This picture of "The Spinner" is only sixteen and one fourth inches high and thirteen inches wide, yet that old woman at her spinning-wheel is as much a real person in the room where she hangs on the wall as she was when Maes painted her, nearly three hundred years ago. I want you to love these little Dutch pictures; they are so honest and true and tell us about real people and real things, and they make us feel that beauty is everywhere. Now look at your grandmother as she mends your stockings and see how beautiful she is with the light on her dear old face and hair. [Illustration: FIG. 26. THE SPINNER. MAES. RYKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM] ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON VITTORE CARFACCIO (1440?-1522) St. George, a noble youth of Cappadocia, was one of the oldest and most noted of the saints. The story always told of him is his killing the dragon. Once upon a time St. George was going through Palestine on horseback when he came to the City of Beirut. There he found a beautiful young girl in royal dress weeping outside the walls of the city. When he asked her why she was crying, she told him that a terrible dragon lived in the marshes near the city. And to keep him from destroying every one in the city, each day two young girls must be fed to him. These young girls were chosen by lot, and this day she, Cleodolinda, the king's daughter, must be eaten by the dragon. St. George told her not to be afraid for he would destroy the dragon. But she cried: "O noble youth, tarry not here, lest thou perish with me! but fly, I beseech thee!" St. George answered: "God forbid that I should fly! I will lift my hand against the loathly thing, and will deliver thee through the power of Jesus Christ!" Then St. George, rushed at the dragon and thrust his spear into his mouth and conquered him. He then took the young girl's mantle and bound the beast, and she led him into the city to her father. That day twenty thousand people of the city were baptized. As time went on the name of St. George became very great. From the time that Richard I--the Lion-Hearted--placed his army under the protection of St. George the saint became the patron saint of England. In 1330 the order of the Garter, the highest order of knighthood in Great Britain, was founded and on its emblem is a picture of St. George and the dragon. Carpaccio, a Venetian artist, painted this picture of "St. George and the Dragon." He painted many other stories of saints. [Illustration: FIG. 27. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. CARPACCIO. CHURCH OF SAN GIORGIO DEGLI SCHIAVONI, VENICE] THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE JOSEPH MALLARD WILLIAM TURNER (1775-1851) Venice is a very curious city. It is really built on stilts on top of the water. Its streets are canals. Instead of having street-cars and horses and taxicabs everybody goes in long boats called gondolas. The main street in the city is the Grand Canal, and in this canal come all sorts of people with all sorts of water-crafts.