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 ass. He likewise clapped the
mitre on Dapple's head,--in short, never was an ass 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 ass, 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 mon