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 Calendrino, outside the walls, in
search of a pulley that was used for hoisting corn into the granary. At
the same time Apollonius hurried away to Ripoli to see an old lady, the
wife of a Judge, whom he had promised to provide with a philtre to draw
lovers to her side, and persuading her that hemp was indispensable for
compounding the potion, got her to hand him over the well-rope, a good
stout piece of cord.

The two friends next met at Tafi's house, where they found Buffalmacco
awaiting them. The latter at once set to work to attach the pulley
firmly to the king-post of the roof, above the partition separating the
master's 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 the other extremity, by each corner. He took good
care the rope should be concealed behind the curtains, so that nothing
out of the way might be visible. When all was done, the three companions
went back to San Giovanni.

The old man, who had been so busily engaged as scarcely to have noticed
their absence, addressed them with a beaming face:

"Look you," he said, "how those fish sparkle with divers colours, and
particularly with gold, purple and blue, as creatures should which
inhabit the ocean and the rivers, and which possess so marvellous a