d forbid that I should fly! I will lift my hand against the loathly
thing, and will deliver thee through the power of Jesus Christ!"

Then St. George, rushed at the dragon and thrust his spear into his
mouth and conquered him. He then took the young girl's mantle and
bound the beast, and she led him into the city to her father. That day
twenty thousand people of the city were baptized.

As time went on the name of St. George became very great. From the
time that Richard I--the Lion-Hearted--placed his army under the
protection of St. George the saint became the patron saint of England.
In 1330 the order of the Garter, the highest order of knighthood in
Great Britain, was founded and on its emblem is a picture of St.
George and the dragon.

Carpaccio, a Venetian artist, painted this picture of "St. George and
the Dragon." He painted many other stories of saints.

[Illustration: FIG. 27. ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. CARPACCIO. CHURCH
OF SAN GIORGIO DEGLI SCHIAVONI, VENICE]

THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE

JOSEPH MALLARD WILLIAM TURNER (1775-1851)

Venice is a very curious city. It is really built on stilts on top of
the water. Its streets are canals. Instead of having street-cars and
horses and taxicabs everybody goes in long boats called gondolas. The
main street in the city is the Grand Canal, and in this canal come all
sorts of people with all sorts of water-crafts.

The children play in the side streets just as you do except that they
swim in the water instead of running on the ground. Even the babies
are in the water fastened to the door-steps by a rope around their
little bodies. How they do coo and gurgle as they paddle their little
hands and feet like young frogs!

Turner shows in this picture the Grand Canal filled with ships from
other countries with gaily colored flags fluttering in the breeze. Do
you see the tower at the left in the picture? That is the Campanile,
the bell-tower. This wonderful tower fell down flat in 1902. I talked
with a man who has a store just opposite the tower, a few weeks after
it fell. He said to me: "I thought it would fall on my store and
destroy everything. It began to tip; then all at once it fell flat
just where it stood." The Venetians soon built it up again.

When Napoleon, the great French emperor, took Venice, he rode up the
inclined plane of this tower on his horse and stood on the very top
overlooking the sea.

[Illustration: FIG. 28. THE GRAND CANAL. TURNER. Cou