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42   LIVING AMERICAN ARTISTS.

of the neighboring gentry and well-to-do farmers was intrusted to him to cipher. Asher, who had, when a school-boy, given many evidences of a love for drawing, soon became of consequence in the workshop, owing to the facility with which he made the designs for this occasional work, and the skill with which, after a few months' practice, he put them upon the metal.

He thus unconsciously, we might say, acquired the rudiments of the art for which he afterwards became so famous. Among his father's books was one upon engraving. This had been his frequent reading for many years. It told of the work and of the fame of the old masters of the art, and the south of the young mechanic was stirred to ambitious effort. When the graver became an obedient instrument in his hand, a world of delightful labor opened up to him. He copied, on scraps of sheet copper, the designs on the circular cards which it was the custom then to insert in the concave of watch-cases. The sheet copper, however, was not always attainable, and he confesses that he owes much of the gratification of his taste and of the pleasure of his youth to the offices of a a friendly blacksmith, who hammered a spare cent out for him, now and then, to necessary shape and smoothness. 

For three years he continued to work in his father's shop, devoting all his leisure to his hobby and to sketching tree-forms with his pencil, afterwards reproducing these upon the metal. With the plates thus made, and ink made of lampblack, he gave to the little world about him the first results of his genius, in black and white. 

The father did not fail to appreciate the talent of the boy. Although he would have preferred that he should inherit the little business which he himself had founded, he was touched by his son's desire, so frequently expressed, to become an engraver, and consented to make the necessary inquiries in New York. He did so. There was an opening for  an apprentice, but the fee was a thousand dollars.

Poor Asher! This was bad news from New York; and there seemed nothing for it now but to work diligently among the dainty wheels, to keep the village time, and content with the poor results obtained on pennyworths of copper.

But it came to pass one day, that a caller at the shop was attracted by the young engraver's work; and better still it happened, that he had the knowledge which enabled him to appreciate the talent it displayed, crude as the efforts were. He heard the story of Asher's labors and ambition; he repeated it in the city, and returned with the welcome tidings that there was corn in Egypt.

Asher, accompanied by his father and his friend, paid an early visit to New York and waited upon Mr. Maverick, then an engraver of reputation. His story was here repeated, and the specimens of his skill were exhibited. Maverick was well pleased, and said so. The artist heart of the man was touched with sympathy for the boy, and he proposed to receive him at once into his workshop as an apprentice. He considered the progress he had made as equivalent to that of three years' teaching, and accepted him without fee. Thus Asher began his work in earnest.

In the workshop of the engraver, with all the facilities for good work at his disposal, the apprentice soon distinguished himself. When the term of his engagement ended he became the partner of his master.

But long before this noticeable event came about, he had made his first essay as a painter. The graver, after all, moved slowly, and the thing accomplished lacked the soul of color. The stately pines, the graceful elms, the glistening birches had lost no charm for him; his happiest hours were still among the wooded hills about his father's home—away from the daily increasing din of city life. He made many sketches in color before he took courage to show one to Mr. Maverick. When he did so the engraver shook his head and said,"Ah, Asher, you won't content yourself with  our slow work; you'll be a painter." But he did content himself; at least for many years; until he had made a reputation as an engraver equal to that of his employer; until he became his partner; until he married and soon after went into business himself. It was not, indeed, until he was thirty years old—in the winter of 1826—that he ventured to send a picture for public exhibition. This was to the National