"Well, then, Giotto, should you like to come and live
with me, and learn how to draw, and paint sheep like this, and horses,
and even men?" The child's eyes flashed with delight, "I will go with
you any where to learn that," said he; "but," he added, as a sudden
thought made him change color, "I must first go and ask my father; I
can do nothing without his leave." "That is quite right, my boy, and so
we will go to him together, and ask him," said the stranger. It was the
celebrated painter, Cimabue. Old Bondone consented to the wish of his
son, and the boy went to Florence with Cimabue. Giotto soon went beyond
his master in his sketches. His former familiarity with nature, while
tending his sheep, doubtless contributed a good deal to his astonishing
progress. One morning the master came into his studio, and looking at a
half finished head, saw a fly resting on the nose. He tried to brush it
off with his hand, when he discovered that it was only painted, and that
it was one of the tricks of his young pupil. It was not long before the
fame of the new artist spread all over Europe.
[Illustration: GIOTTO SKETCHING AMONG HIS SHEEP.]
The author of that pleasant little book, called "Stories of the Instinct
of Animals," relates a pleasing anecdote of a sheep in England. "One
afternoon, in summer," he says, "after an illness which had confined me
some time to the house, I went out into the field, to enjoy awhile the
luxury of a walk at leisure among the beauties of nature.
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