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That was a story when the Vanderlinde gang still at east of Mississippi, wait, the Vanderlinde gang even only existed when Dutch’s talking——"Gang of three of us". Then he won the "glory" to naming the gang use his name，after a poker gambling in one night, and later Arthur have noticed that Dutch and Hosea had been cheating to each other in all night.
Anyway, the Vanderlinde Gang, with Dutch, Hosea and Arthur. One day Hosea and Arthur were sitting by the river, it was a sunny day, the weather was perfect, Hosea back from being out there after he cheated some penny and leading his horse on a tether, he saw Arthur frowning and gnawing on his pencil to face his spelling homework under a tree, there was a soft wind coming from the river, and the river wave was lapping at the red dirt along the shore, everything was just alright, so Hosea decided to teach Arthur something more.
"Arthur, Arthur, stop doing that and come here." Then he saw the young man sigh heavily and fling his pencil onto the table，he grumbled at his teacher, "Why is [journey] called dʒɜːrnɪ and when it comes to [tour], tʊr has to be writtened by t-o-u-r, do you get it? t-o-u-r!" Young boy bit [tour] particularly heavily to show a way of his displeasure with his spelling homework, "I can speak and shoot, so why do I have to learn spell? Am I going to be a scribe in one of those (alliteration) carved lace buildings?" At this, he pick his neck like he’s gonna throw up , fully expressing his distaste for the city, for job, for all the rules which might regulations him in the past and in the future.
I almost forgot that boy was a wild horse, Hosea smiled, Perhaps his father always impose that unreasonable rules on him, or because he living in such a discrete society? Arthur believe that Dutch said，the part about freedom, that's why they always hung out together，People would choose companion who thought like themselves，wouldn't they? Hosea tethered his horse next to tree, "Arthur...learning to read and write isn't about sitting in front of a typewriter and consuming your life, for example," he mused, he reflectes which examples would make shows ‘the convenience of being able to read and write’clearly to young man. "Let's talk about that，like some day you discover a rich farms，just support, and at that moment we aren’t with you, how are you going to inform us?"
"I can deal on my own." Unexpected answer, certainly, certainly very Arthurian, I should have thought of that, Hosea thought.
"Or I would ask Audrien to pass the massage." Audrien was a waiter in the tavern they always went, called waiter, but only ten years old, his father used to work in a factory, he lose his arm by rolled them in a machine,and he died that night. Audrien’s mother started working as a whore because she had to feed her three childs,she eventually died of the disease, now Audrien was the only one can do works for feed himself and his two younger brothers, master of the tavern, seeing young boys have a hard time,he offer a job as waiter that made Audrien can earn $8.00 a week, after he finish his all days job,he come back to gluing cardboard boxes with his brother, so if there are any job can hold money, Audrien will do and the advantage is Audrien was tight lipped.
"...Alright, Arthur, alright," Hosea gave up statement with Arthur, wild horse, and stubborn, Hosea thought, "So now let's put the spelling aside, I'm gonna to teach you something interested more. "
"Something interested more?" Arthur looked up from the table, "It's not fishing, is it? I really don't like that stuff, you just stand, stand, stand, and wait for Lady Luck to visit, it feels like I still was five years old and my father is pushing the door from outside."
"Too much warning, johnny. Fishing is a very vast art, from how to choice the hook and fish baits, to the technique of launching the fish, focus on the mechanics of power generation,you just haven't got hang of yet, and still needs practice."
"I'd rather go back to spelling [journey] [rhetoric] [camouflage] [fraud]." Arthur mumbled.
"Very funny, but what I'm going to teach you today，it isn't fishing, it's totally a new art."
