One coat of white

Coming home from our first trip to Europe on board a steamer Betsy and I met a tall old man who called himself Monsieur Roland. He was a pleasant clever fellow and we soon made friends with him. One evening he suddenly told us that his name was Lautisse and asked us not to mention it to anyone Having no idea why we should keep his name a secret we decided to find out who Lautisse was. At the ship’s library we learned that our new friend was probably the world’s greatest living artist. He lived in the South of France and had not painted anything for the last ten years. He said he would never touch a brush again as long as he lived.

Lautisse was going to spend a month in New York, and we invited him to come down to our place for a weekend. When accepting the invitation he got us to promise that we would not invite any guests or talk to him about art, Lautisse arrived on the five o’clock train the following Saturday. We had an enjoyable time that evening. The next morning I got up at seven-thirty as I had a job to do. Our garden fence needed a coat of white paint. I was about to start painting when I saw Lautisse coming towards me. I thought I should have to put off the job, but he took the brush out of my hand.

“Why, it must be done. Let me do it,” he said. I tried to protest but he took no notice of my words and he spent three hours on the job. When he came back into the house he looked as happy as a child. He said that he had not enjoyed himself so much for years.

That evening he went back to New York and we did not hear anything from him or about him for ten days. Then a story appeared in the New York papers. It said that Lautisse, the famous French artist, was staying in the USA, and since his arrival he had not left New York except for a weekend which he spend with the Greggs (that was with us).

The next day our place was crowded with newspapermen who wanted to know every detail about Lautisse^,s stay with us. When Betsy told them about our garden fence they took pictures of it. Then a long story was published in the papers under the title “Lautisse paints again”. The next few weeks were terrible. A lot of newspapermen, businessmen and representatives of art galleries and museums came to our house. They wanted to buy our fence and offered me large sums of money, but I did not know what to do though I realized that I was to do something. On the fourth day Gerston, Lautisse^’s friend, called on us. He saw I was at a loss what to do. “You shouldn’t sell the fence yet,” he recommended. “You should allow the Palmer Museum in New York to exhibit it.” I followed his advice and some days later I went to the Palmer Museum where I met Gerston, who said that my fence was a great success. Then we entered the room where the fence was on display I couldn’t help laughing – it had been cut into thirty sections and had a fence around it. At the lower corner of each section there was a word in black.

I recognized Lautisse^’s signature. I was so much surprised I could only say, “But why?…What?…Where is he? …” Then Gerston told me that Lautisse had left for France the day before.

“You see,” he added, “Lautisse was really fond of you and Mrs. Gregg. He had no idea when he painted your fence that it would cause so much excitement, but when it did he was very amused. I’ve never seen him laugh so much, and it was his idea to have the fence cut into sections and to sign each section. You should sell the fence now.”

I followed his advice and twenty nine sections were sold within a month at the price of $10,000 per section. The thirtieth section is now in our living room.

(After H.A.Smith «One Coat of White»)

Question to the text to be answered:

1. In what country did Lautisse live?

2. How did he enjoy himself in America?

3. What was exhibited at the Palmer Museum in New York?

4. How much did Betsy and her husband earned when the fence was sold?

Exercise 9. Ask more detailed question who, what , where, when, why, how long, how many and so on question and ask your friend to answer them:

Exercise 10. Translate into your native language using a dictionary: