spot. The farmer replied, trembling with fear, that the
sum was not so great and asked Don Quixote to take into account and
deduct three pairs of shoes he had given the boy and a real for two
blood-lettings when he was sick. But Don Quixote would not listen to
this at all. He declared that the shoes and the blood-lettings had
already been paid for by the blows the farmer had given the boy
without cause, for, said he, "If he spoiled the leather of the shoes
you paid for, you have damaged that of his body; and if the barber
took blood from him when he was sick, you have drawn it when he was
sound; so on that score he owes you nothing."

When the farmer had heard his final judgment pronounced, he commenced
to wail that he had no money about him, and pleaded with Don Quixote
to let Andres, the lad, come home with him, when he would pay him real
by real. Upon hearing this Andres turned to our knight errant and
warned him that once he had departed his master would flay him like a
Saint Bartholomew; but Don Quixote reassured him, saying now that his
master had sworn to him by the knighthood that he, Don Quixote, had
conferred upon him, justice would be done, and he himself would
guarantee the payment.

The youth had his doubts, however, and he dared to correct Don
Quixote.

"Consider what you say, Senor," he said. "This master of mine is not a
knight; he is simply Juan Haldudo the Rich, of Quintanar."

To this Don Quixote replied that it mattered little; and the farmer
again swore by all the knighthoods in the world to pay the lad as he
had promised if he only came home.

"See that you do as you have sworn," said Don Quixote, "for if you do
not, by the same oath I swear to come back and hunt you out and punish
you; and I shall find you though you should lie closer than a lizard!
If you desire to know who it is lays this command upon you, that you
may be more firmly bound to obey it, know that I am the valorous Don
Quixote of La Mancha, the undoer of wrongs and injustices. And so, God
be with you! But keep in mind what you have promised and sworn on
pain of those penalties that have been already declared to you!"

With these words he gave his steed the spur and rode away in a
triumphant gallop, and was soon out of sight and reach. Now, when the
farmer had convinced himself that the undoer of wrongs and injustices
had entirely disappeared, he decided to give payment to the lad,
Andres, then and there, without waiting till