He painted all babies on one ingenious plan; giving them the roundest eyes, the chubbiest red cheeks, the most serenely good-humored smiles, and the neatest and whitest caps ever seen on paper.

If fathers and their male friends rarely appreciated the fidelity of his likenesses, mothers and nurses invariably made amends for their want of taste.

It followed, therefore, almost as a matter of course, that the local exhibition of the Doctor's drawing must bring offers of long-clothes-portrait employment to Valentine.

Three resident families decided immediately to have portraits of their babies, if the painter would only travel to their houses to take the likenesses.

A bachelor sporting squire in the neighborhood also volunteered a commission of another sort.