Reading Made Easy for Foreigners - Third Reader | Page 6

the value of trifles and the art of using them were better understood. Attention to trifles is the true art of economy.
We must, however, take care not to confound economy with parsimony. The former means a frugal and judicious use of things without waste, the latter a too close and sparing use of things needed. Now a person who understands the use of little things is economical; for instance. If you wipe a pen before you put it away it will last twice as long as if you do not.
Generally the habits we acquire in our youth we carry with us into old age; hence the necessity of proper training in childhood. A woman who attends to trifles and has habits of economy will not hastily throw away bits of cotton or worsted, nor will she waste soap by letting it lie in the water. She will keep an eye to the pins and matches, knowing that the less often such things are bought, the more is saved. She will not think it above her care to mend the clothes or darn the stockings, remembering that "a stitch in time saves nine."

LESSON XI
ROSA BONHEUR
Rosa Bonheur was born at Bordeaux, France, the daughter of a painter. Her father was her first teacher in art.
At an early age, when most children draw in an aimless way, her father guided his little girl's efforts with his own experienced hand. He taught her to study and sketch from nature instead of relying on copies.
As a child she cared nothing for dolls and toys, but loved animals dearly. Is it any wonder, then, that she took them for her subject when she began to paint?
In her childhood she had two dogs and a goat for pets, and later on kept a sheep in her Parisian apartment. Still later, when she had become a distinguished woman, her studio included a farmyard.
Her animal paintings are so real and life-like that a study of the faces of all the horses in that wonderful picture, "The Horse Fair," will reveal distinctly different expressions in each face.
Although most simple in her personal habits and in her life, Rosa Bonheur was the greatest woman artist that ever lived.
"The Horse Fair," Rosa Bonheur's most famous painting, was bought by an American gentleman and presented by him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

LESSON XII
ALEXANDER AND THE ROBBER
_Alexander_--What! art thou that Thracian robber, of whose exploits I have heard so much?
_Robber_--I am a Thracian, and a soldier.
_Alexander_--A soldier!--a thief, a plunderer, an assassin, the pest of the country; but I must detest and punish thy crimes.
_Robber_--What have I done of which you can complain?
_Alexander_--Hast thou not set at defiance my authority, violated the public peace and passed thy life in injuring the persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects?
_Robber_--Alexander, I am your captive. I must hear what you please to say, and endure what you please to inflict. But my soul is unconquered; and if I reply at all to your reproaches, I will reply like a free man.
_Alexander_--Speak freely. Far be it from me to take advantage of my power, to silence those with whom I deign to converse.
_Robber_--I must, then, answer your question by another. How have you passed your life?
_Alexander_--Like a hero. Ask Fame, and she will tell you. Among the brave, the bravest; among sovereigns, the noblest; among conquerors, the mightiest.
_Robber_--And does not Fame speak of me too? Was there ever a bolder captain of a more valiant band? Was there ever--but I scorn to boast. You yourself know that I have not been easily subdued.
_Alexander_--Still, what are you but a robber,--a base, dishonest robber?
_Robber_--And what is a conqueror? Have not you too gone about the earth like an evil genius, plundering, killing without law, without justice, merely to gratify your thirst for dominion? What I have done in a single province with a hundred followers, you have done to whole nations with a hundred thousand. What; then, is the difference, but that you were born a king, and I a private man; you have been able to become a mightier robber than I.
_Alexander_--But if I have taken like a king, I have given like a king. If I have overthrown empires, I have founded greater. I have cherished arts, commerce, and philosophy.
_Robber_--I too have freely given to the poor what I took from the rich. I know, indeed, very little of the philosophy you speak of, but I believe neither you nor I shall ever atone to the world for the mischief we have done it.
_Alexander_--Leave me. Take off his chains, and use him well. Are we, then, so much alike? Alexander like a robber? Let me reflect.

LESSON XIII
THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Not many generations ago, where you now sit, surrounded with all that makes life happy, the rank