n them, which she
did, cutting off all their heads with her stick. Is it any wonder she
was sent home in disgrace?

Her father then sent her to a dressmaker to see if she could learn
that trade, but Rosa did not like dressmaking and finally went home
without having learned very much. Then some friends gave her some
photographs to color. This she liked to do, so her father decided that
the only thing to do was to let her paint.

Rosa was willing to walk miles in all kinds of weather, to sit hours
in all kinds of uncomfortable positions, and to go without food in
order to draw a good picture of some animal. Now she began her study
of animals in earnest. She went to all the country horse fairs, to the
slaughter houses, and wherever there was an opportunity to study them.

Rosa never had very pretty clothes. She tells us herself that one day
a parrot called after her "Ha, ha! That hat!" Now that she was grown
up she found she could not get about very easily in her long skirts.
There were so many rough men in the packing houses and in other places
where she must go to study that she obtained a permit to wear men's
clothing. Her hair was short, anyway, and with her blue working blouse
and dark trousers she looked just like a man. Then no one noticed her
as she went about, for they thought her one of the workmen. People who
knew her did not mind her dress, and were ready to help her as much as
they could in her work. The first picture she exhibited was of some
little rabbits nibbling carrots.

Her pictures became famous the world over. From all over the country
she received gifts of fine horses and other animals to paint. Buffalo
Bill once sent her two fine horses from Texas. She bought a farm, and
had a very large barn built where she could keep her animals.

How proud her father was of her!

One day she was working hard in her studio when a servant came to tell
her that the Empress Eugenie had come to see her. It was a great event
when this royal lady came to the artist's studio; and there was Rosa
dressed in her old blue blouse covered with paint! She did not have
time even to slip it off before the empress came in, but they had a
most delightful visit. As the Empress Eugenie bent over and kissed
Rosa Bonheur, she pinned the Cross of the Legion of Honor on the
artist's blue blouse. Rosa did not notice it until after the Empress
was gone. How pleased she must have been, for she was the first woman
to receive that hono