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BR-main. Before Reading. 1. Spot Dictation. 2. Background Information. Mark Twain. Francois Millet. Hans Andersen. Mentone. Riviera. Monte Carlo. Nice. Lyons. 3. Warm-up Questions. 4. Discussion. 5. Topic-related Prediction. BR1- Warm-up Questions1. Spot Dictation. Directions:.

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  1. BR-main Before Reading 1. Spot Dictation 2. Background Information Mark Twain Francois Millet Hans Andersen Mentone Riviera Monte Carlo Nice Lyons 3. Warm-up Questions 4. Discussion 5. Topic-related Prediction

  2. BR1- Warm-up Questions1 Spot Dictation Directions: Listen to the passage and fill in the blanks: Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always such people, but I also explain that there is a big difference between “ ” and writing. In most cases these are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at a . “You’ve got to want to write,” I say to them, “not want to be a writer.” The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and affair. For every writer kissed by fortune there are thousands more . When I left a 20-year career in the U. S. Coast Guard to become a freelance writer, I had no at all. What I did have was a friend who found me in my room in a New York apartment building. It did not even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom. I immediately bought a used typewriter and felt like a writer. encourage __________ being a writer ____________ _________ individuals typewriter _________ poor-paying __________ whose longing is never rewarded ___________________________ prospects _________ genuine _______

  3. BR1- Warm-up Questions2 Spot Dictation Directions: Listen to the passage and fill in the blanks: After a year or so, however, I still hadn’t gotten a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that I made enough money to eat. But I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I would keep putting my dream to the test — even though it meant living with and fear of failure. This is the shadow land of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there. barely _____ uncertainty __________

  4. BR1- backgroud1.1.1 Mark Twain 1. A Brief Introduction to Mark Twain

  5. BR1- backgroud1.1.2 Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known and celebrated as “Mark Twain”, was born in Missouri in 1835. The child was puny. His schooling was brief and of a desultory kind. It ended in 1847, shortly after his father died. Sam Clemens began writing in his teens — burlesque, as a rule, of local characters and conditions. In 1853, Sam Clemens left home, first to New York, then to Philadelphia, Washington, and the West. From 1857, he spent almost four years working as a pilot for the steamers on the Mississippi River, and was regarded as one of the best and most careful pilots on the river. During the American Civil War, he became a professional miner. In 1862, he took the job as a reporter, and then, for the first time, began signing his articles with “Mark Twain”, a river term, used in making soundings, recalled from his piloting days. He was presently recognized as one of the foremost writers, and soon acquired world-wide fame.

  6. BR1- backgroud1.1.3 Mark Twain was a prolific writer. He wrote and published a number of notable sketches, articles, stories and books. His works were always of a kind to make people talk, always important even when it was mere humor. Yet there was always wisdom under it, and purpose, and these things gave them a dynamic force and enduring life. He was one of the foremost American philosophers of his day and the world’s most famous humorist of any day. He ranked not only as America’s chief man of letters, but likewise as one of her best known and best loved citizens. The world will long miss Mark Twain. His example and his teachings will be neither ignored nor forgotten.

  7. BR1- backgroud1.2.1 2. Mark Twain’s Chronology and His Works 1835 Born in Missouri and named Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1863 Began signing his pseudonym “Mark Twain” 1865 The Celebrating Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1880 A Tramp Aboard 1882 The Prince and the Pauper 1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1888 Received from Yale College the degree of Master of Arts A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; Life on the Mississippi 1889

  8. BR1- backgroud1.2.2 1892 The American Claimant 1894 Tom Sawyer Abroad 1894 The Tragedy of Pudd`nhead Wilson 1896 Tom Sawyer, Detective 1899 The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg 1901 Yale College — Doctrine of Literature 1907 Came the crowning honor — Oxford tendered him the doctor’s robe 1910 Passed Away

  9. BR1- backgroud1.3.1 3. Some Quotations from Mark Twain “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” “Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.” “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” “Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.” “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.”

  10. BR1- backgroud1.3.2 “It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.” “The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.” “Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.” “The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.”

