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n them, which she did, cutting off all their heads with her stick. Is it any wonder she was sent home in disgrace? Her father then sent her to a dressmaker to see if she could learn that trade, but Rosa did not like dressmaking and finally went home without having learned very much. Then some friends gave her some photographs to color. This she liked to do, so her father decided that the only thing to do was to let her paint. Rosa was willing to walk miles in all kinds of weather, to sit hours in all kinds of uncomfortable positions, and to go without food in order to draw a good picture of some animal. Now she began her study of animals in earnest. She went to all the country horse fairs, to the slaughter houses, and wherever there was an opportunity to study them. Rosa never had very pretty clothes. She tells us herself that one day a parrot called after her "Ha, ha! That hat!" Now that she was grown up she found she could not get about very easily in her long skirts. There were so many rough men in the packing houses and in other places where she must go to study that she obtained a permit to wear men's clothing. Her hair was short, anyway, and with her blue working blouse and dark trousers she looked just like a man. Then no one noticed her as she went about, for they thought her one of the workmen. People who knew her did not mind her dress, and were ready to help her as much as they could in her work. The first picture she exhibited was of some little rabbits nibbling carrots. Her pictures became famous the world over. From all over the country she received gifts of fine horses and other animals to paint. Buffalo Bill once sent her two fine horses from Texas. She bought a farm, and had a very large barn built where she could keep her animals. How proud her father was of her! One day she was working hard in her studio when a servant came to tell her that the Empress Eugenie had come to see her. It was a great event when this royal lady came to the artist's studio; and there was Rosa dressed in her old blue blouse covered with paint! She did not have time even to slip it off before the empress came in, but they had a most delightful visit. As the Empress Eugenie bent over and kissed Rosa Bonheur, she pinned the Cross of the Legion of Honor on the artist's blue blouse. Rosa did not notice it until after the Empress was gone. How pleased she must have been, for she was the first woman to receive that hono
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