“‘Oh,’ replied the apprentice, ‘in our country, we do it with one heating!’ “‘Only one heating! Go to, boy, be silent then--why the thing is not possible.’ “‘Very well, you shall see, master above all other masters!’ “Jesus took a piece of iron, threw it into the forge, blew, made up the fire, and when the iron was red--red, and incandescent--he took it out with his hand. “‘Oh--poor simpleton!’ the head apprentice cried to him, ‘thou wilt scorch thy fingers!’ “‘Have no fear!’ answered Jesus. ‘Thanks to God, in our country we have no need of pincers.’ And the little workman seizes with his hand the iron heated to white heat, carries it to the anvil, and with his hammer, pif, paf, in the twinkle of an eye, stretches it, flattens it, rounds it and stamps it so well that one would have said it was cast. “‘Oh, I, too,’ said Master Eloi, ‘I could do that if I wanted to.’ “He then takes a piece of iron, throws it in the forge, blows, makes up the fire, and when the iron is red hot, goes to take it as his apprentice had done and carry it to the anvil--but he burns his fingers badly! In vain he tried to hurry, to harden himself to endure the burn, he was forced to let go his hold and run for the pincers. In the meantime the shoe for the horse grew cold--and only a few sparks burnt out. Ah! poor Master Eloi, he might well hammer, and put himself in a sweat--to do it with one heating was impossible. “‘But listen,’ said the apprentice, ‘I seem to hear the gallop of a horse.’ “Master Eloi at once stalked to the door and sees a cavalier, a splendid cavalier, drawing up at the smithy. Now this was Saint-Martin. “‘I come a long way,’ he said, ‘my horse has lost a shoe, and I am in a great hurry to find a blacksmith.’ “Master Eloi bridled up. “‘My lord,’ said he, ‘you could not have chanced better. You have come to the first blacksmith of Limousin--of Limousin and of France, who may well call himself “master of all the masters,” and who forges a shoe in two heats. Here lad, hold the horse’s hoof,’ he called. “‘Hold the hoof!’ cried Jesus. ‘In our country we do not find that necessary.’ “‘Well, what next,’ cried the master blacksmith, ‘that is a little too much! And how can one shoe a horse, in your country, without holding the hoof?’ “‘But faith, nothing is easier, as you shall see.’ “And so saying, the young man seized a knife, went up to the horse, and crack! cut off the hoof. He carried it into the smithy, fastened it in the vice, carefully heated the hoof, fastened on the new shoe that he had just made; with the shoeing hammer he knocked in the nails, then loosening the vice, returned the foot to the horse, spat on it and fitted it, saying, as he made the sign of the Cross, ‘May God grant that the blood dries up,’ and there was the foot finished, shod and healed as no one had ever seen before and as no one will ever see again.