"Great, now we're talking." Hearing that it wasn't fishing, the young man's green eyes glowed with a light represented interest, most of Hosea's programs are still very interested...spelling and fishing exclude, Sometimes he takes Arthur to the farm to reconnoiter for criminal, they're pretending to be someone else，Arthur could hear his own heart beating like a drum in excitement, a handful of sweat clenched in his palms, and yet Hosea is confident，his sure stance fooled everyone present, and after that they have ended their criminal thing，they hiding in the tavern and laughed that foolish farmer, sold victim’s cattle and drank all night or fought the others; sometimes Hosea took Arthur out into the wilderness, they chased the traces of their prey through the field, Hosea taught the boy how to judge the species of animals by the droppings and footprints, once a while they may pull out rabbit hole, usually Hosea make Arthur shooting them, because "Since you shoot accurately and well, use more talent which God give it to you." At night they encamped under the stars in field; but most of all they go into hotels, other people's home and stores, Arthur standing there and watch Hosea play dominoes with the others, Hosea liked play dominoes very much, and he watched his professor, his older brother, easy to get the informations whatever he wanted, Hosea's charms like star glitter on the table, and of course when the game gonna end，they confluence with Dutch, they discussed plans, fell from the sky together with masked，do what they're supposed to do then escaped in shooting sound and yelling, this is reserved program from Vanderlinde gang.
Hosea lit a cigarette held it to his lips, "You are very lucky man to touch this outpost technology, you see, most people they don't have chance to finding their abilities in this part throughout their lives, they don't even realize what they missed, what a pity，a big pity."
"But you, Arthur! You are so lucky to meet me, that's a rare stroke of luck，be cherished, sir. Consider you won the lucky gold coin, today，right here、right now，I am gonna to teach you this technique, this art, which is not just a daily activity ......" Hosea took a deep breath, whetting the appetite of his audience: "It is ...a special way to view the world," he closed his eyes and spread out his hands，he preaches in ecstasy, "From the moment you learned...you will open your eyes to this magic world."
Arthur faced this Hosea, he clearly became the cheater mode，don't doubt it, Arthur had watched this too many times，Hosea uses the exuberant and incontrovertible tone to deceive his full pockets victims, while the cheated broads rise from their beds in anger and chagrin，start to deal with the ransacked mess，Arthur is clearly suspicious of Hosea who was gone into liar mode, But he was curious to see what else his teacher could say, and he didn't mind going along with the comic relief，or professor、mentor、godfather…… whatever. He asked, "So which is this technique, I mean this art?"
"It is drawing! Mr. Morgan——Arthur." Hosea trailed off, "It's time to pick up your pencil."
"Oh ...... drawing," says the young man, he is a the one who had extraordinary love and confidence in his hands and feet, All activities that don't allow him to make a big splash and explore the infinite world to his heart's content will leave him uninterested."Drawing，I used to watch someone drawing，staying so much times in one place just to serve a small piece of paper, why don't you teach me how to find wild radishes, Then maybe I can find some snacks for Boadicea."
"Boadicea can wait," Hosea joked, exhaling smoke, "Arthur, you don’t get it，what I’m gonna to teach you,it is not just about drawing, as I mentioned before, it’s a new way to looking closely at the world."
"When you walk through a swamp, you pluck away the canopy of the trees and suddenly, the surface of the river appears in front of you, shrouded in mist, and early in the morning, you pass among the scented bushes startle a handful of insects ...... Wouldn't you wanna to record in this time?"
"Freshly rained, the water pools in puddles on the stone path, and when this happens you ride over it, crushing the sky reflected on it..."
"Through the jungle, snow-capped mountains stand before you, fresh snow falls on black rocks and on pale green pine needles, moose hoofprints showed on the road up to mountain ......"
"The train rumbles through the hills，it rumbles by, sounding the whistle before you ...... extent that faces of the loveliest people."
"Arthur, if you watch with the idea to drawing down from the start, everything will became another shapes with the world," Hosea lectured compulsively: "you will see freckles on the face of the one you love, the stones on the sleepers jump before the train has come, a moose digs up moss under the snow which was hide in the woods, splashes of water knocking on stone, under a patch of reeds, creatures moving under the surface the river in the distance, bubbles floating on surface of water ......"
