, 'twas sour and bitterly--the smile which does not rise above
the throat--the merriment like German mourning grim. And as for the
young man, he had to leave Florence, for all of whom he would collect
money told him to go to--the monks of San Miniato!"

* * * * *

There was a curious custom, from which came a proverb, in reference to
this monastery, which is thus narrated in that singular work, _La Zucca
del Doni Fiorentino_ ("The Pumpkin of Doni the Florentine"):

"There is a saying, _E non terrebbe un cocomere all'erta_--He could
not catch a cucumber if thrown to him. Well, ye must know, my
masters and gallant signors, that our Florentine youth in the season
of cucumbers go to San Miniato, where there is a steep declivity, and
when there, those who are above toss or roll them down to those
below, while those below throw them up to those above, just as people
play at toss-and-pitching oranges with girls at windows. So they
keep it up, and it is considered a great shame and sign of feebleness
(_dapocaggine_) not to be able to catch; and so in declining the
company of a duffer one says: 'I'll have nothing to do with him--he
isn't able to catch a cucumber.'

"It is one of the popular legends of this place that a certain
painter named Gallo di San Miniato was a terribly severe critic of
the works of others, but was very considerate as regarded his own.
And having this cast at him one day, and being asked how it was, he
frankly replied: 'I have but two eyes wherewith to see my own
pictures, but I look at those of others with the hundred of Argus.'"

And indeed, as I record this, I cannot but think of a certain famous
critic who is so vain and captious that one must needs say that his head,
like a butterfly's, is all full of little _i's_.

"And this tale of two optics reminds me of the story of Messer
Gismondo della Stufa, a Florentine of Miniato, who once said to some
friends: 'If I had devoted myself to letters, I should have been
twice as learned as others, and yet ye cannot tell why.' Then some
guessed it would have been due to a good memory, while others
suggested genius, but Messer Gismondo said: 'You are not there yet,
my children; it is because I am so confoundedly cross-eyed that I
could have read in two books at once.'"

In the first legend which I narrated, the fall of the t