SWEET-SCENTED TUSSILAGE. 209 
master's mill and cattle, an admirable verdure, the 
effects of the sky, clouds, vapour, light and shade, 
were transferred- with exquisite truth to the canvas 
by his untutored pencil. No sooner had he finished 
one picture than he carried it to the colourman and 
exchanged it for materials to paint another. It hap- 
pened that the innkeeper of the place, expecting 
company at his house, wished to decorate the apart- 
ment destined for their reception, and bought two of 
the pictures for that purpose. An eminent painter* 
chancing to stop at the inn, admired the truth of 
these landscapes, offered one hundred florins for 
what had cost but a crown, and, on paying for them, 
promised to take all the works of the young miller 
at the same price. Thus was the reputation of the 
latter established and his fortune made. In his pros- 
perity, he never forgot his dear mill, the figure of 
which is to be found in all his pictures, which are 
so many master-pieces. Who would imagine that 
plants, like men, need a patron in order that their 
merits may be duly appreciated ! 
o- 
