mill-wheel comes a
monotonous music making pleasant cadence to his own woody notes, or the
blacksmith's hammer rings his cheery counterpart in their companionable
duet.

Short as is the distance between workshop and home, it provides a world
of beauty and incident; suggesting to his inventive mind the subjects
suitable for his work. Birds, beasts, and flowers are as familiar to him
as the tools with which he works, or the scent and touch of the solid
oak he handles daily. There, among the aromatic chips, he spends the
long working hours of a summer day; varied by the occasional visits of a
rather exacting Father from the neighboring monastery; or perhaps some
idle and gossiping acquaintance who looks in to hold a long parley with
his hand upon the latch. Or it may be that the mind turns to another
carver, at work in one of the many large colonies of craftsmen which
sprang up amid the forest of scaffolding surrounding the slow and
mysterious growth of some noble cathedral. Here all is organized
activity--the best men to be found in the country have been banded
together and commissioned to do their best, for what seems, in modern
eyes, a ridiculously small rate of pay. Some are well known and
recommended; others, as traveling artists, are seeking change of
experience and daily bread. Foreigners are here, from France, Italy, and
the East. All have been placed under the direction of competent masters
of their craft; men who have long since served their apprenticeship to
its mysteries, and earned an honorable position in its gilds.

Here the carver works in an atmosphere of exhilarating emulation.
Stone-carver and wood-carver vie with each other in producing work that
will do credit to their respective brotherhoods. Painter and decorator
are busy giving to the work of their hands what must have appeared to
those concerned an aspect of heavenly beauty; the most precious
materials not being considered too costly for use in its adornment.

What an interchange of artistic experience!--interchange between those
of similar craft from different countries, and the stimulating or
refining influence of one craft upon another--sculptors, goldsmiths,
wood-carvers, and painters, all uniting in a sympathetic agreement to do
their utmost for the high authorities who brought them together; with a
common feeling of reverence, alike for the religious traditions which
formed the motives of their work and the representatives of that
religion