But for the present an inspiration came to me,--on the strength of
something Tom had said,--that he wished I could draw or paint, because he
could make an artist useful on this trip, he condescended to say, if he
could lay his hand on one. All the photographs of the Springs, it seems,
have the disastrous effect of dwarfing their height and magnitude. There
is a lagoon and a weedy island directly beneath them, and in the camera
pictures taken from in front, the reeds and willows look gigantic in the
foreground, and the Springs--out of all proportion--insignificant. This
would be fatal to our schemers' claims as to the volume of water they are
supposed to furnish for an electrical power plant to supply the Silver City
mines, one hundred miles away. Hence the demand of Science for Art, with
her point of view.
"Just the thing for her," I thought. "She can draw and water-color, of
course; all English girls do." And I flew and proposed it to Tom. "Pay her
well for her pictures, and she'll make your Thousand Springs look like Ten
Thousand." (That was only my little joke, dear; I am always afraid of your
conscience.) But the main thing is settled; we have found a way of inducing
Kitty to go.
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