in order to speak to his friend Thomas. He had to wait a long time; but at last, the much wished-for moment of the interview arrived. 3. "Here you are, Peter; and what are you going to do in Florence?" "I ain going to learn painting." 4. "You had much better follow my example, and learn to cook; at all events, you are sure of not having to die of hunger." "You eat, then, as much as you like here ?" said Peter. 5. "I believe you," replied the little scullion; “and might give myself a fit of indigestion' every day, if I were so disposed." "In that case," replied Peter, "I see we may manage věry well. As you have too much, and I have not enough, you can find food, and I shall find appetite, and we shall get on very well together." 6. "Yes, that will do," said Thomas. "Very well, then, let it do at once," resumed Peter; "for as I have not dined, we may as well begin from this very moment the arrangement I had come to propose to you." 7. Thomas made him creep up secretly into the garret where he slept, offered him half his bed, told him to wait awhile, and that he would soon return with some of the remains of the Cardinal's dinner. We need not say whether the repast was a měrry one. Thomas had an excellent heart, and Peter an excellent appetite. 8. "Now, then, as you are well lodged, and well fed, the only question is, how are you going to work?" "Like every one else who draws with pencils and paper." 9. "But," urged Thomas, "you have money, then, to buy pencils and paper?" "I! I have no money at all; but I said to myself, as I came along, Thomas, who is a scullion in the Cardinal's kitchen, can not fail to have money; and since he is rich, it is just the same as if I were so." 10. Thomas scratched his ear, and replied that, "so far as a few bones to pick were concerned, there was no want of those in the house; but as to money, he must wait at least three years longer, before he had any right to ask for wages." 'In di ges' tion, inability to digest food; want of due preparation in the stomach PETER OF CORTONA. 63 11. Peter resigned himself to his fate. The walls of his garret were white; Thomas supplied the young artist with more charcoal than he could use for his sketches, and Peter set vigorously to work to draw on the walls. We know not by what means little Thomas succeeded in procuring a small piece of money; but the child had too good a heart to be wanting in honesty, therefore we must believe that the little scullion had legitimately' obtained the half-pistōle2 which he one day triumphantly brought to his companion. 12. What joy was there, then! The artist could now have pencils and paper. He went out at break of day to study the pictures in the churches, the monuments in the public squares, and the views around the city; and in the evening, with an empty stomach, but with a mind well filled with what he had seen, he furtively3 returned to the garret, where he was always sure to find his dinner ready, and placed by Thomas under the măt'tress, less for the purpose of concealment, than to keep it warm during his friend's absence. THE 10. PETER OF CORTONA-CONCI.UDED. HE charcoal sketches' soon disappeared under more correct designs, for Peter covered with his best drawings the walls of the narrow cell, in which the friendship of a child had afforded him so generous an asyʼlum.5 6 2. One day, the Cardinal Sachetti, whose palace was undergoing repair, visited, in company with the architect, the upper stories, to which, perhaps, he had never before ascended, and entered the garret of the little scullion. Peter was absent; but his numerous drawings sufficiently testified the laborious in'dustry of the child who inhabited this retreat. 3. The Cardinal and the architect were struck with the merits of these productions; they at first supposed Thomas to be the 'Le git' i mate ly, honestly; in a lawful manner.- Pis tòle', a gold piece of money, worth about three dollars and sixty cents.-Fur' tive ly, secretly. Sketch' es, drawings.-"A sy' lum, a safe retreat or abode.Architect (årk'e tekt), one who directs in building houses and other structures. author of them, and the prěl'ate' summoned him into his presence, in order to compliment him on his talents. When poor Thomas became aware that the Cardinal had visited his garret, and that he had seen what he called the smudges of his friend Peter, he believed himself lost. 4: "You are no longer one of my scullions," said the Cardinal to him, little thinking that the child had a fellow-lodger. Thomas, mistaking the purport of his words, imagined that his master dismissed him from his kitchen: then the poor little fellow, seeing that his own existence, as well as that of his friend, was much compromised by this act of severe justice, threw himself at his master's feet, saying: if 5. "Oh, signore! what will become of my poor friend Peter, you send him away?" The Cardinal demanded an explanation of these words, which he could not understand, and thus discovered that the drawings were the work of a little shepherd, whom Thomas had secretly maintained for two years. 6. "When he returns at night, you will bring him to me," said the Cardinal, laughing at the mistake, and generously forgiving Thomas. That evening, the artist did not make his appearance at the palace of the Cardinal; two days, a week, a fortnight, elapsed, and still nothing was heard of Peter of Cortona. 7. At length, the Cardinal, who was greatly in'terested in the fate of the young artist, succeeded in discovering that, for a fortnight, the charitable monks of an isolated' convent had received and detained with unem a young draughtsman,5 from fourteen to fifteen years of age, who had come to ask permission to copy a picture of Raphael's which was in the chapel of the cloister. This child was Peter. He was taken back to the palace of the Cardinal, who, after receiving him with kindness, placed him in the school of one of the best painters in Rome. 8. Fifty years later, there were two old men, living together 'Prel' ato, a clergyman of high rank. A cardinal is a prelate of the highest order in the Roman Church, next in rank to the Pope.-' Pur'port, meaning.- Com' pro mised, put in danger.- Is' o låt ed, separated from others; lonely.-"Draughtsman (dråfts' man), painter, sketcher. Raphael was a very eminent painter, whose works are the admiration of the worl. He lived between the years 1483 and 1520. like brothers, in one of the handsomest private dwellings of Florence. It was said of the one- "He is the greatest painter of our day;" of the other-" He will be the model of friends in all future ages." 1 I 11. THE LAST LEAF. SAW him once before, The pavement stones resound, 2. They say that in his prime, Not a better man was found 3. But now he walks the streets, And he looks at all he meets And he shakes his feeble head, 4. The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has prest In their bloom,' And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year 5. My grandmamma has said,- Long ago, 'Wan (won), pale and sickly. Mar' bles, tombstones.' Bloom vouth.-Cårved, sculptured; cut out. That he had a Roman' nose, 6. But now his nose is thin, And a crook is in his back, 7. I know it is a sin For me to sit and grin But the old three-corner'd hat, 8. And if I should live to be Let them smile as I do now, O. W. HOLMES. A 12. AMUSING ANECDOTE. YOUNG Parisian,3 going to Amsterdam, was attracted by the remarkable beauty of a house situated near the canal. He addressed a Dutchman in French, who stood near him in the vessel, with, "Pray, sir, may I ask who that house belongs to?" The Hollander answered him in his own language, “Ik kan niet verstaan" [I do not understand you]. 2. The Parisian, not doubting that he understood, took the 1Roman nose, a nose that is slightly curved like the beak of an eagle, and hence sometimes called an aquiline nose.- Breeches (brich'ez).- Par is' e an, an inhabitant of the city of Paris in France; a Frenchman.Am' ster dam, an important city, the capital of the kingdom and province of Holland |
