people so as to hide his deficiency. He never could make a lying-down
figure look flat. But how he could accomplish all that he did in his
pictures is more than any one can explain.

"We will now look behind this grand tomb at the foot of the stairs and
find two of Giotto's frescoes. There you see the pictures--the _Birth of
the Virgin_ and the _Meeting of St. Joachim and St. Anna_, the father
and mother of the Virgin. Do you know the story of these saints?"

"Yes," answered Malcom, "Betty read it to us last evening, for, you
see, uncle, we had been dipping just a bit, so as not to get below our
depth, into Mr. Ruskin's 'Mornings in Florence'; so we ought to be able
to understand something here, if anywhere, oughtn't we?"

"Well, look and see what you can find! I wonder what will appeal first
to each one of you!"

After a few minutes of complete silence Mr. Sumner said: "Margery dear,
I wonder what you are thinking of?"

"I am thinking, Uncle, that, just as Mr. Ruskin says, I cannot help
seeing the baby in this picture. At whatever part I look my eyes keep
coming back to the dear little thing wrapped up so clumsily, whom the
two nurses are tending so lovingly and with such reverence."

"Yes, my dear, old Giotto knew how to make the chief thing in his
pictures seem to be the most important; something that not all of us
artists of to-day know how to do by any means."

"But the pictures are so queer!" burst forth Malcom. "I do see some of