[Illustration: THE LITTLE GENIUS.]
Little five-year-old Bertie was very fond of sitting at the study table
with his brothers and sisters, especially when they were doing their
drawing lessons. But he was not satisfied with watching them. He too
wanted to draw and paint, and the older children, who were very fond of
him, were always glad to indulge him by lending him their brushes,
paints, and pencils. But they soon found that he was very wasteful of
their materials, and would use up colors and paper faster than they
could be supplied. At last they thought of a better plan. As Bertie was
too young to draw nicely, they bought him some wonderful picture-books,
all in outline, a box of cheap water-colors, and some brushes. Then
Bertie was happy. He would sit for hours painting the pictures in _Jack
the Giant-killer_, _Mother Goose_, and other story-books for little
folks. When he had finished all his little books his mamma brought out
some old papers which she had saved, and cutting out the nice pictures,
gave them to him to paint. This he did very beautifully. Sometimes he
would make funny mistakes, putting green on the horses, and blue on the
little dogs and pussy-cats, but this did not happen often. In a little
while he had so many nice things painted that his sisters made him a big
scrap-book to keep them in, to look at when he grows up.
Bertie may not become a great artist, but his sisters evidently regard
him as a little genius.