and overtaking him ere
he reached our garden gate, Dawson and I assured the Don we had no need
of any servant, and would be careful that Moll henceforth did no menial
office; that we would tax his generosity no more than we could help,
etc., to our great humiliation when we came to reflect on our conduct.

Thenceforth Dawson charged himself with the internal economy of the
house, and I with that part which concerned the custody and care of the
goats, the cultivation of pot-herbs and with such instruction of Moll in
the Italian tongue as I could command. But to tell the truth, we neither
of us did one stroke of work beyond what was absolutely necessary, and
especially Dawson, being past everything for indolence, did so order his
part that from having two dishes of flesh a day, we came, ere long, to
getting but one mess a week; he forcing himself and us to be content
with dates and bread for our repasts, rather than give himself the
trouble of boiling a pot. Beyond browsing my goats, drawing their milk
(the making of butter I quickly renounced), and watering my garden night
and morn (which is done by throwing water from the little stream
broadcast with a shovel on either side), I did no more than Dawson, but
joined him in yawning the day away, for which my sole excuse is the
great heat of this region, which doth beget most slothful humours in
those matured in cooler climes.

With Moll, however, the case was otherwise; for she, being young and of
an exceeding vivacious, active disposition, must for ever be doing of
something, and lucky for us when it was not some mischievous trick at
our expense--as letting the goats loose, shaking lemons down on our
heads as we lay asleep beneath it, and the like. Being greatly smitten
with the appearance of the Moorish women (who, though they are not
permitted to wander about at will like our women, are yet suffered to
fetch water from the public fountains), she surprised us one morning by
coming forth dressed in their mode. And this dress, which seems to be
nought but a long sheet wound loosely twice or thrice about the body,
buckled on the shoulder, with holes for the arms to be put through in
the manner of the old Greeks, became her surprisingly; and we noticed
then for the first time that her arms were rounder and fuller than when
we had last seen them bare. Then, to get the graceful, noble bearing of
the Moors, she practised day after day carrying a pitcher of water on
her head as