"You will feel like you just open your eyes and the first time you saw them all，you will notice you had overlooked so many details in the global，so many coloration and light you already ignored, did you knew a tree’s color is very different at morning or at evening,?when this time, sir，my young boy," said by Hosea, "you will feel you are connected with everything, your breath is on the same frequency, you are resonating, resonating, Arthur."
"And that, that was drawing’s meaning, that's what I'm going to teach you."Hosea says.
"With drawing, you can record any image you want, even to distort and create, but today we'll start the easy one."
"...you old cheater." Arthur grunted, but he pick up pencil in subconsciously, Hosea always had a convincing magic about everyone，even you knew he is a legendary fraudster......and yet you still fall into the trap he weaves with his magic words, "Dutch told me do not trust you too much. "
"But you do trust me," Hosea winks, "Let's start with ...... let me see ...... start by observing the falling light between two leaves.. "Don’t know if it’s because of the demagogic sermon that the "old liar" just did or not, Arthur looked at the gap between leaves, obviously is the usual scene, but this time he suddenly saw the light jumping on the edge of the leaves, from the gap through, shimmering colorful convergence of the lake, why didn’t I ever noticed that? Is Hosea tell truth this time?
This young man was so shocked, he unconsciously squeezed his pen tightly.
Then about twenty years had passed，in 1900, a farm near the town.
"What are you reading?" Young Jack padded over to his father, John hold a book and sitting on a stump with his head down, flipping through it, although Jack has a little afraid of his father，he didn't know him very well, his curiosity about the contents of the book was stronger more, little boy poked his head around looking for a suitable viewing angle, he didn't know many words yet, the font on the book is not easy to read either, so he was drawn at first glance by the scribblings in the book: "Oh! This is Uncle Arthur's book, I remember this page，it’s burdock." Jack pointed to the doodle and said, "When he drew I was right there."
John clumsily encircled Jack in his arms to prevent him from falling off the stake if he lost his footing，it is still too tall to a six and a half year old boy, he ask Jack, "Have you ever seen this before?"
" I always saw Uncle Arthur drew it at our old place. ," Jack pulled away from his father's finger, "Look, this is Aunt Mary Linton, and this is ...... this one I don't know" He rushed through the pages to find that he had ever seen, "This is where we lived before, and this is a horse."
"He named old fellow, he's a great horse." John ran his hand over the one black pencil block that represented a horse, the wind blew the sea of grass, swirling it up and spilling the grass clippings into the air.
"This is Mr. Matthews, he gave me candy and told me stories."
"Yes, this is Hosea."
"I kind of miss them, Uncle Arthur, Mr. Matthews, and Kane, do you know where Kane’s gone?"
"No idea."
"Will I ever see them again, then?"
John don't say anything and Jack don't care, he was still very young，no one told him what had happened after those chaotic wars, Jack flipped through that diary lost in his own world，and after a while John says to him: "Laterly, when we get settled down, you can hold a dog."
Jack looked at him in disbelief as he replied, a little confused, "Alright，sir." Then he went back to flipping through the diary, He seems to find some kind of pleasure in random graffiti，and this pleasure prompted him to keep rummaging through the fragments to find he still remembered, page after page of the diary，for sometime，the graffiti became skimpy and clumsy, and the pretty secretarial style disappeared, replaced by sometimes crooked handwriting.
"Why did Uncle Arthur disappear?" Jack asked in disbelief, John leaned down as he stared at the pages he had renewed, and he said somberly, "I wrote this."
"Why can't your draw as well as Uncle Arthur? And your writing isn't good either."
"BArthur learned it from Hosea, I came late and didn't learn it, after I joined the gang everyone got busy，we shifting camps everywhere ...... I...I Ijust inherited this diary from him."
"So you'll gradually get better later?"
"Might be."
The halo between the leaves are still sparkling as before, it was blown and make the same rustling sound that it ever did before twenty years ago over people’s heads, swaying with the same shadow as twenty years ago either.