Here - They - Are

"Here," and at this the docent flung the sheet from the sculptures with a flourish, "is the famous piece done by the artist Horace Grimsby.  They say amongst all his works, these are the most interesting and exciting."

We all just stood there with our mouths open.  There before us marble that Master Grimsby himself had touched, worked with, slaved over, and it was close enough to touch.  More than one person reached out a tentative finger, but the docent quickly said, "No touching!! No!"  And fingers retreated, twitching.

Horace Grimsby used to a deputy on a rural police department.  It was said the he still used words like "ain't" and "shore 'nuff," but his work in marble was fantastic.

How Master Grimsby came about his talent is still a mystery to most.  It seems that he started out whittling wood in his spare time, and before he knew it, he was creating birds and beasts that looked so real one might have thought the little piece of wood would just rear up and start breathing.

Then he graduated to soap.  White bars of Ivory soap became flowers, insects, and fantastic creatures under his skillful hand.

And then, poking around the cemetery one day, he came across an old piece of marble that had been discarded from a tombstone that hadn't turned out well, and the rest, as they say, is history.