unusual exposure on the Banks in early spring; and at this time he made
the acquaintance of Mr. James Graves, N. A., from New York, spending
part of his summer on the Cape in search of the picturesque,--which I
hope he found. Elkanah had, as I have said, a natural talent for
drawing, and some of his sketches had that in them which elicited the
approval of Graves, who saw in the young fellow an untutored genius,
or, at least, very considerable promise of future excellence. To him
there could be but one choice between shoemaking and "Art"; and finding
that young Brewster made rapid advances under his desultory tuition, he
told him his thoughts, that he should not waste himself making
sea-boots for fishermen, but enter a studio in Boston or New York, and
make his career as a painter. It scarcely needed this, however; for
Elkanah took such delight in his new proficiency, and got from Graves's
stories of artist life such exalted ideas of the unalloyed felicity of
the gentleman of the brush, that, even had the painter said no word, he
would have worked out that way himself.

"Only wait till next year, when I'm out of my time," said he to Graves;
and to himself,--"This is the opening for which I have been waiting."

That winter--"my last at shoemaking"--he worked more diligently than
ever before, and more good-naturedly. Uncle Abijah was delighted at the
change in his boy, and promised him great things in the way of a lift
next year, to help him to a speedy wedding. Elkanah kept his own
counsel, read much in certain books--which Graves had left him, and
looked impatiently ahead to the day when, twenty-one years of age, he
should be a free man,--able to go whither he listed and do what he
would, with no man authoritatively to say him nay.

And now the day had come; and with I don't know how few dollars in his