Rueda had been in his youth a gold-beater at Seville, whence, finding in himself a strong vocation for the mimetic art, he made his escape, carrying some of the popular satiric stories in his head, and moulding them into farces. His troupe consisted of three or four male actors, one or two occasionally presenting female characters, and these were found sufficient to present a simple story in action, the manager himself being an actor of rare ability. These open air performances took a very strong hold on Cervantes' imagination. An outline is given of one of these acted fables, the precursors of the voluminous repertory furnished some years later by Lope de Vega. Rueda himself, presenting an old laborer, tired and wet, and carrying a fagot, appears before his door, and calls on his wife, who should have his supper ready. His daughter (represented by {18} a beardless youth) acquaints him that she is helping a neighbor at her skeins of silk. She is called, and a fierce scolding match ensues, he demanding his supper and vaunting the severity of his labor, she vilifying the fagot he has brought home. By-and-by the discourse falls on a little plantation of olive trees which he has just put down, and the Signora Aguéda de Toruegano forgets her anger in the anticipation of the large profits to accrue from her seedlings: "_Wife_.--Do you know, my dear, what I've been just thinking? In six or seven years our little plantation will produce four or five fanèques (about fifteen barrels) of olives, and putting down a plant now and again, we shall have a noble field all in full bearing in twenty-five or thirty years. "_Husband_.--Nothing more likely; it will be a wonder in the neighborhood. "_Wife_.--I'll gather the fruit, you'll take them to market on the ass, and Menciguela (the daughter) will sell them; but mind what I tell you, girl! you must not sell them a maravedi less than two reals of Castile the celemin (bushel). "_Husband_.--Two reals of Castile! O conscience! a real and a half [Footnote 14] will be a fair price. [Footnote 14: This has been substituted for fifteen deniers, about three farthings, the amount in M. Chasles' version.] "_Wife--Ah_, hold your tongue! They are the very best kind--olives of Cordova. "_Husband_.--Even so, a real and a half is quite enough. "_Wife_.--Ah, don't bother my head! Daughter, you have heard me; two reals of Castile, no less. "_Husband_.--Come here, child. What will you ask--the bushel? "_Daughter_.--Whatever you please, father. "_Husband_.--Just a real and a half. "_Daughter_.--Yes, father. "_Mother_.--Yes, father! Come here to me. How will you sell them the bushel? "_Daughter_.--Whatever you say, mother. "_Father_.--I promise you, my lass, two hundred stripes of the stirrup leathers, if you don't mind my directions. Now what'll be the price? "_Daughter_.--Whatever you like, father.