HE KNEW HIS LIMITATIONS.
When any oiie asked Mr. Hobart about the New York painter who spent one summer ab the Hill Crest Faim. Mr. Hobart's reply always held a mixture of liking and contempt. ''I proph'sied he'd make a living,"' Mr. Hoburfc would fcay, "because he knew what he could do, little as 'twas, and didn't try to fly too high. "Yes," Mr. Hobart would continue, with a thoughtful smile, "you couldn't get him to attempt any foolish flights. All thab summer he set oub in the henyard, painting hens, or else oub back o' the barn, painbing pigs. And when I j said to him, 'Look a-here, when Abe Fowler comes to paint the house, I'll get him to show you how, and let you take a hack ab the side end, where 'twon't show so much, and allow ib on your board,' he jusb shook his head and smiled thab kind o' gentle, sorrowful smile o' his, and says he, 'I couldn't think of it, Mr. Hobart. I should just ruin the looks o' the house,' he said. 'I'll keep to the pigs and the hens, for I know my limitations. 1 "Well, 'twas a real relief to me, for I suppose likely he would have botched the job consid'able ; and J said to him then, real hearty, 'Young ninn, you'll earn your living yet, for you ain't all et up with pride and ambition' ; and my words have come true, by what I hear."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19090327.2.105
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Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1909, Page 10
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248HE KNEW HIS LIMITATIONS. Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1909, Page 10
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