Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7Sylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
"I don't understand that way of looking at things," said Sancho; "I only
know that your ladyship will do well to bear in mind that as we were
flying by enchantment, so I might have seen the whole earth and all the
men by enchantment, whatever way I looked; and if you won't believe
this, no more will you believe that, uncovering myself nearly to the
eyebrows, I saw myself so close to the sky that there was not a palm and
a half between me and it; and by everything that I can swear by, senora,
it is mighty great! And it so happened we came by where the seven
she-goats[478-7] are, and by God and upon my soul, as in my youth I was
a goatherd in my own country, as soon as I saw them I felt a longing to
be among them for a little, and if I had not given way to it I think I'd
have burst. So I come and take, and what do I do? without saying
anything to anybody, not even to my master, softly and quietly I got
down from Clavileno and amused myself with the goats--which are like
violets, like flowers--for nigh three-quarters of an hour; and Clavileno
never stirred or moved from one spot."
"And while the good Sancho was amusing himself with the goats," said the
duke, "how did Senor Don Quixote amuse himself?"
To which Don Quixote replied, "As all these things and such like
occurrences are out of the ordinary course of nature, it is no wonder
that Sancho says what he does; for my own part I can only say that I
did not uncover my eyes, either above or below, nor did I see sky or
earth or sea or shore. It is true I felt that I was passing through the
region of the air, and even that I touched that of fire; but that we
passed farther I cannot believe; for the region of fire being between
the heaven of the moon and the last region of the air, we could not have
reached that heaven where the seven she-goats Sancho speaks of are
without being burned; and as we were not burned, either Sancho is lying
or Sancho is dreaming."
"I am neither lying nor dreaming," said Sancho; "only ask me the tokens
of those same goats, and you'll see by that whether I'm telling the
truth or not."
"Tell us them then, Sancho," said the duchess.
"Two of them," said Sancho, "are green, two blood-red, two blue, and one
a mixture of all colors."
"An odd sort of goat, that," said the duke; "in this earthly region of
ours we have no such colors; I mean goats of such colors."
"That's very plain," said Sancho; "of course there must be a difference
between the goats of heaven and the goats of the earth."
"Tell me, Sancho," said the duke, "did you see any he-goat among those
she-goats?"
"No senor," said Sancho; "but I have heard say that none ever passed the
horns of the moon."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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