ere the workers in glass,
the people who for generations had made those wonderful coloured windows
which are the glory of French cathedrals. The glass-workers of those
days were set apart from all other traders, and in Italy as well as in
France a noble might devote himself to this calling without bringing
down on himself the insults and scorn of his friends. Still, at a time
when the houses of the poor were generally built of wood, it was
considered very dangerous to have glass furnaces, with the fire often
at a white heat, in the middle of a town, and so a law was passed
forcing them to carry on their trade at a distance. In Venice the
glass-workers were sent to the island of Murano, where the factories
still are; in Perigord they were kept in the forest, where they could
cut down the logs they needed for their kilns, and where certain sorts
of trees and ferns grew which, when reduced to powder, were needed in
the manufacture of the glass.

* * * * *

Whether the father of Palissy was a glass-maker or not--for nothing is
quite certain about the boy's early years--Bernard must of course have
had many companions among the children of the forest workers, and as he
went through the world with his eyes always open, he soon learnt a great
deal of all that had to be done in order to turn out the bits of glass
that blazed like jewels when the sun shone through them. There were
special kinds of earth, or rocks, or plants to be sought for, and when
found the glass-maker must know how to use them, so as to get exactly
the colour or thickness of material that he wanted. And when he had
spent hours and hours mixing his substances and seeing that he had put
in just the right quantity of each, and no more, perhaps the fire would
be a little too hot and the glass would crack, or a little too cold and
the mixture would not become solid glass, and then the poor man had to
begin the whole process again from the beginning. Bernard stood by and
watched, and noted the patience under failure, as well as the way that
glass was made, and when his turn came the lesson bore fruit.

But Bernard learned other things besides how to make glass. He was
taught to read and write, and by-and-by to draw. In his walks through
the woods or over the hills, his eyes were busy wandering through the
fallen leaves or glancing up at the branches of the trees in search of
anything that might be hidden there. The bright-eyed lizar