e scenes. They have always
charmed me, and I hope they always will."

[Illustration: FIG. 2. THE VALLEY FARM. CONSTABLE. NATIONAL GALLERY,
LONDON]

THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH
ST. JEROME

ANTONIO ALLEGRI DA CORREGGIO (1494?-1534)

Correggio loved to paint darling babies, lovely angels, beautiful
women and splendid men. In this picture of "the Madonna and St.
Jerome," I want you specially to see St. Jerome and his lion. St.
Jerome, a very noted man who lived four centuries after Christ, was
the first person to translate the New Testament into Latin. It was
called "The Vulgate," because of its common use in the Latin Church.

When St. Jerome was thirty years old he went away from the city of
Rome and became a hermit and lived in desert places in the East. One
day, so the story goes, as he sat at the gate of the monastery a lion
came up limping as though he had been hurt. The other hermits ran away
but St. Jerome went to meet the lion. The lion lifted up his paw and
St. Jerome found a thorn in his foot. He took out the thorn and bound
up the poor paw, so the lion stayed with St. Jerome and kept guard
over an ass that brought the wood from the forest.

One day when the lion was asleep a caravan of merchants came along and
stole the ass. The poor ashamed lion hung his head before the saint,
and Jerome thought he had killed and eaten the ass. To punish him St.
Jerome had him do the work of the ass and bring the wood from the
forest. One day some time afterward the lion saw the ass coming down
the road leading a caravan of camels. The Arabs often have an ass lead
the camels. The lion knew that it was the stolen ass, so he led the
caravan into the convent grounds. The merchant found that he was
caught. St. Jerome was very glad to find that his lion was honest and
true. Whenever you see a picture of a saint with a lion you must
remember that it is St. Jerome, the great Latin scholar.

[Illustration: Courtesy of Pratt Institute

FIG. 3. MADONNA AND ST. JEROME. CORREGGIO. PARMA GALLERY, ITALY]

THE WOOD GATHERERS

JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT (1796-1875)

The picture of "The Wood Gatherers" is very precious to us. It is the
last picture Corot signed after he was confined to the bed, a few days
before he died.

A curious story is told of Corot's painting this picture. He had an
old study of another artist's of a landscape with St. Jerome at
prayer: you remember I told you the story of St. Jerome and hi