268 THE STORIES OF NOTED PAINTINGS. 



cheer his loneliness ; so that he was wont to say that he had two 

 daughters, two angels of comfort, the old oak and the lovely 

 girl. At the breaking up of one terribly severe winter the hermit 

 found himself surrounded by the mountain floods, and was 

 obliged to take refuge in his oak tree, where he remained three 

 days, and was finally rescued, almost perishing, by Mary and her 

 father, who had come up as soon as they were able, to see how it 

 had fared with the recluse. Everything that he had was swept 

 away, and they took the holy man home with them till they 

 could fit him up another hut in his favorite retreat. Then Father 

 Bernardo blessed his two daughters, his preservers as he called 

 them ; and it was ever his prayer that the two might be together 

 distinguished in some remarkable way. Years passed on ; the 

 hermit was gathered among the faithful, and the old oak was 

 made up into wine casks for the vine-dresser. One day as Mary,' 

 now a wife and a mother, with two beautiful boys, was sitting 

 near one of these casks, and wondering how the holy man's 

 blessing could ever be fulfilled, there came along a young man 

 whose great heavenly eyes seemed to be searching for the beauti- 

 ful. It was Raphael Sanzio. ' He stopped, and, struck with the 

 marvelous beauty of the mother and children, he asked to make 

 them the models of a madonna picture which he had long 

 desired to paint. He had only his pencil and nothing to draw up- 

 on. Turning to the smooth head of the cask near by, he sketched 

 on it the likeness of this lovely family, took it home, and there 

 brought out the famous Madonna of the Chair, probably the best 

 known of all the representations of the Virgin Mary. 



THE APPIAN WAY. 



The Yia Appia was commenced, as a military road, by Appius 

 Claudius, B. C. 212, and subsequently extended to the south of 

 Italy. In the vicinity of Rome it is lined, almost encumbered, 

 with the ruins of ancient tombs. It seems to have been a con- 

 spicuous and favorite burial place for the old Romans. Pope 

 Pius IX had it dug out and opened up as a road again, in 1850-3, 

 as far as the eleventh mile stone, and it is now one of the most 

 delightful drives out of Rome. 



