At critical moments, when the time is too short, when the hours seem rather to gallop than to walk, when human forces are at odds with the impossible in some feverish toil, very few men are endowed with sufficient strength of will to retain the hope of triumphing at last. At such moments it is simply a matter of quadrupling one's own faculties and performing a miracle. Most of the workmen were utterly discouraged and proposed to abandon that temporary structure and to conceal the opening with flowers and pictures; in short, to inflict upon the organizers of the fête the unpleasant surprise of a departure from their plans. Pier-Angelo revived the courage of those who seemed well-disposed, and set to work. Michel performed prodigies in the way of assisting them; and in ten minutes, the task which it was said would take two hours was completed as if by magic. "Michel," then said the old man, wiping his head, which was bald to the base of the skull, "I am satisfied with you, and I see that you are a good workman; which, in my eyes, is an indispensable qualification for any man who wishes to become a great artist. Everyone cannot work fast, and most of those who make haste do bad work. We must not despise them for that. In the ordinary course of affairs all work requires coolness, calculation, orderly management, foresight, in short, common sense--yes, even in loading a cart with stones, there are a thousand ways of going about it and only one right way. One man will take too many on his shovel, another not enough; one lifts his arm too high and throws the stones over the cart, another doesn't lift it high enough and throws them among the wheels. Have you never compared one thing with another and reflected, as you watched the simple work of the fields? Have you seen men digging? In that, as in everything else, there is one good workman to twenty bunglers. And who can say that the man who does as much work with the spade as four others, without tiring himself out and without losing a second, is not a superior man, who would do more difficult things admirably? Tell me, what do you think about it? For my part, I have always had that thought in my mind, and by watching the girls picking strawberries on the mountain, I can pick out the one who will best manage her house and bring up her children someday. Do you think I am talking nonsense? Answer me."