at
the right doing? From what is he drinking? Why do you think the boy at
the left has given him a drink? How is he helping him now? What does
the boy who is drinking hold in his left hand? How is he standing?
What is the lamb doing? Who else seems to be watching them? Why do you
think the picture is called "Children of the Shell"? Do you like this
picture? why?

=Original Picture:= Prado Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
=Artist:= Bartolome Esteban Murillo (m[=oo] r[=e]l''y[=o]).
=Birthplace:= Seville, Spain.
=Dates:= Born, 1618; died, 1682.

=The story of the picture.= The great religious painter, Murillo, has
given us many pictures of the Christ child and John the Baptist, but
perhaps none more pleasing than this one which critics have so often
declared the most beautiful picture of children ever painted.

We must go back in our Bible history to the time when the wicked King
Herod reigned over Judea, for it was then that our story begins. This
proud king had conquered all his enemies and expected to live at ease
in his rich and beautiful palace, surrounded by all that would give
him comfort and pleasure. But one day he was made very unhappy when a
messenger appeared bringing him most unwelcome news. It was that a
child had been born in Bethlehem at just the time and place it had
been prophesied that a child should be born who would one day be king
over all the world. In a manger of a stable, true to the prophecy, the
baby Jesus was born. The three wise men of the East and many others
who already worshiped him as king sought and found him there. The
thought that the child would grow up to rule over his kingdom alarmed
King Herod, and he resolved to remove this possible rival before it
was too late. Fearful lest the child should escape, Herod sent out a
terrible decree that all boy babies under two years of age should be
killed. That must have been a dreadful day, for there was little hope
of escape or concealment.

However, Mary and Joseph had been warned by an angel several days
before, and with the child Jesus they were already safe on their way
to Egypt. They had left in the night, and no one could tell anything
about them, or where to look for them. Several years later King Herod
died, and almost immediately Mary, Joseph, and the boy Jesus started
on the homeward journey. It was during this journey, we are told, that
the boy, running on ahead of the donkey Mary was riding, found a cool
lit