Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work
Pausing in front of the picturesque "table rock" that he had come to
inspect, the boy uttered an exclamation of chagrin and disappointment.
Painted broadly upon the face of the rock, in great white letters, was
the advertisement of a patent medicine. The beauty of the scene was
ruined--only the glaring advertisement caught and held the eye of the
observer.
At first Kenneth's mind held only a feeling of disgust that such a
desecration of Nature's gifts to humanity should be allowed. Then he
remembered another place further along the glen which was almost as
pretty as this had been before the defiling brush of the advertiser had
ruined it. So he spurred his horse and rode up the winding way to the
spot. There a red-lettered announcement of "Simpson's Soap" stared him
in the face.
This was too much for his temper, and his disappointment quickly turned
to resentment. While he sat on his mare, considering the matter, the man
with the lame horse, whom he had passed, overtook him.
"Can you tell me," Kenneth asked, "who owns this property?"
"Why, I do," replied the man, reining up.
"And you permitted these vile signs to be painted on the rocks?"
demanded the boy angrily.
"O' course," replied the man, with a grin of amusement. "I can't farm
the rocks, can I? An' these 'ere signs pays me ten dollars a year,
each."
Kenneth groaned.
"I'll give you fifteen dollars a year each if you'll let me wash off the
letters and restore the scene to its original beauty," he declared.
"I'm willin'," was the response. "But ye see they're contracted. I'd git
into trouble with the sign-painter."
"Who is he?"
"Lives in Cleveland. I've got his name up t' th' house, if you'll come
along. He comes up here every spring and paints fences an' rocks, payin'
spot cash fer th' privilege."
"Oh, I see."
"Then he contracts with the soap man an' the medicine man to paint up
their ads. You're the young 'un from Elmhurst, ain't ye?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'd like to earn that extra five, well enough. My name's Parsons.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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