In short, from the church they carried him to the court of justice; where, when they had placed him in his seat, "My Lord Governor," said the Duke's steward to him, “it is an ancient custom here, that he who takes possession of this famous island must answer to some difficult and intricate question that is propounded to him; and, by the return he makes, the people feel the pulse of his understanding, and, by an estimate of his abilities, judge whether they ought to rejoice or to be sorry for his coming." All the while the steward was speaking, Sancho was staring on an inscription in large characters on the wall over against his seat; and, as he could not read, he asked, what was the meaning of that which he saw printed there upon the wall? "Sir," said they, "it is an account of the day when your lordship took possession of this island; and the inscription runs thus: "This day, being such a day of this month, in such a year, the Lord Don Sancho Panza took possession of this island, which may he long enjoy." "And who is he," asked Sancho? "Your lordship," answered the steward; "for we know of no other Panza in this island but yourself, who now sit in this chair." "Well friend," said Sancho, "pray take notice that Don does not belong to me, nor was it borne by any of my family before me. Plain Sancho Panza is my name; my father was called Sancho, my grandfather Sancho, and all of us have been Panzas, without any Don or Donna to our name. Now do I already guess your Dons are as thick as stones in this island. But It is enough that Heaven knows my meaning; if my government happens to last but four days to an end, it shall go hard but I will clear the island of these swarms of Dons that must needs be as troublesome as so many flesh-flies. Come, now for your question, good Mr. Steward, and I will answer it as well as I can, whether the town be sorry or pleased." At the same instant two men came into the court, the one dressed like a country fellow, the other like a tailor, with a pair of shears in his hand. "If it please you, my lord," cried the tailor, "I and this farmer here are come before your worship. This honest man came to my shop yesterday, for, saving your presence, I am a tailor, and, Heaven be praised, free of any company; so, my lord, he showed me a piece of cloth. Sir,' quoth he, 'is there enough of this to make a cap? Whereupon I measured the stuff, and answered him, 'Yes, if it like your worship.' Now as I imagined, do you see, he could not but imagine (and perhaps he imagined right enough) that I had a mind to cabbage some of his cloth, judging hard of us honest tailors. 'Prithee,' quoth he, 'look there be not enough for two caps?' Now I smelt him out and told him there was. Whereupon the old knave (if it like your worship,) going on to the same tune, bid me look again, and see whether I would not make three? And at last, if it would not make five? I was resolved to humor my customer, and said it might; so we struck a bargain. "Just now the man is come for his caps, which I gave him; but when I asked him for my money, he will have me give him his cloth again, or pay him for it." "Is this true, honest man ?" said Sancho to the farmer. "Yes, if it please you," answered the fellow, "but pray let him show the five caps he has made me." "With all my heart," cried the tailor; and with that, pulling his hand from under his cloak, he held up five little tiny caps, hanging upon his four fingers and thumb, as upon so many pins. "There," quoth he, "you see the five caps this good gaffer asks for; and may I never whip a stitch more if I have wronged him of the least snip of his cloth, and let any workman be judge." The sight of the caps and the oddness of the cause, set the whole court a laughing. Only Sancho sat gravely considering awhile, and then, "Methinks," said he, "this suit here needs not be long depending, but may be decided without any more ado, with a great deal of equity; and, therefore, the judgment of the court is, that the tailor shall lose his making, and the countryman his cloth, and that the caps be given to the poor prisoners, and so let there be an end of the business." If this sentence provoked the laughter of the whole court, the next no less raised their ad miration. For, after the governor's order was executed, two old men appeared before him, one of them with a large cane in his hand, which he used as a staff. "My Lord," said the other who had none, "some time ago I lent this man ten gold crowns to do him a kindness, which money he was to pay me on demand. I did not ask him for it again in a good while, lest it should prove a greater inconvenience to him to repay me than he laboured under when he borrowed it. However, perceiving that he took no care to pay me, I have asked him for my due, nay, I have been forced to dun him hard for it. But still he did not only refuse to pay me again, but denied he owed me anything, and said that if I lent him so much money he certainly returned it. Now, because I have no witnesses of the loan, nor he of the pretended payment, I beseech your lordship to put him to his oath, and if he will swear he has paid me, I will freely forgive him before God and the world." "What say you to this, old gentleman with the staff?" asked Sancho. “Sir,” answered the old man, “I own he lent me the gold; and since he requires my oath, I beg you