A VISIT TO LA VERNIA 
knee to utter his Ave. And surely not even Raphael 
himself ever painted a sweeter and more life-like image 
of childhood than that of the radiant Child-Christ, 
who holds up his fingers to his lips and laughs for joy 
in his mother’s face. 
As in the well-known Annunciation on the Hos¬ 
pital of the Innocents in Florence, by Andrea, a tall 
white lily growing in a pot stands between Gabriel 
and the Virgin, and a frieze of classic moulding takes 
the place of the usual wreath of flowers and fruit 
that frames in the subject. 
The monk who was our guide seemed to catch a 
gleam of inspiration from these terra-cotta pictures, 
which were so familiar to him, and his bronzed face 
was lighted up with genuine pleasure as he pointed 
to the Nativity, and exclaimed : “ But see that 
Child, how natural, how expressive!—the breath 
alone is wanting.” And as we stood before the 
Ascension, he turned to the heretic Inglesi with a 
kindly smile : “ Ecco ! ” he said ; “ these are the same 
for you as for us. They are written for us all in the 
Bible ; there is nothing to separate us here.” 
He led us out on the broad piazza in front of the 
church, and after showing us many smaller chapels 
raised to commemorate different events in the life of 
Francis, he conducted us through a long covered 
cloister to the chapel erected on the site of the great 
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