  11. BR1- backgroud2.1.1 Francois Millet (1814 - 1875) 1. Francois Millet’s life and artistic achievement

  12. BR1- backgroud2.1.6 As the son of a small peasant farmer in Normandy, Millet showed a precocious interest in drawing. He had to fight against great odds, living for long a life of extreme penury. He exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1840. At this time, the type of work he produced consisted predominantly of mythological subjects or portraiture, at which he was especially adept (Portrait of a Naval Officer, 1845). His memories of rural life, and his intermittent contacts with Normandy, however, impelled him to that concern with peasant life that was to be characteristic of the rest of his artistic career. In 1848 he exhibited The Winnower (now lost) at the Salon. In 1849, when a cholera epidemic broke out in Paris, Millet took a house near that of Théodore Rousseau. His paintings on rural themes attracted growing acclaim and between 1858 and 1859 he produced the famous Angélus, which 40 years later was to be sold for the sensational price of 553,000 francs.

  13. BR1- backgroud2.1.7 Although Flemish artists of the 17th century had depicted peasants at work, Millet was the first painter to endow rural life with a dignity and monumentality that transcend realism, making the peasant an almost heroic figure. Nevertheless, he became somewhat a symbol to younger artists. It was he who, on a visit to Le Havre to paint portraits, encouraged Boudin to become an artist, and his work certainly influenced the young Monet, and even more decidedly Pissarro, who shared similar political inclinations. Although towards the end of his life, his work showed some affinities with Impressionists, he never painted out-of-doors, and he had only a limited awareness of tonal values. His subject matter — with its social implications — appealed to artists such as Seyret and van Gogh.

  14. BR1- backgroud2.2 2. Francois Millet’s Chronology 1814 Born on 4th October in Normandy Worked with a local portrait painter, Bon Dumouchel 1833 1835 Entered the studio of Lucien — Theophile Langlois 1837 Enroled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts 1840 First exhibited at the Salon 1849 Settled in Barbizon 1853 Married Catherine Lemaire Awarded a first class medal for Shepherdess Guarding Her Flock 1864 1868 Awarded cross of the Legion of Honour Died on 20th January 1875

  15. BR1- backgroud2.3.1 3. Some quotationsfrom Francois Millet “One must be able to use the trivial to express the sublime — that is true power!” “I could look at Poussin’s pictures forever and ever and always learn something.” “Sometimes, in places where the land is sterile, you see figures hoeing and digging. From time to time one raises himself and straightens his back, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy brow. Is this the gay, jovial work some people would have us believe in? But nevertheless, to me it is true humanity and great poetry. ” “It is never the cheerful side of things that appears to me.”

  16. BR1- backgroud2.3.2 “As I have never seen anything but fields since I was born, I try to say as best I can what I saw and felt when I was at work.” “To tell the truth, the peasant subjects suit my temperament best; for I must confess, even if you think me a socialist, that the human side of art is what touches me most.” “I attempt to make things look not as if they have been brought together by chance, but as if there were a necessity bonding them together.” “Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.”

  17. BR1- backgroud3.1 Hans Anderson

  18. BR1- backgroud3.2 Denmark is a beautiful and dreamlike country. Its beauty and serenity encourage people to create their own fairy tales. One of the most famous authors of fairy tales in the world, Hans Christian Anderson, was born in Odense in the 19th century. It is in the family home that Anderson spent his childhood. His father was a modest cobbler and Hans had to struggle to attract the world’s attention. Today he is highly regarded as one of the most sensitive writers of his time and was the most capable of touching the chords of the human spirit. In the museum dedicated to him, which was set up in the house where the author was born, we find rare editions of his stories, letters, notes and manuscripts. The most interesting items in the museum are the writer’s personal effects, enabling us to picture him still at work in these rooms. Here we also find a series of original illustrations by famous artists, inspired by his fairy tales and his life.

  19. BR1- backgroud3.3 Anderson’s works are staged in Odense, with children and visitors acting out the parts. Among his most famous stories are “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “The Little Mermaid”.

  20. BR1- backgroud4.1 Mentone

  21. BR1- backgroud4.2 Mentone is a seaport town in southeastern France. Situated near the Italian border 17 miles (28 km) northeast of Nice and 6 miles (10 km) northeast of Monte-Carlo by road, it is reputedly the warmest winter resort on the French Riviera. It is also a popular summer resort.

