Now that Rosa has arrived at the fame her swelling child-heart prophesied to itself before she had ascertained the path that should lead to the fulfillment of her aspirations, the richest and noblest of her countrymen are proud to place at her disposal the finest products of their farms and studs; while mules, donkeys, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, and rare poultry are offered to her from one end of Europe to the other. But it is certain that the poverty and obscurity which, during her first years of effort, compelled her to frequent _abattoirs_ and cattle-markets in search of subjects for her pencil were really of unspeakable service in forcing her to make acquaintance with a multitude of types under a variety of action and condition, such as she could never have seen in any other way, and in giving her a breadth of conception, variety of detail, and truthfulness to nature, which a more limited range of experience could not have supplied. Through all her varied studies, Raymond Bonheur was his daughter’s constant and only teacher. M. Léon Cogniet, whose pupil she is erroneously said to have been, merely took a friendly interest in her progress, and warmly encouraged her to persevere. She never took a lesson of any other teacher than her father and nature. Bonheur, with his family, now occupied small six-story rooms in the Rue Rumfort. His two sons had also devoted themselves to art under his auspices, Auguste being a painter, and Isidore a sculptor. The loving family, merry and hopeful in spite of poverty, labored diligently together in the same little studio. From daylight till dusk Rosa was always at her easel, singing like a linnet, the busiest and merriest of them all. In the evening, the frugal dinner dispatched and the lamp lighted, she would spend several hours in drawing illustrations for books, and animals for prints and for albums; or in moulding little groups of oxen, sheep, etc., for the figure-dealers--thus earning an additional contribution to the family purse.