"Thou art growing less doltish and more shrewd every day, Sancho," said

Don Quixote.

"Ay," said Sancho; "it must be that some of your worship's shrewdness

sticks to me; land that, of itself, is barren and dry, will come to yield

good fruit if you dung it and till it; what I mean is that your worship's

conversation has been the dung that has fallen on the barren soil of my

dry wit, and the time I have been in your service and society has been

the tillage; and with the help of this I hope to yield fruit in abundance

that will not fall away or slide from those paths of good breeding that

your worship has made in my parched understanding."

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Don Quixote laughed at Sancho's affected phraseology, and perceived that

what he said about his improvement was true, for now and then he spoke in

a way that surprised him; though always, or mostly, when Sancho tried to

talk fine and attempted polite language, he wound up by toppling over

from the summit of his simplicity into the abyss of his ignorance; and

where he showed his culture and his memory to the greatest advantage was

in dragging in proverbs, no matter whether they had any bearing or not

upon the subject in hand, as may have been seen already and will be

noticed in the course of this history.

In conversation of this kind they passed a good part of the night, but

Sancho felt a desire to let down the curtains of his eyes, as he used to

say when he wanted to go to sleep; and stripping Dapple he left him at

liberty to graze his fill. He did not remove Rocinante's saddle, as his

master's express orders were, that so long as they were in the field or

not sleeping under a roof Rocinante was not to be stripped--the ancient

usage established and observed by knights-errant being to take off the

bridle and hang it on the saddle-bow, but to remove the saddle from the

horse--never! Sancho acted accordingly, and gave him the same liberty he

had given Dapple, between whom and Rocinante there was a friendship so

unequalled and so strong, that it is handed down by tradition from father

to son, that the author of this veracious history devoted some special

chapters to it, which, in order to preserve the propriety and decorum due

to a history so heroic, he did not insert therein; although at times he

forgets this resolution of his and describes how eagerly the two beasts

would scratch one another when they were together and how, when they were

tired or full, Rocinante would lay his neck across Dapple's, stretching

half a yard or more on the other side, and the pair would stand thus,

gazing thoughtfully on the ground, for three days, or at least so long as

they were left alone, or hunger did not drive them to go and look for

food. I may add that they say the author left it on record that he

likened their friendship to that of Nisus and Euryalus, and Pylades and

Orestes; and if that be so, it may be perceived, to the admiration of

mankind, how firm the friendship must have been between these two

peaceful animals, shaming men, who preserve friendships with one another

so badly. This was why it was said--




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