CHAPTER II.

Without knowing it, I was doing what Leonardo advises--New way of decorating the walls of one's house--I wish to study design at the Academy, but cannot carry this into effect--A bottle of anise-seed cordial--Intelligent people are benevolent, not so those of mediocre minds--The statues in the Piazza della Signoria and alabaster figures--The discovery of a hidden well--My father returns home without work, and leaves for Rome--Young Signor Emilio del Fabris--Sea-baths and cholera at Leghorn--With help I save a woman from drowning--I go to San Piero di Bagno--My uncle the provost dies--My father returns from Rome, and settles in Florence--My work, a group of a Holy Family, is stolen--Description of this group, 18