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"Yes, sir; it is engraved from a painting of Leonardo da Vinci."

"Can you tell me who he was?"

"Only that he was a noted painter."

"Can you tell us any thing about him, father?” asked Minnie.

"Yes, he was born in 1451, and

"What does da stand for in his name?" "Wait and I will tell you. He was a native of Vinci. Da means of. He was Leonardo of the town of Vinci."

"Ah, ha! that is it, then."

66 Though he was a painter of great eminence, he did not devote his time wholly to that art.” "What did he do?"

"He was in public life, and held some offices under the government, and the painting of the Last Supper is nearly all that remains of his works."

"Is that painting in Milan ?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"It is on the wall of an old convent of the Dominicans of Sta. Maria delle Grazie."

"Shall we see it?"

"Yes; the convent is now used for barracks, but we will go there."

After dinner they rode out, and found the

monastery, and went into the refectory where the fresco is. It has been retouched and amended until its former beauty is injured if not destroyed. Many persons were there to look at it, and the gentlemen of our party studied it for a long time.

"I remember," said Mr. Tenant, "what Prime says about the central figure in this group,the Saviour."

"What does he say?" asked Mr. Percy.

"He says, in an enthusiastic description of this picture, that the head of the Christ is the only head that ever came up to his conception of the Saviour's. Rubens and Raphael never satisfied him, but when he saw in this face the God and the man so blended, he cried out, My Lord, and my God!" "

"That is high praise, but deserved."

"Yes, I think so."

Walter bought an engraving of the painting by Raphael Morghen, and they left the monastery, and rode towards the centre of the city. As they rode along, Mr. Tenant put to Minnie the following question :

"Do you know why an establishment where bonnets are made and sold is called a millinery establishment?"

"No, sir."

"You young ladies, who deal so much in mil linery articles, should know."

"Should?" "Certainly."

"Then, perhaps, you can tell me why that uglylooking steeple top you have on your head is called hat."

"The word from which it is derived signifies to defend or ward off."

"Walter and I," said the little girl, "vote that answer unsatisfactory, because your steeple top is always in the way, an incumbrance rather than a shield. But about millinery."

"The word comes from this place. Long ago this kind of work was done here to a great extent, and thus the name Milan-ery was given to that branch of industry."

"That is a fact worth remembering."

"What will you remember most in this place?" asked Walter of his sister.

"I don't know, and I am sure I couldn't tell. What shall you remember most distinctly? "The cathedral."

"It is so unique, and unlike any thing else that we have seen, that it is engraved on my memDry; and should I live a hundred years, I should never lose from my recollection the outlines and

grand filling up of this noble structure, which I have described in a letter to mother, under the head of "POINTED GOTHIC."

The children were very sure that they should never forget this cathedral, and seldom does any one who ever looks on it forget its glorious outlines and its elaborate finish. Once seen it is never to be forgotten. It fixes itself in the mind, stamps itself in the memory, and years after the visit to Milan is made the traveller calls up, as one of the notable days of his life, that on which he stood and gazed upon that grand consummation of architectural beauty.

CR

CHAPTER II.

CROSSING THE SIMPLON.

ROSSING the Simplon! I thought you were going over the Alps," said Minnie, as the party left the hotel in Milan to take the cars for the Simplon.

"Min, you are a simple-ton!" replied Walter. "Quite complimentary, bub! But why am I a simpleton?"

"Because, after all we have talked about it, you do not understand where we are going." "We are going over the Simplon; I understand that."

"And the Simplon is a pass over the Alps, Simplon being the name of one single mountain, and Alps the name of the whole ridge."

"Ah, ha!"

"Here we are at the diligence office, an early start, five o'clock in the morning," said Mr. Tenant.

They took seats in the omnibus, and were soon on their way. The road was admirable, and the horses tolerable, and the progress about five