After luncheon came a good romp in the yard. Perhaps the little dog would bite Miss Bowles's shoes and try to keep her from running. How she must have laughed!
When she went back into the house Spot went in with her. Little Miss Bowles is so afraid the artist is going to send her pet away that she holds him fast in her arms, and looks at Sir Joshua Reynolds as much as to say, "Now you can't send him away, can you?" Her eyes fairly sparkle with glee as she squeezes the little dog much too hard for his comfort. He knows that she holds him so fast because she wants to keep him, and he is glad to be with her, but oh! if she just would not squeeze quite so hard!
Show me how little Miss Bowles is sitting. I suppose she is afraid to look away even for a second for fear Sir Joshua will play some trick on her and get the little dog away. Sir Joshua painted so very fast that I don't suppose she knew just when he drew her picture, although he probably asked her to sit still when he was ready to paint. But she must have gone to his house several times before the picture was finished. Her father and mother were very much pleased with the picture, and said it looked just like their little girl.
Sir Joshua Reynolds loved the woods and nature so much that he nearly always painted them in his pictures. So in the background of this picture we catch a glimpse of the woods in the yard where the child and dog have been playing, and where they have just stopped a moment to rest.
Questions to help the pupil understand the picture. Where was this picture painted? Why was little Miss Bowles so glad to go? How did she go? What came to meet her? What color was the dog? How did he act? Who gave the dog to the artist? How did Sir Joshua Reynolds know little Miss Bowles had come? How did he tease her? What did they do after luncheon? Why did she hold the dog so fast? What can you see behind the little girl?
To the Teacher: Let the children illustrate the story of little Miss Bowles playing with her dog in the park. Use charcoal, or colored crayon, on manila paper.
The story of the artist. Sir Joshua Reynolds's father was a teacher in a private school, and to this school Joshua was sent as soon as he was old enough to study. Even when a very little boy Joshua liked to draw. He liked it so well that it was hard for him to study in school. He always saw so many things he wanted to draw that he could not wait until after school, but drew them on the back of his lesson papers. One day he drew all over his number paper, and when he handed it in his father could not read the numbers on account of the drawing. His father was disappointed because his son's paper did not look so neat as the other boys', and so he wrote at the top of the sheet, "Done by Joshua out of pure idleness."
Joshua had five brothers and sisters who liked to draw just as well as he did, and who could all draw very much better than he could. It took so much paper and so many pencils for all his children, that finally the father told them they might draw on the walls of one of the halls. The walls had been whitewashed and the children used burnt sticks for pencils.
At first the older brothers and sisters used to help little Joshua by guiding his hand, but he soon learned to draw as well as they. His first drawings had been so funny that they laughed at him, but now they praised him instead. When he was only eight years old he drew a picture that every one praised very much. It was a picture of the schoolhouse. When his father saw it he was so pleased that he said, "This is wonderful!"
In the little town where Joshua lived the people had church on Sundays, of course, and sometimes during the week. One day, Joshua went to church. At first he sat very still, but the sermon was a long one, and finally he grew so tired that he could not listen another minute. He thought he would like to draw a picture of the minister, but he had nothing to draw it on. Then he remembered that he had a pencil in his pocket, and he could draw a picture of the minister on his thumb nail; and that is just what he did.