United States or New Zealand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
When he was left to himself in the studio, all alone and locked up for the night, Tiki-pu used to go and stare at the picture till it was too dark to see, and at the little palace with the door in its wall by which Wio-wani had disappeared out of life.
Suddenly he stopped at mid-word, and broke off in the full flight of his eloquence, as he saw something like a hand come and take down the top brick from the face of paint which he had laid over the little door in the palace-wall which Wio-wani had so beautifully painted.
Down the garden-path came Wio-wani, and Tiki-pu walked after him; Tiki-pu was so tall that his head stood well over Wio-wani's shoulders old man and young man together made a handsome pair. How big Wio-wani grew as he walked down the avenues of his garden and into the foreground of his picture! and how big the brick in his hand! and ah, how angry he seemed!
Then the door opened and shut, and Wio-wani was gone. Softly as a flower the picture seemed to have folded its leaves over him. Tiki-pu leaned a wet face against the picture and kissed the door in the palace-wall which Wio-wani had painted so beautifully. "O Wio-wani, dear master," he cried, "are you there?" He waited, and called again, but no voice answered him.
Before long he recognised Wio-wani with his flowing white beard; it was his handiwork, this pulling down of the wall! He still had a brick in his hand when he stepped through the opening that he had made, and close after him stepped Tiki-pu!
For even at that distance he could perceive plainly that the work of this boy went head and shoulders beyond his, or that of any painter then living. Presently Wio-wani opened his door and came down the path, as was his habit now each night, to call Tiki-pu to his lesson.
He advanced to the front of his picture and beckoned for Tiki-pu to come in with him; and Tiki-pu's master grew clammy at the knees as he beheld Tiki-pu catch hold of Wio-wani's hand and jump into the picture, and skip up the green path by Wio-wani's side, and in through the little door that Wio-wani had painted so beautifully in the end wall of his palace!
Tiki-pu pulled off his cap and threw himself down on the floor with reverent grovellings. When he dared to look up again Wio-wani stood over him big and fine; just within the edge of his canvas he stood and reached out a hand. "Come along with me, Tiki-pu!" said the great one. "If you want to know how to paint I will teach you."
Then his soul would go down into his finger-tips, and he would knock softly and fearfully at the beautifully painted door, saying, "Wio-wani, are you there?" Little by little in the long-thinking nights, and the slow early mornings when light began to creep back through the papered windows of the studio, Tiki-pu's soul became too much for him.
"Celestiality, may I speak?" he said suddenly. "Speak," replied Wio-wani; "what is it?" "The Emperor, was he not the very flower of fools not to follow when you told him?" "I cannot say," answered Wio-wani, "but he certainly was no artist." Then he opened the door, that door which he had so beautifully painted, and led Tiki-pu in.
Word Of The Day