here a better; but do not
say the 'good' King Dagobert. That King had everybody who displeased him
throttled; he pillaged, he levied ransom upon the poor, and he kept a
harem like an Arabian Caliph. Listen, children. The good Eloi was born
in 588 or thereabouts, at Catalacte, a small village in the neighborhood
of Limoges. His parents were freemen, but of obscure and poor
condition."

"Father Bonaik, if Eloi was born in 588, that must have been about a
hundred and fifty years ago. That is a century and a half."

"Yes, my boys, seeing we are now almost at 738."

"And did you know him?" asked one of the lads with an incredulous smile.
"Did you know the good Eloi?"

"Certainly, I did, seeing I shall soon be ninety-six, and that he died
last century, in 659, nearly eighty years ago."

"You were then quite young?"

"I was sixteen and a half years old the last time I saw him.... His
father was called Eucher and his mother Terragie. Noticing that his son
was since early boyhood ever fashioning in wood some figure or small
utensil of pretty design, his father apprenticed him to a skilful
goldsmith of Limoges, named Master Abbon, who at that epoch also
directed the mint in the town of Limoges. After having acquired a good
deal of skill in his art, to the point that he surpassed his master,
Eloi left the neighborhood and his family, much regretted by everybody,
he being beloved by all on account of his cheerful disposition, the
mildness of his nature and his excellent heart. He went to seek his
fortune in Paris, one of the residential towns of the Frankish kings.
Eloi was recommended by his old master to a certain Bobbon, a goldsmith
and treasurer of Clotaire II. Having accepted Eloi as a workman, Bobbon
soon perceived the young man's talent. One day King Clotaire ordered a
chair of solid gold, wrought with art and ornamented with precious
stones."

"A chair of solid gold! Father Bonaik, what magnificence! Nothing is too
costly to these kings."

"Alack, my boys, the gold cost the Frankish kings in Gaul only the
trouble of picking it up, and they were not slow at it. Well, then,
Clotaire II had the fancy to own a gold chair. But nobody in the
workshops of the palace was able to accomplish such a task. The
treasurer Bobbon knew the skill of Eloi and proposed to him to undertake
the work. Eloi accepted; he went to the forge and the crucible, and out
of the large quantity of gold given for one chair he fashioned two. He
th