SPRING 65 



it. Or, if it wants awakening, let it look 

 at the other colors for a minute, and it en- 

 joys them ; still it returns to the green 

 with gladness. Be sorry for the man who 

 takes no pleasure in color. Be twice as 

 sorry for the woman. Pray for them both. 

 There are men, usually artists, who live 

 by color as much as by bread. One such, 

 whom I know, clung to his brass and china 

 through a long time of almost starvation, 

 and would not sell one of his studio trea- 

 sures. He was a crank. Admirable insti- 

 tution, the crank the only one of us who 

 wears any picturesqueness in these days. 

 It would be a happier world if everybody 

 in it were a crank. A crank is a man who 

 is more interested in something than his 

 neighbors are. He thinks he knows more 

 about it, and they hate him for that, and 

 suspect him of designs. But if everybody 

 were a crank, there would be no such sour- 

 ness of thought toward him, because no- 

 body would take a contract to hate the 

 whole human race. Besides, there are not 

 many bad cranks. I used to know a fel- 

 low who had a passionate interest in neck- 



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