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Page:Caine - An Angler at Large (1911).djvu/93

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XII
Of the Cloud Artist

The Cloud Artist has been having a week's holiday and has left his job to the Rain Man, one of his two assistants. The other is the Blue Person. These functionaries are a discovery of my wife's. Between them they look after the arrangement of the sky. The Blue Person has had a long innings lately. Morning, noon, and evening he has spread his canvas, glowing azure overhead and at the edges soft purple, from one down to another. He had stolen a few little pink clouds from his Superior's store, and with these he would ornament his border from time to time, cleverly enough. He is a one effect man, yet the amazing beauty of what he does raises him above the charge of working in a groove. There are countries where he gets too much rope, and in such places they curse him for his monotony. England, favoured in so many ways, never sees the Blue Person too often, and his quite undeviating art meets with our hearty approval whenever he chooses to exercise it. As a matter of fact, the

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