170 TWOS AND THREES. 



" ' Only forty minutes, upon honour, Maria.' 



" ' There, sir, you see my daughters do not throw 

 away their time like some people.' 



" I was not quite so sure of this ; but a look of admir- 

 ation on my part followed of course. The young ladies 

 then began to discourse on art, and to ask what was my 

 peculiar method of getting up sketches. 



" * Pray, sir,' said the accomplished Maria, * do you 

 make your trees in twos, or in threes ? ' 



" As I did not comprehend the exact meaning of these 

 terms of art, she was pleased to illustrate by favouring 

 me with a sight of one of her recent performances. The 

 trees she particularly alluded to, I found, were those 

 which represented a distant mass of wood. In executing 

 a tree in such situations I was instructed that a sort of 

 flourish should be made, consisting of two segments of 

 a circle, just as birds are drawn in prints; and this is 

 doing trees in twos — in threes, another segment was 

 added; and thus the mystery was solved, — the whole 

 was executed in a running flourish with admirable 

 facility. I cannot conscientiously aver that any one of 

 the leaves of the sketch books of these intelligent young 

 ladies contained what might be termed a drawing, but 

 still there was something about them that might put a 

 person of imagination very much in mind of drawings." 



Thus, having beguiled the attention of Mr. Tintern 

 (for that was the stranger's name) from the summits 

 in which he had been soaring, I found him quite 

 ready to receive an impression of a more humble kind, 

 and he attended me in my walk, nothing loth. I 

 was very much gratified with his company ; for, besides 

 his talent and simplicity of character, there was such an 



