grade, recommending the study of certain pictures by well-known masters. As Supervisor of Drawing I found that the children enjoyed this work but that the teachers felt incompetent to conduct the lessons as they lacked time to look up the subject and to gather adequate material. Recourse to a great many books was necessary and often while much information could usually be found about the artist, very little was available about his pictures. Hence I began collecting information about the pictures and preparing the lessons for the teachers just as I would give them myself to pupils of their grade. My plan does not include many pictures during the year, as this is to be only a part of the art work and is not intended to take the place of drawing. The lessons in this grade may be used for the usual drawing period of from twenty to thirty minutes, and have been successfully given in that time. However, the most satisfactory way of using the books is as supplementary readers, thus permitting each child to study the pictures and read the stories himself. FLORA L. CARPENTER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ STORIES PICTURES TELL [Illustration: By Permission of Braun & Co., Paris and New York ] THE GLEANERS =Questions to arouse interest.= Of what is this a picture? What are the three women doing in the field? What have they in their hands? Of what use are their aprons? Why do you think their work is hard? Why do you think they are used to it? How are they dressed? What story is told in the background? What do you suppose the man on horseback is doing? What can you see beyond the people? What time of the year is it? Is it a dark or a sunshiny day? Why do you think so? What time of day do you think it is? What country? Why do you think so? What do you like best about this picture? =Original Picture=: The Louvre (lōō′vr’), Paris. =Artist=: Jean François Millet (mē′lē′) =Birthplace=: Gruchy, France. =Dates=: Born, 1814; died, 1875. =The story of the picture.= In this picture Millet takes us out into the country, to the wheat fields. The reapers have passed over the field, cutting down the wheat with a small sickle. Although we cannot see them in the act of cutting, we know they used a sickle in those days by other pictures Millet has painted. There is one called “The Reaper” which represents a man grasping the tall stalks of wheat with one hand and cutting them close to the ground with a small sickle. Years later reapers used a “cradle,” which is a frame of wood with a long, sharp blade or knife fastened to a handle similar to a scythe handle. This frame caught the stalks of wheat as they were cut. Then by a swing of the arm they were laid in an even row. Then the rows were raked into bundles and the wheat tied into sheaves. All this was done by hand. Now we do it easily with a machine called a reaper, which cuts the wheat, binds it in a sheaf, and then throws off the bundles. The man you see on horseback, in the distance at the right, is the overseer of this field. His sharp eyes have discovered that many stalks of wheat have been left on the ground, and so he has sent the women to gather them that there may be no waste. In the background of the picture we see other women at the same task, and men busily piling...