[Polly Oliver’s Problem by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin]@TWC D-Link book
Polly Oliver’s Problem

CHAPTER II
12/15

"I know it 's hard work; but who cares whether a thing is hard or not, if one loves it?
I don't mind work; I only mind working at something I dislike and can never learn to like.
Why, Margery, at the Sunday-school picnics you go off in the broiling sun and sit on a camp-chair and sketch, while I play Fox and Geese with the children, and each of us pities the other and thinks she must be dying with heat.

It 's just the difference between us! You carry your easel and stool and paint-boxes and umbrella up the steepest hill, and never mind if your back aches; I bend over Miss Denison's children with their drawing or building, and never think of my back-ache, do you see ?" "Yes; but I always keep up my spirits by thinking that though I may be tired and discouraged, it is worth while because it is Art I am working at; and for the sake of being an artist I ought to be willing to endure anything.

You would n't have that feeling to inspire and help you." "I should like to know why I would n't," exclaimed Polly, with flashing eyes.

"I should like to know why teaching may not be an art.

I confess I don't know exactly what an artist is, or rather what the dictionary definition of art is; but sit down in Miss Burke's room at the college; you can't stay there half an hour without thinking that, rather than have her teach you anything, you would be an ignorant little cannibal on a desert island! She does n't know how, and there is nothing beautiful about it.


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