A few telling strokes of colour made them, and gave them a life and pertness that were clever enough.

Beneath the sketch was written, "La Demoiselle.

Des enfants du village la regardent." My great-grandfather translated this for me, and used to show me how the "little peasants," Marguerite and Celandine, were peeping in at the pretty young lady in her mauve dress striped with violet.
But every sketch had its story, and often its moral; not, as a rule, a very original one.

In one, a lovely study of ivy crept over a rotten branch upon the ground.

A crimson toadstool relieved the heavy green, and suggested that the year was drawing to a close.