rd the deeds of Governor Don Sancho Panza; and before the night
was over he had given fresh proof of his wisdom, for he settled a
quarrel between two gamblers and decided to break up gambling on his
island. He kept a youth out of jail. And he restored a young girl, who
wanted to see the world as a boy, to her father.

CHAPTER L

WHEREIN IS SET FORTH HOW GOVERNOR SANCHO PANZA'S WIFE
RECEIVED A MESSAGE AND A GIFT FROM THE DUCHESS; AND ALSO
WHAT BEFELL THE PAGE WHO CARRIED THE LETTER TO TERESA PANZA

The Duchess did not forget her promise, and she sent the page who had
played the part of Dulcinea when the Devil entered a plea for her
disenchantment, with Governor Sancho's letter and bundle to his wife.
At the same time the Duchess entrusted him with a string of coral
beads as a gift from herself to Teresa Panza, with which gift went a
letter as well.

When the page reached the village of La Mancha he saw, on entering it,
some women washing clothes in a brook; and he found that one of them
was no other than the Governor's young daughter. She eagerly ran to
the good-looking young man, and, breathless with excitement at the
thought of his having news from her father, she skipped along in front
of him until they had reached their little house.

Teresa Panza was spinning, and she came out in a gray petticoat,
vigorous, sunburnt and healthy, and wanted to know what all the
excitement was about. The page quickly jumped from his horse, thrust
himself on his knees before her, and exclaimed to the bewildered
woman: "Let me kiss your hand, Senora Dona Panza, as the lawful and
only wife of Senor Don Sancho Panza, rightful governor of the island
of Barataria."

But by this time the poor woman had got over her first surprise, and
she bade him rise, saying that he should not do things like that, and
that she was only a poor country woman, and the wife of a squire
errant, not a governor. However, when the page had given her the
letters and the gifts, her doubts were crushed, and she decided that
Sancho's master must have given her husband the government he had
promised him, the one that Sancho had been talking about all the time.
And then she asked the page to read the letters to her, since she
herself had not learned that art, although she could spin, she said.

When the page had finished reading the Duchess' letter, poor Teresa
Panza was overcome with gratitude to the gracious lady who had made
her husband, a poor illit