SANDRO BOTTICELLI

We must now go back to the days when Fra
Filippo Lippi painted his pictures and so brought
fame to the Carmine Convent.

There was at that time in Florence a good citizen
called Mariano Filipepi, an honest, well-to-do man,
who had several sons. These sons were all taught
carefully and well trained to do each the work he
chose. But the fourth son, Alessandro, or Sandro
as he was called, was a great trial to his father. He
would settle to no trade or calling. Restless and
uncertain, he turned from one thing to another.
At one time he would work with all his might, and
then again become as idle and fitful as the summer
breeze. He could learn well and quickly when he
chose, but then there were so few things that he
did choose to learn. Music he loved, and he knew
every song of the birds, and anything connected
with flowers was a special joy to him. No one
knew better than he how the different kinds of
roses grew, and how the lilies hung upon their
stalks.

`And what, I should like to know, is going to be
the use of all this,' the good father would say
impatiently, `as long as thou takest no pains to read
and write and do thy sums? What am I to do