  22. BR1- backgroud5.1 Riviera Riviera is a narrow coastal region between the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea extending from southeast France to northwest Italy. The Riviera is a popular resort area that is noted for its flowers grown for export and for use in perfumery.

  23. BR1- backgroud6.1 Monte Carlo Monte Carlo is a resort in Monaco, forming one of the four communes of the principality. It is famous as a gambling resort and as the terminus of the annual Monte Carlo rally.

  24. BR1- backgroud7.1 Nice Nice is a city of southeast France on the Mediterranean Sea northeast of Cannes. Controlled by various royal houses after the 13th century, the city was finally ceded to France in 1860. It is the leading resort city of the French Riviera and is known for its beaches, casinos, and luxurious hotels.

  25. BR1- backgroud8.1 Lyons Lyons is an industrial city and river port in southeast France, situated at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers. Founded in AD 43 as a Roman colony, it was the principal city of Gaul and an important religious center after the introduction of Christianity. Its silk industry dated back to the 15th century.

  26. BR1- warm up questions Warm-up Questions • What do you think makes a painter famous? • Do you believe that each artist undergoes difficulties and • hardships before he / she becomes famous?

  27. BR1- discussion Discussion Mark Twain, as a novelist and humorist, is very well known in China, where his works are widely read. Discuss in groups Mark Twain’s writing style on the basis of his works you have read and the information you have collected about his life.

  28. BR1- topic-related prediction Topic-related Prediction 1. How does the title “Is He Living Or Is He Dead?” impress you? What might the text be about? 2. Who might “He” in the title refer to? Take a guess. 3. What might Mark Twain convey in the text?

  29. GR-MAIN Global Reading 1. Part Division of the Text 2. Further Understanding For Part 1 Question and Answer For Part 2 Subdivision For Part 3 True or False 3. Text Analysis

  30. GR-Part Division of the Text Part Division of the Text Parts Paragraphs Main Ideas The introduction to the story: “my” encounter with Smith 1 1~13 2 14~86 The story about Francois Millet told by Smith The ending of the story: Francois Millet overcame the financial difficulty and became famous 3 87~98

  31. GR-Q AND A Question and Answer What does Hans Andersen’s tale mentioned in the text indicate? The story about the bird indicates that people tend to neglect the beautiful things around them to such an extent that the artists who create great works live in poverty. The value of the artists is not recognized until after their death. The story corresponds with the law Carl claimed to have discovered. It seems that the artists have to die in order to get themselves out of the poverty.

  32. GR-subdivision Subdivision This part is the main body of the text: the story about Francois Millet and his three friends in art. Parts Paragraphs Main Ideas The four artists and their poor life 1 14~37 2 38~65 Their clever scheme to get rid of poverty 3 66~82 Their campaign to sell their paintings and build up Millet’s fame 4 83~86 Their success in getting both money and fame

  33. GR-true and false • Carl, Claude, Smith and a distant relative of Millet carried Millet’s coffin at the funeral. • After Millet’s “funeral”, the price of his paintings declined. • According to the text, after his “funeral”, Millet acted as an old, retired, and very rich manufacturer from Lyons, and adopted the name Theophile Magnan. • 4. Thanks to their well-designed scheme, Smith, Carl, Millet, and Claude made an astonishing amount of money. • 5. Millet did not deserve the fame and the reward he got. But for the • scheme, he would have died in poverty. ( ) F Millet acted as one of his distant relatives and carried his own coffin with the three other artists. ( ) F After his “funeral”, the price of Millet’s paintings went up. ( ) T ( ) T ( ) F Millet deserved the fame and the fortune, because he was a genius in art and his paintings were of great value. The scheme helped to make the world recognize his talent earlier.

