he truest artists would listen to them and so gain something.

"But we must get to Giotto again. I have told you what he tried to
paint, but you will see that he could not do all this in the least as if
he had been taught in our art-schools of to-day. How little could
Cimabue teach him! His hills and rocks are parodies of nature. He knew
not how to draw feet, and would put long gowns or stockings on his
people so as to hide his deficiency. He never could make a lying-down
figure look flat. But how he could accomplish all that he did in his
pictures is more than any one can explain.

"We will now look behind this grand tomb at the foot of the stairs and
find two of Giotto's frescoes. There you see the pictures--the _Birth of
the Virgin_ and the _Meeting of St. Joachim and St. Anna_, the father
and mother of the Virgin. Do you know the story of these saints?"

"Yes," answered Malcom, "Betty read it to us last evening, for, you
see, uncle, we had been dipping just a bit, so as not to get below our
depth, into Mr. Ruskin's 'Mornings in Florence'; so we ought to be able
to understand something here, if anywhere, oughtn't we?"

"Well, look and see what you can find! I wonder what will appeal first
to each one of you!"

After a few minutes of complete silence Mr. Sumner said: "Margery dear,
I wonder what you are thinking of?"

"I am thinking, Uncle, that, just as Mr. Ruskin says, I cannot help
seeing the baby in this picture. At whatever part I look my eyes keep
coming back to the dear little thing wrapped up so clumsily, whom the
two nurses are tending so lovingly and with such reverence."

"Yes, my dear, old Giotto knew how to make the chief thing in his
pictures seem to be the most important; something that not all of us
artists of to-day know how to do by any means."

"But the pictures are so queer!" burst forth Malcom. "I do see some of
the fine things of which you speak, Uncle Robert, but there are so many
almost ridiculous things; the shepherds that are following St.
Joachim--do look at the feet of the first one; and the second has on
stockings. I can see the different lines that poor old Giotto drew when
he was struggling over those first feet; I wonder if he put the others
into stockings just to save trying to draw them. And the funny lamb in
the arms of the first shepherd; and the queer, stiff sprigs of grass
which are growing up in all sorts of places! and the angel coming out of
the cloud! and--"

"Do sto