But when Diego heard it, he said, “Nay, but I will go with thee. To save my master’s goods for his son was my work on earth; now that is fulfilled, no desire have I to continue amid its weariness and perils.”
So they left the money to found an hospital where poor orphan children might be taken in and taught the way that is right. And they went into the Sierra, and built them huts and planted them fig-trees, and passed their time in holy meditation and in praising God.
[1] Literally, a saw. Spaniards call a ridge of mountains so, from the resemblance of the outline to the teeth of a saw. [↑]
[2] “In the season of figs no one remembers his friends.” In other words, though when in want men gladly remember their acquaintance that they may apply to them for assistance, in prosperity they are as anxious to forget them, that they may not be called upon to spend for them. [↑]
[3] “In the frying, you shall see.” Equivalent to our “The proof of the pudding’s in the eating.” The following is told as the origin of this Spanish proverb:—A good housewife having frequently had occasion to find fault with the quality of the charcoal the village dealer sold her, was highly delighted when another one set up who professed to sell a better kind. “But how am I to know yours is any better?” inquired she. “Al freir, lo vereis” (“when you come to fry with it you will see if it doesn’t give a clear fire”), he replied, for as his wares were good they needed only to be proved: taberna vieja no necesita rama: good wine, or, more literally, an old established tavern, needs no bush. [↑]
[4] A short wooden column supporting an alms-box in Spanish churches. [↑]
TOO CLEVER BY HALF.
A blind beggar, who, like all other blind beggars, was led by a lazarillo[1], was once going his rounds, and directed his guide to take him past a house where he was in the habit of receiving help.