His grandfather gave the lad ten shillings for writing an elegy on his grandmother.

As he handed it to him, he said; "There, that's the first money you ever earned by your poetry, and take my word for it, it will be the last." Murillo's mother had marked her boy for a priest, but nature had already laid her hand upon him and marked him for her own.

His mother was shocked on returning from church one day to find that the child had taken down the sacred family picture, "Jesus and the Lamb," and had painted his own hat on the Saviour's head, and had changed the lamb into a dog.
The poor boy's home was broken up, and he started out on foot and alone to seek his fortune.

All he had was courage and determination to make something of himself.

He not only became a famous artist, but a man of great character.
"Let us people who are so uncommonly clever and learned," says Thackeray, "have a great tenderness and pity for the folks who are not endowed with the prodigious talents which we have.