  34. GR-text analysis Text Analysis Mark Twain’s Humor Mark Twain is a great humorist. Cite from the text examples of his humor. (Para. 1) Mentone is quiet, simple, restful, unpretentious; the rich and the gaudy do not come there. As a rule, I mean, the rich do not come there. (Para. 14) We were as happy as we were poor, or as poor as we were happy — phrase it to suit yourself. (Para. 37) “A cabbage! Oh, don’t name it — it makes my mouth water. Talk of things less trying.” (Para. 61) The remark fell so calmly and so unexpectedly that we almost forgot to jump. Then there was a wild chorus of advice again — medical advice — for the help of Carl’s brain;… (Para. 62) … and when everything is hot and just right, we’ll spring the death on them and have the notorious funeral.

  35. GR-text analysis2 Text Analysis (Paras. 67 - 76) … I worked swiftly, intending to keep him interested. Occasionally he fired off a little ejaculation of approbation, and by and by he spoke up with enthusiasm, and said I was a master! I put down my brush, reached into my satchel, fetched out a Millet, and pointed to the cipher in the corner. I said, proudly: “I suppose you recognize that? Well, he taught me! I should think I ought to know my trade!” The man looked guiltily embarrassed, and was silent. I said sorrowfully: “You don’t mean to intimate that you don’t know the cipher of Francois Millet!” Of course he didn’t know that cipher; but he was the gratefulest man you ever saw, just the same, for being let out of an uncomfortable place on such easy terms. He said:

  36. GR-text analysis3 Text Analysis “No! Why, it is Millet’s, sure enough! I don’t know what I could have been thinking of. Of course I recognize it now.” Next, he wanted to buy it; but I said that although I wasn’t rich I wasn’t that poor. However, at last, I let him have it for eight hundred francs. Eight hundred! Yes. Millet would have sold it for a pork chop. Yes, I got eight hundred francs for that little thing. I wish I could get it back for eighty thousand. But that time’s gone by. I made a very nice picture of that man’s house and I wanted to offer it to him for ten francs, but that wouldn’t answer, seeing I was the pupil of such a master, so I sold it to him for a hundred. I sent the eight hundred francs straight to Millet from that town and struck out again next day.

  37. TEXT It is all too often the sad fate of artists that they achieve fame, if they achieve it at all, only after death. In life their talent may well pass unrecognized, leaving them living on the edge of poverty. In this amusing tale by Mark Twain, a band of young artists come up with an ingenious solution to this problem.

  38. TEXT-S-1 Is He Living or Is He Dead? Mark Twain I was spending the month of March 1892 at Mentone, in the Riviera. At this retired spot one has all the advantages, privately, which are to be had at Monte Carlo and Nice, a few miles farther along, publicly. That is to say, one has the flooding sunshine, the balmy air, and the brilliant blue sea, without the marring additions of human powwow and fuss and feathers and display. Mentone is quiet, simple, restful, unpretentious; the rich and the gaudy do not come there. As a rule, I mean, the rich do not come there. Now and then a rich man comes, and I presently got acquainted with one of these. Partially to disguise him I will call him Smith. One day, in the Hotel des Anglais, at the second breakfast, he exclaimed: “Quick! Cast your eye on the man going out at the door. Take in every detail of him.” “Why?” “Do you know who he is?”

  39. TEXT-W-1 Is He Living or Is He Dead? Mark Twain I was spending the month of March 1892 at Mentone, in the Riviera. At this retired spot one has all the advantages, privately, which are to be had at Monte Carlo and Nice, a few miles farther along, publicly. That is to say, one has the flooding sunshine, the balmy air, and the brilliant blue sea, without the marring additions of human powwow and fuss and feathers and display. Mentone is quiet, simple, restful, unpretentious; the rich and the gaudy do not come there. As a rule, I mean, the rich do not come there. Now and then a rich man comes, and I presently got acquainted with one of these. Partially to disguise him I will call him Smith. One day, in the Hotel des Anglais, at the second breakfast, he exclaimed: “Quick! Cast your eye on the man going out at the door. Take in every detail of him.” “Why?” “Do you know who he is?”

