VOL. 37. NO. 7. WEEKLY.
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING CO., ELGIN, ILLINOIS.
GEORGE E. COOK, EDITOR.
FEBRUARY 15, 1914.
Arthur had a box of paints given him for Christmas, and he had learnedto color pictures very prettily; so just as he was finishing the dressof a gorgeous Japanese lady such a happy thought came to him that henearly spilled some yellow paint all over Miss Matsuki's gay pinkdress, in his haste to find mother and tell her about it.
“I want to make my valentines all myself this year,” he exclaimedexcitedly as soon as the yellow paint was safely back in the box, “fornow I can paint. Why can't I paint some valentines, same's AuntFrances did last year?”
“Why, I think you could, dear,” mother answered.
“'Course I don't mean I could make quite such lovely flowers as shedid,” Arthur went on, “but I think it would be lots more fun to do itmyself than to buy them.”
“So do I, Arthur,” mother said, “and I think if you look through thosepapers in the lower drawer you'll find some pictures to cut out thatwould make pretty valentines. Then you could color them with yourpaints and paste them on a sheet of note paper.”
“But, mother, don't valentines have some verses written on thembesides the pictures? Aunt Frances' did. Where can I get those?”
“Perhaps I could write those for you,” mother laughed, “if I triedreal hard.”
“Could you really write verses?” Arthur asked in round-eyed wonder.“Then we'll have some lovely valentines, won't we? I'll make one foryou, and one for father, and Alice and John and Clifton and Barbaraand oh, lots of folks.”
“Well, I guess you better get to work right away, if you've such a lotto do,” advised mother, “and I had better begin on the poetry.”
It was fun to find the pictures, for there were such a lot to selectfrom, and by supper time Arthur had a nice pile all ready to paintnext morning.
Two days before Valentine's day they were all done—prettily coloredand pasted on note paper with a little verse that mother had written,printed in Arthur's very best writing.
“Aren't they bee-u-ti-ful,” he exclaimed as he laid them in a row onthe dining-room table.
“They are very nice, dear,” mother said, “and which do you think arethe prettiest ones?”
Arthur looked a long time at the row of little valentines and then hesaid, “These two.” One had a little curly-haired child carrying a bigbunch of flowers in her hand, and the verse read:
Is a valentine for you,
To show that in storm or in sunshine
My love is always true.”
And the other valentine had a picture of two little boys carrying abig basket between them, and this was the little verse:
Give guess one and two.
You'll never think, so I must tell:
It's full of love for you.”
“And to whom are you going to give the two prettiest