Under his guidance Leo
studied and strove to regain their former prosperity. Laborers were
eager to resume their duties as soon as they saw the prospect of
payment. Crops became abundant. By the aid of Leo's compass--which was
only a scientific novelty yet to be discovered--mines were opened and
vast wealth displayed.
And Leo had become a different lad. No longer idle and careless, with
slow and lingering tread, he was now alert, vigorous, and manly. The
servants were glad to return and obey his wishes. The monastery was
rebuilt and repaired. Lawns and gardens were in trim array. Warm
tapestries and curtains lined the bare walls and windows, while ivy and
rose clambered without.
Even Morpheus, roused from his invalidism, rewrote his poems, sent them
to a publisher, and favored all his friends with copies bound in blue
velvet, with his monogram in silver on the covers. His pride in his son
became so great that at Leo's request he undertook to renew the library,
and the time that he had spent in bed was devoted to the step-ladder. It
was in this way he discovered that their name had been incorrectly
written. For his own part he did not care to make any change, but he
insisted that Leo should use the portion omitted, which an old copy of
the Doomsday-book had revealed to him, and sign himself in full, "Leo
Sans Lazybones.
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