  40. TEXT-S-2 “Yes. He spent several days here before you came. He is an old, retired, and very rich silk manufacturer from Lyons, they say, and I guess he is alone in the world, for he always looks sad and dreamy, and doesn’t talk with anybody. His name is Theophile Magnan.” I supposed that Smith would now proceed to justify the large interest which he had shown in Monsieur Magnan, but, instead, he dropped into a brown study, and was apparently lost to me and to the rest of the world during some minutes. Now and then he passed his fingers through his flossy white hair, to assist his thinking, and meantime he allowed his breakfast to go on cooling. At last he said: “No, it’s gone; I can’t call it back.” “Can’t call what back?” “It’s one of Hans Andersen’s beautiful little stories. But it’s gone from me. Part of it is like this: A child has a caged bird, which it loves, but thoughtlessly neglects. The bird pours out its song unheard and unheeded; but in time, hunger and thirst assail the creature, and its song grows plaintive and feeble and finally ceases — the bird dies.

  41. TEXT-W-2 “Yes. He spent several days here before you came. He is an old, retired, and very rich silk manufacturer from Lyons, they say, and I guess he is alone in the world, for he always looks sad and dreamy, and doesn’t talk with anybody. His name is Theophile Magnan.” I supposed that Smith would now proceed to justify the large interest which he had shown in Monsieur Magnan, but, instead, he dropped into a brown study, and was apparently lost to me and to the rest of the world during some minutes. Now and then he passed his fingers through his flossy white hair, to assist his thinking, and meantime he allowed his breakfast to go on cooling. At last he said: “No, it’s gone; I can’t call it back.” “Can’t call what back?” “It’s one of Hans Andersen’s beautiful little stories. But it’s gone from me. Part of it is like this: A child has a caged bird, which it loves, but thoughtlessly neglects. The bird pours out its song unheard and unheeded; but in time, hunger and thirst assail the creature, and its song grows plaintive and feeble and finally ceases — the bird dies.

  42. TEXT-S-3 The child comes, and is smitten to the heart with remorse; then, with bitter tears and lamentations, it calls its mates, and they bury the bird with elaborate pomp and the tenderest grief, without knowing, poor things, that it isn’t children only who starve poets to death and then spend enough on their funerals and monuments to have kept them alive and made them easy and comfortable. Now —” But here we were interrupted. About ten that evening I ran across Smith, and he asked me up to his parlour to help him smoke and drink hot Scotch. It was a cozy place, with its comfortable chairs, its cheerful lamps, and its friendly open fire of seasoned olive-wood. To make everything perfect, there was a muffled booming of the surf outside. After the second Scotch and much lazy and contented chat, Smith said:

  43. TEXT-W-3 The child comes, and is smitten to the heart with remorse; then, with bitter tears and lamentations, it calls its mates, and they bury the bird with elaborate pomp and the tenderest grief, without knowing, poor things, that it isn’t children only who starve poets to death and then spend enough on their funerals and monuments to have kept them alive and made them easy and comfortable. Now —” But here we were interrupted. About ten that evening I ran across Smith, and he asked me up to his parlour to help him smoke and drink hot Scotch. It was a cozy place, with its comfortable chairs, its cheerful lamps, and its friendly open fire of seasoned olive-wood. To make everything perfect, there was a muffled booming of the surf outside. After the second Scotch and much lazy and contented chat, Smith said:

  44. TEXT-S-4 “Now we are properly primed — I to tell a curious history, and you to listen to it. It has been a secret for many years — a secret between me and three others; but I am going to break the seal now. Are you comfortable?” “Perfectly. Go on.” Here follows what he told me: A long time ago I was a young artist — a very young artist, in fact — and I wandered about the country parts of France, sketching here and sketching there, and was presently joined by a couple of darling young Frenchmen who were at the same kind of thing that I was doing. We were as happy as we were poor, or as poor as we were happy — phrase it to suit yourself. Claude Frere and Carl Boulanger — these are the names of those boys; dear, dear fellows, and the sunniest spirits that ever laughed at poverty and had a noble good time in all weathers.

