ted
cock of Aspromonte."

"And what happened to him?"

"Only this, Signore--he was so cocky, and bent his head so far backwards,
that his spurs ran into his eyes and blinded him. Now, the cock reminds
me of Saint Peter, and too much cheek of the _ferrajo spacciato_, or the
saucy smith, who wanted to equal him.

"It happened once that the Lord and Saint Peter came to a forge, and the
smith was about to lead a horse from the stable to the anvil to shoe him.
Saint Peter said:

"'Thou hast boasted that thou art the best smith in the world, and canst
work such wonders in shoeing as man never beheld. Canst thou not shoe
this horse without taking him to the forge?'

"'Neither thou, nor I, nor any man can do it,' replied the smith.

"Saint Peter took the hoof in his left hand, gave it a rap with the side
of his right across the joint, and the hoof fell off. Then Saint Peter
carried it to the anvil, fastened a new shoe on it, returned and put it
on the horse again, who stamped with it as if nothing had happened.

"Now the smith, like all boasters, was a great fool, and he only thought
that this was something which he had not learned before, and so cried
boldly, 'Oh, that is only the Bolognese manner of taking hoofs off and
putting them on--we do it much better here in Florence!' So he seized
the horse's hoof, and with one blow of a hatchet cut it off.

"'And now put it on again,' said Saint Peter. The smith tried, but it
would not stick.

"'The horse is bleeding to death rapidly,' remarked the Saint.

"'I believe,' said the smith ruefully, 'that I am a fool in folio.'

"'_Piu matto che un granchio_--as crazy as a crawfish,' solemnly added
one of his assistants.

"'_Pazzo a bandiera_--as wild and witless as a flapping flag,' quoth
another.

"'_Matto di sette cotte_--an idiot seven times baked,' chimed in Saint
Peter.

"'A _campanile_--a church bell-tower of a fool,' contributed his wife,
who had just come in.

"The poor horse continued to bleed.

"'You are like the mouse,' added a neighbour, 'who thought because he had
dipped the end of his tail in the meal, that he owned and could run the
mill.'

"'The Florentine method of shoeing horses,' remarked Saint Peter gravely,
'does not appear to be invariably successful. I think that we had better
recur to mine.' And with this he put the hoof to the ankle, and
_presto_! the miracle was wrought again. That is the story. In most
cases, Signore, _un pazzo g