e pieces of glass, put in one after the other, the result would
be a sort of mottled appearance, or at least that the gradations of hue
would be sharp and harsh in their effect. But it is not so. The pieces
are so small, and the different shades succeed each other so regularly,
that when viewed from the ordinary distance, the junctions disappear
altogether, and the shades mingle and blend together in the softest and
most perfect manner.

The mosaic which the workman was making in the shop where Rollo and
Charles went in, was a small one, intended to form part of a bracelet.
There were, however, some in the same shop that were quite large. They
were framed like pictures, and were hanging up against the wall.
Indeed, there was nothing but the circumstance that they were in a
mosaic shop, to denote that they were not pictures, beautifully painted
in oil. One was a landscape; another was a portrait of a beautiful girl;
another was a basket of fruit and flowers.

In some of the churches of Rome, there are mosaics of very large size,
which are exact and beautiful copies of some of the most celebrated
paintings in the world. Strangers coming into the churches and looking
at these pictures, never imagine them to be mosaics, and when they are
told that they are so, they can scarcely believe the story. But on
examining them very near, or in looking at them through an opera
glass,--for sometimes you cannot get very near them,--you can easily see
the demarcations between the little stones.

It is a very curious circumstance that the most ancient pictures in the
churches of Rome and Italy are mosaics, and not paintings. Mosaics seem
to have come first in the history of art, and paintings followed, in
imitation of them. Indeed, the arranging of different colored stones in
a pavement, or in a floor, so as to represent some ornamental design,
would naturally be the first attempt at decoration made in the
construction of buildings. Then would follow casing the walls with
different colored marbles, arranged in pretty ways, and finally the
representation of men and animals would be attempted. This we find, from
an examination of ancient monuments, was the actual course of things,
and painting in oil came in at the end as an imitation of pictures in
stone.

Rollo and Charles were induced to go into the mosaic shop by the
invitation of the workman, whose table, as it happened, stood near the
door. He saw the two boys looking in somewhat