sed to make beautiful the city. As they reached the tall white pile,
they noticed a man standing beside it, evidently measuring it carefully
with his eye.

"It is a fine sight," said Blessed-Eyes, "is it not?"

The man turned and looked sadly at him for a moment, then taking a
tablet from his pocket he wrote on it: "I cannot hear a word that you
say; I am totally deaf, and therefore I am the loneliest man in all the
King's realm."

Blessed-Eyes' heart was stirred with pity for the lonely man. He took
the pencil and wrote on the tablet: "You evidently have a very correct
eye for measurements."

"Yes," replied the man, as soon as he had read these words, "I can tell
the difference of a hair's breath in the height of any two lines, and I
think I could estimate the weight of any one of these great stones
within half an ounce."

At this Blessed-Eyes seized the tablet and wrote rapidly on it these
words: "You have such good eyes for measurements and weights you would
surely be a good builder. This is the King. Why do you not offer to make
for him some beautiful buildings out of this white marble?"

The lonely man's face brightened; he turned to the King. A short
consultation showed the King that he had found a treasure, and the new
architect was set to work at once drawing plans for several buildings
which were to surround a charming lake that was in the King's park.

In a few months the quiet park became the scene of busy activity. Scores
of men were laying foundations; others were hewing the white marble into
shapely blocks; others were polishing portions of it into tall and
shining white pillars, and others still, were carving beautiful capitals
for the same. All were working under the direction of the new architect
whose wonderful designs had so inspired the King that he decided to
build the grandest and handsomest group of buildings which the nations
of the earth had ever seen. When all was done and the buildings stood in
their full majestic beauty with their long colonnades shining in the
sunlight and their graceful towers rising airily in the upper air and
their beautiful gilded domes crowning all, the scene resembled
fairyland. The people could hardly believe their eyes as they wandered
through the place. They came from the farthest ends of the earth to
enjoy its beauty, for the sad and lonely deaf man had now become the
most famous architect in the whole world, and was surrounded by friends
and admirers, who