Stories Pictures Tell. Book 4

by Flora L. Carpenter

The story of the artist. Marie Rosalie Bonheur spent the first ten years of her life in a little country town. It was almost as good as living in the country, for Rosa and her two brothers spent most of their time in the woods or fields. At home they had lambs, rabbits, and squirrels for pets.

The father was an artist, and since he could not sell many pictures in such a little village he decided to move to the great city of Paris. The children liked the gay city with its many surprises, but they missed the woods and their pets. The first place in which they lived was up several flights of stairs and across the street from a butcher's shop. This shop had a queer sign. It was a wild boar roughly carved out of wood, but it looked so much like the little pet pig Rosa had in the country that she used to stop and pet it every time she passed that way.

A man who lived in the same house with the Bonheur family kept a small school for boys. Rosa's two brothers went to this school, and after a while the teacher said Rosa might come too. She was the only girl in the school, but she did not mind that at all. The boys were glad to have her with them, for she knew more games than they did and played just like one of them.

Her father did not do so well with his painting as he had hoped, so they moved into a cheaper house. It was here that Rosa's mother died. The father was obliged to send his children where they could be well cared for, so the baby daughter, Juliette, was sent to her grandmother, the two boys to school, and Rosa went to live with an aunt. This aunt sent her to school. To reach the schoolhouse Rosa had to walk some distance through the woods. Sometimes she would stop and smooth the dust in the road with her hand and then draw pictures in it with a stick. Even then she liked to draw pictures of animals best of all. Often she had such a good time drawing that she forgot to go to school, or was very late, so she did not get along very well and was delighted when her father came to take her home. He had married again and wanted all his children with him. How happy they were!

A great many stories have been told about the pets they kept in their house. Rosa's brother Isidore carried a little lamb on his shoulders down six flights of stairs every morning and evening, that it might nibble the green grass and be out in the fresh air. It became a great pet, and all the children drew its picture in ever so many different positions. Besides, they had a parrot, a monkey, two dogs, and some rabbits and birds for pets. Their father let them keep these pets in a room fitted especially for them.

The father taught in a private school at that time, and was away from home all day, but when he came home at night Rosa would show him what she had been doing while he was gone. Once she had been painting cherries, and her father came home while she was at work on them. He praised her very much and helped her finish painting them.

In the evening Rosa, her two brothers, and her father used to put their easels in different parts of the big room and draw and paint until it was quite late. They would all much rather do this than anything else in the world, and it was the only time their father could help them.

The father belonged to a religious order called the "Saint Simonians." The members wore queer gowns and bonnets with long tassels. Such a bonnet with a big tassel Rosa wore on the street, and sometimes boys shouted and laughed at her, but she paid no attention to that.

The father secured a teaching position in another private school and earned enough money to send his three children there and give them all they needed at home.

Rosa did not behave very well in school. Often she was punished, sometimes by being given nothing to eat but bread and water. Every one liked her, however, for she was good-hearted, kind, and full of fun. But finally she did something that could not be overlooked. This is what she did. The lady who kept the school was very fond of flowers, and above all she loved the stately hollyhocks. She had a beautiful bed of them in the front yard of the school that was very much admired by all who passed. One day Rosa had been reading in the history about war, and she thought it would be fine fun to arrange a battle between the school girls. They used wooden sticks for swords. Very soon the girls on Rosa's side drove their enemies toward the hollyhock bed, where they turned and fled. Seeing the hollyhocks standing guard like soldiers, Rosa thought it would be fun to charge upon them, which she did, cutting off all their heads with her stick. Is it any wonder she was sent home in disgrace?