dressed and have the tidy
appearance which is the sign of family thrift and prosperity. The girl
has her hair brushed back smoothly from her forehead and knotted at
the back like a little woman's. She bears herself with a pretty air of
motherliness toward her brothers. Like other English village maidens,
she is skilled in all sorts of domestic duties and has few idle
moments through the day. Her sewing-basket lies beside her on the
ground, and while the dog looks after the sheep, she busies herself
with her work.

[Illustration: Fr. Hanfstaengl, photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc.
PEACE
_National Gallery, London_]

Evidently she has some knitting under way, and the work comes to a
pause while she winds a new skein of yarn. The little toddler may now
make himself useful by holding the skein. He is proud of the honor and
watches the rapidly moving thread with fascinated eyes. So deftly do
the fingers untangle the snarls that the task is converted into a game
as absorbing as a cat's cradle puzzle. Even the older lad, of the
manly age to feel himself superior to such amusements, peers over the
little one's shoulder with genuine curiosity. In the excitement of
their occupation, the little knitter's straw bonnet has slipped from
her head far down her back, leaving the plump neck exposed to the sun.

The full significance of the picture is best understood in contrast
with the companion subject, War. The two pictures have been called by
a critic "true poem-pictures." The painter means to show here that the
choicest blessing of Peace is the prosperity of the humbler classes,
who are the bulwark of the nation. Agricultural pursuits can flourish
only when arms are laid down. Happy is the land where innocent
children and dumb beasts can roam in safety over the country.

The long level stretch of land and sea adds much to the impression of
tranquillity in the picture. The imagination has a delightful sense of
liberty in great spaces. Ruskin has told us that this is because space
is the symbol of infinity. However we may explain it, we certainly
have here a pleasant sense of looking across illimitable space over a
world flooded with sunshine.

The picture recalls the stories of Landseer's first lessons in drawing
in the pastures near his boyhood home. Here he practised all day on
sheep, which are the best subjects for the beginner, because they keep
still so long! In later years his preference was for animals of
livelier