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HOW DADDY USED TO DRAW
When Daddy was little he loved to draw. And when he was given a box of coloured pencils he spent all his days drawing.
He drew little houses. Each little house had a chimney. There was smoke coming out of each chimney. There was a tree near each house. There was a bird in each tree. All the houses were red. All the roofs were yellow. All the chimneys were black. And the smoke coming out of the chimneys was light blue and pink. The trees were blue and the birds were green. A golden sun shone in the lavender sky. A silver moon floated beside the sun and was surrounded by silver and gold stars. It was a very pretty picture.
But everyone who saw his picture said: "Where did you ever see blue trees and green birds?"
And little Daddy would say: "On this picture."
Before little Daddy went to school he thought he knew how to draw very well. But everybody at school thought differently. He drew so poorly that the drawing teacher never said a word to him.
He would say to the other children: "That's good", or "That's no good", or "Straighten this line", but he never even said "That's no good" to little Daddy. As he passed little Daddy's desk and looked at his drawing his face would become all puckered, as if he had eaten a huge sour lemon.
Some of the girls felt sorry for little Daddy. When the teacher turned his back they would quickly draw something in Daddy's drawing book. They tried to do their worst. But no one could draw as badly as little Daddy. The teacher would notice the difference immediately.
Then he would say to little Daddy: "Who drew this?"
And little Daddy would answer honestly: "Not me."
"I can see that for myself," the teacher would say. "But I want to know who helped you. You'll never learn to draw this way. You have to do it yourself."
"I'll do it myself now," little Daddy would say and then he would draw something. And the teacher would wince again.
"Now I can see it's your drawing."
At the next parents' meeting, the drawing teacher made a little speech. This is what he said: "Dear parents! Five of the pupils in this class have excellent marks in drawing."
And he called out their names. "Most of the children have good marks. There are several who are doing poorly." And he named three more names.
Then the drawing teacher said: "But there's one boy," here he made a sour face and named little Daddy. "It's not that he's doing poorly, it's just that I think there's something wrong with him. Something that prevents him from learning how to draw."
Grandma and Grandpa were very disappointed. But it was the honest truth. Later, little Daddy finished school. Then he finished a technical school, then he graduated from college. In all this time he only learned how to draw a cat. But any child knows how to draw a cat. Even little children know how to draw cats. Daddy is very envious of them, because their cats are much better than his.
He did once see an artist who drew as badly as he did, but that man said: "This is how I see this face, this tree, this horse and this is how I draw them."
What a pity little Daddy never thought of saying this to his drawing teacher.