will be pleased to hold down your rod of justice, that I may swear upon it how I have honestly and truly returned him his money." Thereupon the Governor held down his rod, and in the mean time the defendant gave his cane to the plaintiff to hold, as if it hindered him, while he was to make a cross and swear over the judge's rod: this done, he declared that it was true the other had lent him ten crowns, but that he had really returned him the same sum into his own hands; and, that because he supposed the plaintiff had forgotten it, he was continually asking him for it. The great Governor, hearing this, asked the creditor what he had to reply? He made answer, that since his adversary had sworn it he was satisfied; for he believed him to be a better Christian than offer to forswear himself, and perhaps he had forgotten he had been repaid. Then the defendant took his cane again, and having made a low obeisance to the judge, was immediately leaving the court; which, when Sancho perceived, reflecting on the passage of the cane, and admiring the creditor's patience, after he had studied awhile with his head leaning over his stomach, and his forefinger on his nose, on a sudden he ordered the old man with the staff to be called back. When he was returned, "Honest man," said Sancho, “let me see that cane a little, I have a use for it." "With all my heart," answered the other; "sir, here it is,” and with that he gave it him, Sancho took it, and giving it to the other old man, "There," said he, "go your ways, and Heaven be with you, for now you are paid." "How so, my Lord?" cried the old man; "do you judge this cane to be worth ten gold crowns?" 'Certainly," said the Governor, or else I am the greatest dunce in the world. And now you shall see whether I have not a headpiece fit to govern a whole kingdom upon a shift." This said, he ordered the cane to be broken in open court, which was no sooner done, than out dropped the ten crowns. All the spectators were amazed, and began to look upon their Governor as a second Solomon. They asked him how he could conjecture that the ten crowns were in the cane? He told them that having observed how the defendant gave it to the plaintiff to hold while he took his oath, and then swore that he had truly returned him the money into his own hands, after which he took his cane again from the plaintiff, this considered, it came into his head that the money was lodged within the reed; from whence may be learned, that though sometimes those that govern are destitute of sense, yet it often pleases God to direct them in their judgment. Besides, he had heard the curate of his parish tell of such another business, and he had such a special memory that, were he not to forget all that he had a mind to remember, there could not have been a better in the whole island. 66 66 At last the two old men went away, the one to his satisfaction, the other with eternal shame and disgrace; and the beholders were astonished, insomuch that the person who was commissioned to register Sancho's words and actions, and observe his behavior, was not able to determine whether he should not give him the character of a wise man, instead of that of a fool, which he had been thought to deserve. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA. NOBODY. nobody's noticed you, you must be small; If nobody's slighted you, you must be tall; If nobody's bowed to you, you must be low; If nobody's kissed you, you're ugly we know. If nobody's envied you, you're a poor elf; If nobody's cheated you, you're a knave; If nobody's called you a fool to your face, Somebody's wished you back in its place; If nobody's called you a tyrant or scold, Somebody thinks you of spiritless mould. If nobody knows of your faults but a friend, Nobody will miss them at the world's end; If nobody clings to your purse like a fawn, Nobody'll run like a hound when its gone. If nobody's eaten his bread from your store, FISHING. NE morning, when spring was in her teens A morn to a poet's wishing, All tinted in delicate pinks and greens- I, in my rough and easy clothes, With my face at the sunshine's mercy: She, with her hat tipped down to her nose, And her nose tipped-vice versa ; I, with my rod, my reel and my hooks, So we sat down on the sunny dyke, Where the white pond-lilies teeter, And I went to fishing, llke quaint old Ike, And she like Simon Peter. All the noon I lay in the light of her eyes, 66 'ES," she sighed, "the world is hard, especially to the poor. I often think that the good people who eulogize work so highly do not know much of over-work." "Quite true," asserted Mrs. Sotheran. "Poor Sarah Dempster, yonder (she pointed to a neighboring tombstone), was of your opinion; her epitaph, unlike those cost of us, paints her life as it really was. If you never read it, it is worth your while to do so." The tombstone stood in a neglected corner of the churchyard, overgrown with nettles and long grasses, but its inscription was still legible: Here lies a poor woman who always was tired, Who lived in a house where help was not hired; Her last words on earth were: "Dear friends, I am going For where they don't eat there's no washing up dishes. I'm going to do nothing forever and ever." "That may not be poetry," observed Mrs. Sotheran, with unconscious plagiarism, "but it's true. There is nothing much worse than overwork." |