Caper kept this dog in his studio, and had already made several very life-like studies of him.  One morning, leaving his lodgings earlier than usual, he met on the stairway of his house a countryman driving a goat up-stairs to be milked; the Romans thus having good evidence that when they buy goat’s milk, they don’t purchase water from the fountains.  As Caper was going out of the door that led into the street, he saw among the flock of goats assembled there, a patriarchal old Billy, whose beard struck him with delight.  He was looking at him in silent veneration, when the goats’-milk man came down-stairs, driving the ewe before him.  He asked the man if he would sell the patriarch; but found that he would not.  He promised, however, to lend him to Caper until the next day, for a good round sum, to be paid when the goat was delivered at the studio, which the man said would be in the course of an hour.

Our artist then went down to the Greco, where he breakfasted; and there met Rocjean, who proposed to him to go that morning to the Piazza Navona, as it was market-day, and they would have a fine chance to take notes of the country-people, their costumes, etc.  They first went around to Caper’s studio, where they had only to wait a short time before the milk-man came, driving the old Billy-goat up-stairs before him.  Caper made him fast with a cord to a heavy table, the top of which was a vast receptacle of sketch-books, oil-colors, books, and all kinds of odds and ends.

Rocjean and he then strolled down to the Piazza Navona, where, while walking around, Caper suddenly stumbled over the smallest and most comical specimen of a donkey he had ever seen.  The man who owned him, and who had brought in a load of vegetables on the donkey’s back, offered to sell him very cheap.  The temptation was great, and our animal artist bought him at once for five scudi, alias dollars; but with the understanding that the countryman would deliver him at his studio at once.  In twenty minutes’ time, the donkey was climbing up a long flight of stairs to Caper’s studio, as seriously as if he were crossing the pons asinorum.  Once in his studio, Caper soon made arrangements to have the donkey kept in a stable near by, when he was not sketching him.  This matter finished, Rocjean helped Caper pen him up in a corner of the studio, where he could begin sketching him as soon as he had finished portraying the billy-goat.  The patriarch had made several attempts to rush at the vetturo-dog; but the string held him fast to the table.  Rocjean mentioned to Caper that he ought to feed his menagerie, and the porter being called and sent out for some food for the goat and donkey, soon returned with a full supply.

Both artists now set to work in earnest; Caper with paints and brushes, and Rocjean with crayons and sketch-book, determined to take the patriarch’s portrait while he was in a peaceful frame of body and spirit.