Mariano made the ship himself, and painted it, adding the yellow pennant
of Spain to the mainmast.

This piece of work caused a quarrel between Grandfather Fortuny and
Father Gonzales. The priest declared that a boy like that shouldn't waste
his youth in the shabby, tumble-down village of Reus--he should go to
Barcelona and receive instruction in art.

The grandfather cried and protested that the boy was all he had to love
in the wide world; he himself was growing feeble, and without the lad's
help at the business nothing could be done--starvation would be the end.

Besides, it would take much money to send Mariano to the Academy--it
would take all their savings, and more! Do not inflate the child with
foolish notions of making a fortune and winning fame! The world is cruel,
men are unkind, and the strife of trying to win leads only to
disappointment and vain regret at the last. Did not the artist Salvio
commit suicide? Mariano had now a trade--who in Reus could make an image
of the Virgin and color it in green, red and yellow so it would sell on
sight for two pesetas?

Father Gonzales smiled and said something about images at two pesetas
each as compared with the work of Murillo and Velasquez. He laughed at
the old man's fears of starvation, and defied him to name a single case
where any one had ever starved. And as for expenses, why, he had thought
it all out: he would pay Mariano's expenses himself!

"Should we two old men, about ready to die, stand in the way of the
success of that boy?" exclaimed the priest. "Why, he will be an artist