The White Stone

ated in the Greek manner, which Tafi had learned during his sojourn at Venice, where he had seen workmen busy adorning the walls of San Marco. He had even brought bac

he different parts of the human body and

i, and brought him home every evening to his own house, facing San Michele, and made him sleep there with his two apprentices, Bruno and Buffalmacco, in a room separated merely by a par

. He had never wished for better than his good wife, albeit she was by no means made and moulded by the Creator to afford any great delight to men; for she was a very dry and a very chilling personage. Then, after God had removed her from this world to a better, in his loving mercy, Andrea took no oth

d being got to bed, he never fell asleep without

o Heaven, stretch forth Thy hand full of grace and mercy to me, to lif

ber. Now it so happened Apollonius was likewise of a merry humour, every whit as ready for a jest as Bruno or Buffalmacco. All three itched sore to play off some trick on the old painter, who was a just man and a god-fearing, but hard-fisted withal and a cruel taskmaster. Accordingly one night, after listening to the old fellow's customary address to the Virgin, the three comrades fell a-laugh

tout rope and a pulley, and I undertake to give yo

sed faithfully to get him what he wanted; for they knew him to possess the merriest wit in the world and the most fertile in amusing contrivanc

he garret window, pointed the tip of one of her horns, as if in mockery, at old Tafi. They slept sound till

s! Day's come; Ph?bus has blown out the sky candles

cco he would come and start them out with a

ve you got Helen of Troy there, y

od. This done, he sallied out, to find the lads waiting on

hopped straw, pronouncing words of might known only to himself; while Bruno and Buffalmacco were picking the little cubes of stone to be used, and Tafi arranging them according to the sketch he had made on a slab of slate he held in his hand. But just when the master was busiest over the job, the three friends sprang lightly down the ladder and slipped out of the Church. Bruno went off to the house of Cal

sleeping-room from his apprentices'. Then, after passing the old lady's well-rope through the pulley, he left one end hanging down in their own chamber, while he went into his master's apartment and fastened the bed to

ged as scarcely to have noticed their ab

s creatures should which inhabit the ocean and the rivers, and which possess so marvellous a brilliancy of hues

know he was a man of wit and learning, albeit his humour was so saturnine and

this world and happiness in the next. For be sure Our Lord Jesus Christ will welcome grate

day. Presently when night came and effaced both form and colour in all the Church, he tore himself regretfully from the river Jordan and sought hi

than he made his customary

t exalted alive to Heaven, stretch forth Thy hand ful

ree companions had been eagerly

ey hauled so vigorously on the cord, that the bed fastened at the other end began to rise from the floor. Master Andrea, feeling himself being hoisted aloft, yet without s

Lady! I never asked

moothly and noiselessly over the pulley, the old man pour

! Let go, I say!" But she seemed not to hear a w

u wooden-head! Let go

e asseverated, she should give up this mischancy Assumption. Sinner that he was, and son of a sinner, he could not, and he would not, go up to Heaven before he'd finished the river Jorda

use, which cost a fine penny, will most certainly be burst up. For I see fo

to floor of the room, crashed down on the boards, breaking the legs and splitting the panels; simultaneously the bedposts toppled over and the canopy, curtains, hangings and all fell atop of Master Andrea, who, think

e bed lying smothered in clouds of dust, they feigned intense surprise, and instead of going to the old

; pull me out of thi

he was ready to suffocate, and placed him sitting up with hi

ould at this present moment be in the circle of Heaven named the crystalline or primum mobile. His holy Mother would not listen to a word. In my fall, I have lost t

y dangerous thing. At Constantinople, in the risings, I discovered how much more deadly such injuri

ly sin. But come hither, all three, and do me the servi

ll they had pretty well scarified every bit

n Florence could look Master Andrea Tafi in the face without bursting out laughing. Now one morning Buffalmacco was passing down the Corso, Messer Guido, the son o

somewhat to drink to the healt

o marshal well-arranged arguments against the existence of God. He was u

a pig being killed. This proves plainly he had no real assurance in the promised joys of Paradise-which are, it must be allowed, far from certain. In the same way as nurses tell children fairy-tales, vague things are talked concerning the immortality of mortal men

n to heaven your home."-Ode 2 o