– –ACT PRACTICE BATTERY 1
23 iceberg. They were merry eyes too, when he
24 laughed, but underneath was always that
25 strange cold look. There was a charm about his
26 smile which no one could resist, and he was a
27 favorite with all. Yet people shook their heads
28 sometimes as they looked at him, and they
29 talked in whispers of the old witch who had
30 lent her goat to nourish the little Leonardo
31 when he was a baby. The woman was a dealer in
32 black magic, and who knew but that the child
33 might be a changeling?
34 It was the old grandmother, Mona Lena,
35 who brought Leonardo up and spoilt him not a
36 little. His father, Ser Piero, was a lawyer, and
37 spent most of his time in Florence, but when he
38 returned to the old castle of Vinci, he began to
39 give Leonardo lessons and tried to find out
40 what the boy was fit for. But Leonardo hated
41 those lessons and would not learn, so when he
42 was seven years old he was sent to school.
43 This did not answer any better. The rough
44 play of the boys was not to his liking. When he
45 saw them drag the wings off butterflies, or tor-
46 ture any animal that fell into their hands, his
47
face grew white with pain, and he would take
48 no share in their games. The Latin grammar,
49 too, was a terrible task, while the many things
50 he longed to know no one taught him.
51 So it happened that many a time, instead
52 of going to school, he would slip away and
53 escape up into the hills, as happy as a little wild
54 goat. Here was all the sweet fresh air of heaven,
55 instead of the stuffy schoolroom. Here were no
56 cruel, clumsy boys, but all the wild creatures
57 that he loved. Here he could learn the real
58 things his heart was hungry to know, not
59 merely words which meant nothing and led to
60 nowhere.
61 For hours he would lie perfectly still with
62 his heels in the air and his chin resting in his
63 hands, as he watched a spider weaving its web,
64 breathless with interest to see how the delicate
65
thr
eads were turned in and out. The gaily
66
painted butterflies, the fat buzzing bees, the lit-
67
tle shar
p-tongued green lizards, he loved to
68
watch them all, but above everything he loved
69
the birds. Oh, if only he too had wings to dart
70
like the swallows, and swoop and sail and dart
71
again! What was the secret power in their
72
wings? Surely by watching he might learn it.
73
Sometimes it seemed as if his heart would burst
74
with the longing to learn that secret. It was
75
always the hidden reason of things that he
76
desired to know. Much as he loved the flowers
77
he must pull their petals off, one by one, to see
78
how each was joined, to wonder at the dusty
79
pollen, and touch the honey-covered stamens.
80
Then when the sun began to sink he would
81
turn sadly homewards, very hungry, with torn
82
clothes and tired feet, but with a store of sun-
83
shine in his hear
t.
84
His grandmother shook her head when
85
Leonardo appeared after one of his days of
86
wandering.
87
“I know thou shouldst be whipped for
88
playing truant,” she said; “and I should also
89
punish thee for tearing thy clothes.”
90
“Ah! But thou wilt not whip me,”
91
answered Leonardo, smiling at her with his
92
curious quiet smile, for he had full confidence
93
in her love.
94
“Well, I love to see thee happy, and I will
95
not punish thee this time,” said his grand-
96
mothe
r; “but if these tales reach thy father’s ears,
97
he will not be so tender as I am towards thee.”
98
And, sure enough, the very next time that
99
a complaint was made from the school, his
100
father happened to be at home, and then the
101
storm burst.
102
“Next time I will flog thee,” said Ser Piero
103
sternly, with rising anger at the careless air of
104
the boy. “Meanwhile we will see what a little
105
imprisonment will do towards making thee a
106
better child.”
43