Prop,”’ walking over to the door.

The Prop—‘‘Hurry up there, you people!’

Enter four sheepish students, still arguing; they scurry to their

places, trying unsuccessfully not to attract undue notice.

The Forestry (making the arrival of the four conspicuous by its

presence, in a loud and penetrating tone) ‘And why are you all

late THIS time?”

Three Students—‘‘Sssh!”’

The Forty-Niner—‘‘We were in the throes of a big discussion.”’

The Colonel (showing interest behind a plate of trout) —‘‘Ah, dis-

cussion? About what?”’

The Energetic—‘‘We were trying to find out what Art is.’

The Forestry—‘‘Don’t your masters at the school answer that ques-

tion for you?”

Chortler (hesitating )—‘‘Well, yes, Mr. Varley in his article in the

Annual says that ‘Art is the recording of life.’ ”’

The Forestry—‘‘I don’t agree with that, because a painting of a

mountain can be art, but a mountain certainly has not life!”

Chorus of Students—‘‘Oh! But it has!”

Railroad (looking up from plate over specs) ——‘‘Humph! If there

were a few squirrels running ‘round or bears up there, then I'd say

there was life in that mountain, but you can’t tell me that a moun-

tain has life!”’

Energetic (patiently )—‘‘But that is not the kind of life we mean.

Anything which conveys an emotion to you has life, and that rock

gives a feeling of some kind or other to anyone seeing it, so there-

fore it must be life.’’

The Forty-Niner (breaking in)—‘“To the Artist the word ‘life’

conveys an entirely different meaning than to the scientist, you must

remember.”’

The Railroad—‘‘I still say a rock has no life!”’

Forty-Niner (aside whisper) —‘‘That’s his story and he sticks to it.”’

The Prop interrupts politely to request the departure of the stu-

dents from the table. The students move over to places before the

fire, light up cigarettes, gaze meditatively at the flaming logs, and

continue the discussion with a heat equal to that thrown out by the

sputtering logs.

The Colonel—‘‘I should think that Art would be a beautiful sub-

ject, beautifully painted.”’

The Youngest Member (thoughtfully and impressively )—‘‘In that

case Art would be technical skill plus a feeling for beauty.”

Space of time while all members of cast frantically look up defin-

itions for Art in sundry dictionaries, etc. Several are read aloud and

voted unsatisfactory by all. ares hubbub of voices. The Prop
69

~ gS RODEO RS. AON arte AE

iain,

EE

a