  45. TEXT-S-5 At last we ran hard aground in a Breton village, and an artist as poor as ourselves took us in and literally saved us from starving — Francois Millet — “What! the great Francois Millet?” Great? He wasn’t any greater than we were, then. He hadn’t any fame, even in his own village; and he was so poor that he hadn’t anything to feed us on but turnips, and even the turnips failed us sometimes. We four became fast friends, doting friends, inseparables. We painted away together with all our might, piling up stock, piling up stock, but very seldom getting rid of any of it. We had lovely times together; but, O my soul! How we were pinched now and then! For a little over two years this went on. At last, one day, Claude said:

  46. TEXT-W-5 At last we ran hard aground in a Breton village, and an artist as poor as ourselves took us in and literally saved us from starving — Francois Millet — “What! the great Francois Millet?” Great? He wasn’t any greater than we were, then. He hadn’t any fame, even in his own village; and he was so poor that he hadn’t anything to feed us on but turnips, and even the turnips failed us sometimes. We four became fast friends, doting friends, inseparables. We painted away together with all our might, piling up stock, piling up stock, but very seldom getting rid of any of it. We had lovely times together; but, O my soul! How we were pinched now and then! For a little over two years this went on. At last, one day, Claude said:

  47. text-S-6 “Boys, we’ve come to the end. Do you understand that? — absolutely to the end. Everybody has struck — there’s a league formed against us. I’ve been all around the village and it’s just as I tell you. They refuse to credit us for another centime until all the odds and ends are paid up.” This struck us cold. Every face was blank with dismay. We realized that our circumstances were desperate, now. There was a long silence. Finally, Millet said with a sigh: “Nothing occurs to me — nothing. Suggest something, lads.” There was no response, unless a mournful silence may be called a response. Carl got up, and walked nervously up and down a while, then said: “It’s a shame! Look at these canvases: stacks and stacks of as good pictures as anybody in Europe paints — I don’t care who he is. Yes, and plenty of lounging strangers have said the same — or nearly that, anyway.” “But didn’t buy,” Millet said.

  48. text-W-6 “Boys, we’ve come to the end. Do you understand that? — absolutely to the end. Everybody has struck — there’s a league formed against us. I’ve been all around the village and it’s just as I tell you. They refuse to credit us for another centime until all the odds and ends are paid up.” This struck us cold. Every face was blank with dismay. We realized that our circumstances were desperate, now. There was a long silence. Finally, Millet said with a sigh: “Nothing occurs to me — nothing. Suggest something, lads.” There was no response, unless a mournful silence may be called a response. Carl got up, and walked nervously up and down a while, then said: “It’s a shame! Look at these canvases: stacks and stacks of as good pictures as anybody in Europe paints — I don’t care who he is. Yes, and plenty of lounging strangers have said the same — or nearly that, anyway.” “But didn’t buy,” Millet said.

  49. TEXT-S-7 “No matter, they said it; and it’s true, too. Look at your ‘Angelus’ there! Will anybody tell me —” “Pah, Carl — my ‘Angelus!’ I was offered five francs for it.” “When?” “Who offered it?” “Where is he?” “Why didn’t you take it?” “Come — don’t all speak at once. I thought he would give more — I was sure of it — he looked at it — so I asked him eight.” “Well — and then?” “He said he would call again.” “Thunder and lightning! Why, Francois —” “Oh, I know — I know! It was a mistake, and I was a fool. Boys, I meant for the best; you’ll grant me that, and I —” “Why, certainly, we know that, bless your dear heart; but don’t you be a fool again.” “I? I wish somebody would come along and offer us a cabbage for it — you’d see!”

  50. TEXT-S-8 “A cabbage! Oh, don’t name it — it makes my mouth water. Talk of things less trying.” “Boys,” said Carl, “do these pictures lack merit? Answer me that.” “No!” “Aren’t they of very great and high merit? Answer me that.” “Yes.” “Of such great and high merit that, if an illustrious name were attached to them, they would sell at splendid prices. Isn’t it so?” “Certainly it is. Nobody doubts that.” “But — I’m not joking — isn’t it so?” “Why, of course it’s so — and we are not joking. But what of it? What of it? How does that concern us?” “In this way, comrades — we’ll attach an illustrious name to them!” The lively conversation stopped. The faces were turned inquiringly upon Carl. What sort of riddle might this be? Where was an illustrious name to be borrowed? And who was to borrow it? Carl sat down, and said:

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