerreotypes in Boston when she was there, and she says they are splendid. She told mother about them yesterday, and mother says I may have one taken. Why don't you have your picture taken?"