to pieces.
Give one stripe time to await another. Thou shouldst not so hurry in
the race that thy breath fails in the midst; go more gently to work,
soft and fair goes furthest; I mean, do not give it thyself so sharply
that strength fails thee before the desired number is reached. And
that you lose not for a card more or less, I will stand at a distance
and keep count on my beads of the strokes thou givest thyself. Heaven
favor thee as thy good intention deserves."--"Pledges do not hurt a
good payer," said Sancho, "I mean to give it to myself in such a way
that it hurts without killing me, for in this must lie the essence of
this miracle." With that he stripped himself from the waist upwards,
and seizing the lash began to lay on; while Don Quixote began to tell
the strokes. But by the time Sancho had applied seven or eight lashes,
he felt that the jest was a heavy one, and its price very cheap.
Whereupon, after a short pause, he told his master that he had been
deceived; for such lashes as these were each worth being paid for with
a half-real, not a quartillo. "Go on, friend Sancho," said Don Quixote,
"take courage, I will double the pay."--"God save us, let it rain
stripes in that case," quoth Sancho. But the cunning knave left off
laying on his back, and fell upon the trees, with groans every now and
then, that one would have thought at each one of them he had been
giving up the ghost. Don Quixote, who was tender-hearted, fearing he
might make an end of his life, and that, by Sancho's imprudence, his
wishes should not be attained, said, "On thy life, my friend, let this
business rest at this point. This seems to be a very sharp sort of
physic, and it will be well to take it at intervals. Rome was not
built in a day. If I have not told wrong, thou hast given thyself
above a thousand stripes; that is enough for the present; for, to use
a homely phrase, 'the ass will carry his load, but not more than his
load.'"--"No, no," quoth Sancho, "it shall never be said of me, 'When
money's paid the arms are stayed.' Stand off a little, and let me lay
on another thousand lashes or so, and then with another bout like this
we shall have done with this job, and have something over."--"Since
thou art so well in the humor," said Don Quixote, "I will withdraw,
and Heaven strengthen and reward thee." Sancho fell to work so freshly
that he soon fetched the bark off a number of trees; such was the
severity with which he thrashed them! At l