ATHING-TIME

Out on the open road Don Quixote was himself again, and he turned to
Sancho and began to discourse on freedom, telling his squire that it
was more precious than anything else in the world. And he ended by
saying: "Happy he to whom Heaven has given a piece of bread for which
he is not bound to give thanks to any but Heaven itself!"

Here Sancho broke his silence, for he felt that, in spite of what his
master had just said, a good deal of thanks was due to the majordomo
for the purse with the two hundred crowns, which he was carrying like
a plaster next to his heart.

While they were conversing thus, they suddenly came to a spot from
where they could see a great many men, dressed like laborers, lying on
the grass of a meadow, and partaking of their noonday meal. Here and
there on the grass were scattered some objects or figures covered with
white cloth, and as soon as Don Quixote observed them he could
constrain himself no longer but had to learn what they were. So he
politely approached the men and asked them what was hidden underneath
the white coverings, and was told that they were images of saints that
they were transporting to their village church; and in order not to
soil them, they had covered them thus.

The man took great pride in showing our knight the figures--there were
Saint George, Saint Martin, Saint James the Moorslayer, and Saint
Paul. Don Quixote spoke learnedly on each one of them. When he had
seen them all, he bade the men cover the images with the cloths again.
Then he declared that he considered it a happy omen to have come upon
the images; for, said he, they were knights like himself. There was
this difference, however, that while he fought with human weapons,
poor sinner that he was, they used divine ones. And he added that if
only his Dulcinea could be saved from her sufferings, perhaps his own
mind might be restored to its proper function, and a desire for a
milder and better life than he was leading now be the result. At this
Sancho reverently chirped: "May God hear and sin be deaf!"

The men, having finished their repast, took leave of Don Quixote and
Sancho and continued the journey to their village. They were not out
of sight before Sancho broke loose with praise for his master, who
knew everything under the sun, it seemed. Then he added: "In truth,
master, if what has happened to us to-day is to be called an
adventure, it has been one of the sweetest and pleasantest that