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Little Pictures of 0. Henry
the very one to make the illustrations
for your book. Dick lall owns a sheep
ranch out not very far from here. and
Porter is working for him. Nex, you
might o out there and take the hook
alon<, and tell him iust about what Nonu
want, and let him have a crack at it.'
'It looked like a pretty goiod idea to
me, for it seemed tio me thllat a man i ]ho
hadt seen something of the same life
might better be able to draw the pictures.
"I found Porter to be a yo(un'., silent
fellow,. with deep, lbrou)dinl, blue ete>,
c nical for his years, and with a facile
pen, later to be turned to word-paintingz
instead of picture-drawing.
"I w would discuss the story w ith \Will
in the daytime, and :at nihit he w\ould
draw the pictures. There were forty of
them in aill. And while crude, the\ were
all inod and true to the life they de-
"The ranch was a vast chaparral
plain, and for three weeks Porter w worked
on the illustration'., and he and I roamed
about the place and talked together. We
slept together in a rude little shack. I
became much interested in the boyN's per-
sonalitx. fIe was a talciturn fellow, w ith
a peculiar little hiss when amusedi, in-
stcad (Of the bo\ich laugh one might have
expected, and lie culd -ive the (lqueerest
caustic turn to speech, gettin, off epi-
grams like little sharp bullets, e ery
once in a while, and alwvays unexpec-
tedl.
"()One night Mrs. HTall s id to me:
'Do voit know that that quiet hb() is a
ries Ais fine as lanIx Rider Haard eer
lwrotec.
"AIrs. Hail was a hihlv cultivated
woman and her words deeply impressed
me. After I had ained \ill's confi-
denc le ie let me read a few- of his stories.
and I found them very line.
" 'illi,' I said to him one day, 'why
don't you try your hand at writin for
the magazines?' But hie had no cofi-
dence in himself, and dlestroyed his sto-
ries as fast as hle wrote them.
" 'Well, at any rate.' I said, 'try
your hand at newspaper wor k.' But lie
couldn't see it, and went on writing and
destro in .
"At last he ;ot a position in a land
police, and later, when that position failed
jerker' in a dru- store on Pccan Street.
Sola water 'jerkin-' was to(o much for
Vill, rand the next thine I heard of 1him
lie had gottenn into the newspaper ganU
-hbut that was after I left Austin. AInd
when I left I did not tand on the order
of m} going.
a;. .r arr.-. u z . ?
"i oi six months I had been w rkin
on the book. As Jul approached, and
withl it the completion of the bhook anild
the trip to New York to thc publishers,
I be,'atn to g't nerv ous.
'i'll pack the hook in imy trunkk'
said Johni 'along with the illustrations,
and w'll laeiii to-morrow for elil w
York, \i: (G;lveston, ;and be \len oii co!,
back, old fellI-, you'll be famous. I'm
-,in to hae this oo(k broughtt )out in
.reat stle--tlhe verv best, and Nou are
499
m M- 0
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