them were better understood. Attention to trifles is
the true art of economy.

We must, however, take care not to confound economy with parsimony.
The former means a frugal and judicious use of things without waste,
the latter a too close and sparing use of things needed. Now a person
who understands the use of little things is economical; for instance.
If you wipe a pen before you put it away it will last twice as long as
if you do not.

Generally the habits we acquire in our youth we carry with us into old
age; hence the necessity of proper training in childhood. A woman who
attends to trifles and has habits of economy will not hastily throw
away bits of cotton or worsted, nor will she waste soap by letting it
lie in the water. She will keep an eye to the pins and matches,
knowing that the less often such things are bought, the more is saved.
She will not think it above her care to mend the clothes or darn the
stockings, remembering that "_a stitch in time saves nine_."

LESSON XI

ROSA BONHEUR

Rosa Bonheur was born at Bordeaux, France, the daughter of a painter.
Her father was her first teacher in art.

At an early age, when most children draw in an aimless way, her father
guided his little girl's efforts with his own experienced hand. He
taught her to study and sketch from nature instead of relying on copies.

As a child she cared nothing for dolls and toys, but loved animals
dearly. Is it any wonder, then, that she took them for her subject
when she began to paint?

In her childhood she had two dogs and a goat for pets, and later on
kept a sheep in her Parisian apartment. Still later, when she had
become a distinguished woman, her studio included a farmyard.

Her animal paintings are so real and life-like that a study of the
faces of all the horses in that wonderful picture, "The Horse Fair,"
will reveal distinctly different expressions in each face.

Although most simple in her personal habits and in her life, Rosa
Bonheur was the greatest woman artist that ever lived.

"The Horse Fair," Rosa Bonheur's most famous painting, was bought by an
American gentleman and presented by him to the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, in New York.

LESSON XII

ALEXANDER AND THE ROBBER

_Alexander_--What! art thou that Thracian robber, of whose exploits I
have heard so much?

_Robber_--I am a Thracian, and a soldier.

_Alexander_--A soldier!--a thief, a plunderer, an assassin, the pest of
the c