"Don Teodoro gave them to me," added the girl, "to buy myself a pair of shoes. But I do not want shoes; so I give them to you, and so you will get on faster."
"Hurrah! You are as good as the Holy Virgin, Nela—I want very little more now, and when I have got another half-dozen or so of reales—you shall see what Celipin is made of."
"Aye, and listen to me, child; the man who gave me that money ran about the streets barefoot begging when he was a boy, and now...."
"You do not mean it! Don Teodoro? And now he has such lots of money. They say six mules could not carry it all."
"Yes, and he slept in the streets, and was an errand boy, and had no breeches—in short, was poorer than a rat. And his brother, Don Cárlos, lived in an old-clothes shop."
"Lord save us! What wonderful things we live to hear of! Well, I will go and find an old-clothes shop where I can live."
"Well, and after that he became a barber to earn a living and be able to study."
"Ah...! Look here then; I have a great mind to go straight into a barber's shop; I shall soon have to shave myself, and I am brisk and quick enough, thank God!—Only wait till I get to Madrid—shaving on one hand and studying on the other, at the end of two months I will know everything. Look here, it has just struck me that I am made to be a doctor.—Yes, a doctor, what with feeling pulses and looking at tongues, that is the way to fill your pockets."
"Don Teodoro," Nela went on, "had much less than you, for you will soon have five duros, and with five duros, you can get almost everything. Don Teodoro and Don Cárlos were like the birds that fly about without house or home, all alone in the world. Well, by managing well, they got learned. Don Teodoro studied dead bodies, and Don Cárlos studied stones, and so they learnt to be gentlemen, and men of importance. And that is why Don Teodoro is such a friend to the poor. Celipin, you should have seen him this evening when he jumped me upon his shoulder—and then he gave me his cup of milk and looked at me as if I were a lady."
"All strong, active men, are the same," said Celipin sharply. "You will see how brave and fine I shall look when I wear a long cloak and a high hat; and I will wear those stockings on my hands—gloves they call them, and never take them off excepting to feel a pulse—I will have a stick with a gilt knob and will wear such clothes! nothing shall ever touch my skin but fine linen. Lord love you child! but you will laugh to see me!"