Part 30 (2/2)

Better kill me outright than break my back with other men's burdens.

Sleep is the best cure for waking troubles.

Devils, play or not play, win or not win, can never be content.

History that is good, faithful, and true, will survive for ages; but should it have none of these qualities, its pa.s.sage will be short between the cradle and the grave.

As for dying for love, it is all a jest; your lovers, indeed, may easily say they are dying, but that they will actually give up the ghost, believe it--Judas.

”Madam,” said he, ”your ladys.h.i.+p should know that the chief cause of this good damsel's suffering is idleness, the remedy whereof is honest and constant employment. Lace, she tells me, is much worn in purgatory, and since she cannot but know how to make it, let her stick to that; for, while her fingers are a.s.siduously employed with her bobbins, the images that now haunt her imagination will keep aloof, and leave her mind tranquil and happy. This, madam, is my opinion and advice.”

”And mine, too,” added Sancho, ”for I never in my life heard of a lacemaker that died for love; for your damsels that bestir themselves at some honest labor think more of their work than of their sweethearts. I know it by myself; when I am digging, I never think of my Teresa, though, G.o.d bless her! I love her more than my very eyelids.”

Railing among lovers is the next neighbor to forgiveness.

The a.s.s will carry the load, but not a double load.

When money's paid before it's due, A broken limb will straight ensue.

Delay breeds danger.

Pray to G.o.d devoutly, And hammer away stoutly.

A sparrow in the hand is worth an eagle on the wing.

”No more proverbs, for G.o.d's sake,” quoth Don Quixote, ”for, methinks, Sancho, thou art losing ground, and returning to _sicut erat_. Speak plainly, as I have often told thee, and thou wilt find it worth a loaf per cent to thee.”

”I know not how I came by this unlucky trick,” replied Sancho: ”I cannot bring you in three words to the purpose without a proverb, nor give you a proverb which, to my thinking, is not to the purpose;--but I will try to mend.”

The straw is too hard to make pipes of.

The knight and squire ascended a little eminence, whence they discovered their village; which Sancho no sooner beheld than, kneeling down, he said: ”Open thine eyes, O my beloved country! and behold thy son, Sancho Panza, returning to thee again, if not rich, yet well whipped! Open thine arms, and receive thy son Don Quixote, too! who, though worsted by another, has conquered himself, which, as I have heard say, is the best kind of victory! Money I have gotten, and though I have been soundly banged, I have come off like a gentleman.”

”Leave these fooleries, Sancho,” quoth Don Quixote, ”and let us go directly to our homes, where we will give full scope to our imagination, and settle our intended scheme of a pastoral life.”

It must here be mentioned that Sancho Panza, by way of sumpter-cloth, had thrown the buckram robe painted with flames, which he had worn on the night of Altisidora's revival, upon his a.s.s. He likewise clapped the mitre on Dapple's head,--in short, never was an a.s.s so honored and bedizened. The priest and bachelor, immediately recognizing their friends, ran toward them with open arms. Don Quixote alighted, and embraced them cordially. In the mean time, the boys, whose keen eyes nothing can escape, came flocking from all parts.

”Ho!” cries one, ”here comes Sancho Panza's a.s.s, as gay as a parrot, and Don Quixote's old horse, leaner than ever!”

Thus, surrounded by the children and accompanied by the priest and the bachelor, they proceeded through the village till they arrived at Don Quixote's house, where, at the door, they found the housekeeper and the niece, who had already heard of his arrival. It had likewise reached the ears of Sancho's wife, Teresa, who, half-naked, with her hair about her ears, and dragging Sanchica after her, ran to meet her husband; and seeing him not so well equipped as she thought a governor ought to be, she said: ”What makes you come thus, dear husband? methinks you come afoot and foundered! This, I trow, is not as a governor should look.”

”Peace, wife,” quoth Sancho; ”the bacon is not so easily found as the pin to hang it on. Let us go home, and there you shall hear wonders. I have got money, and honestly, too, without wronging anybody.”

”Hast thou got money, good husband? Nay, then, 't is well, however it be gotten; for, well or ill, it will have brought up no new custom in the world.”

All things human, especially the lives of men, are transitory, ever advancing from their beginning to their decline and final determination.

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