ennie.

"O, no," replied Rollo; "it seemed to me more like a splendid palace
than a school. We went through an iron gate into a court, and across the
court to a great door, where a man came to show us the rooms. There were
a great many elegant staircases, and passage ways, and halls, with
pictures, and statues, and models of cities, and temples, and ruins, and
every thing else necessary for the students."

"Were the students there?" asked Jennie.

"No," replied Rollo; "but we saw the room where they worked, and we saw
the last lesson that they had."

"What was it?" asked Jennie.

"It was a subject which the professor gave them for a picture; and all
of them were to paint a picture on that subject, each one according to
his own ideas. We saw the paintings that they had made. There were
twenty or thirty of them. The subject was written on a sheet of paper,
and put up in the room where they could all see it."

"What was the subject?" asked Jennie.

"It was something like this," replied Rollo: "An old chestnut tree in a
secluded situation, the roots partly denuded by an inundation from a
stream. Cattle in the foreground, on the right. Time, sunset."

"And did all the pictures have an old chestnut tree in them?" asked
Jennie.

"Yes," said Rollo; "and the roots were all out of the ground on one
side, and there were cows in the foreground of them all. But the forms
of the trees, and the position of the cattle, and the landscape in the
back ground were different in every one."

"I should like to see them," said Jennie.

"Then," said Rollo, "when we came away from this place we walked along
on the quay by the side of the river, looking over the parapet down to
the bank below."

"Was it a pretty place?" asked Jennie.

"Yes," said Rollo, "a very pretty place indeed. There were great
floating houses in the water, for the baths, with wheels turning in the
current to pump up water, and little flower gardens along the brink of
the stream. At least, in some places there were flower gardens; and in
others there was a wall along the water, with boys sitting on the edge
of it, fishing. Presently we came to a place where there was an opening
in the parapet and stairs to go down to the water. You go down two or
three steps first, and then the stairs turn each way. At the turning
there was a man who had fishing poles, and nets, and fishing lines to
sell or let. He had some to let for three sous an hour. I proposed to
uncle G