, that is the
safest plan; for if you put her out of wooden clogs into high-heeled
shoes, out of her gray flannel petticoat into hoops and silk gowns,
out of the plain 'Marica' and 'thou' into 'Dona So-and-so' and 'my
lady,' the girl won't know where she is, and at every turn she will
fall into a thousand blunders that will show the thread of her coarse
homespun stuff."

"Tut, you fool," said Sancho; "it will be only to practice it for two
or three years, and then dignity and decorum will fit her as easily as
a glove, and if not, what matter? Let her be 'my lady,' and never mind
what happens."

"Keep to your own station, Sancho," replied Teresa; "don't try to
raise yourself higher, and bear in mind the proverb that says, 'Wipe
the nose of your neighbor's son, and take him into your house.' A fine
thing it would be, indeed, to marry our Maria to some great count or
grand gentleman who when the humor took him would abuse her, and call
her 'clown-bred' and 'clodhopper's daughter' and 'spinning-wench.' I
have not been bringing up my daughter for that all this time, I can
tell you, husband. Do you bring home money, Sancho, and leave marrying
her to my care: there is Lope Tocho, Juan Tocho's son, a stout, sturdy
young fellow that we know, and I can see he does not look sour at the
girl; and with him, one of our own sort, she will be well married, and
we shall have her always under our eyes, and be all one family,
parents and children, grandchildren and sons-in-law, and the peace and
blessing of God will dwell among us; so don't you go marrying her in
those courts and grand palaces where they won't know what to make of
her, or she what to make of herself."

"Why, you idiot and wife for Barabbas," said Sancho, "what do you mean
by trying, without why or wherefore, to keep me from marrying my
daughter to one who will give me grandchildren that will be called
'your Lordship'? Look ye, Teresa, I have always heard my elders say
that he who does not know how to take advantage of luck when it comes
to him, has no right to complain if it gives him the go-by; and now
that it is knocking at our door, it will not do to shut it out; let us
go with the favoring breeze that blows upon us." (It is this sort of
talk, and what Sancho says lower down, that made the translator of the
history say he considered this chapter apocryphal.) "Don't you see,
you animal," continued Sancho, "that it will be well for me to drop
into some profitable gov