THE ENCHANTED BARK
| humor | scene | donkey | Sancho |
| relief | leagues | armor | Dulcinea |
| patience | moored | purpose | Don Quixote |
Fair and softly, and step by step, did Don Quixote and his squire wend their way through field and wood and village and farmland. Many and strange were their adventures—so many and strange, indeed, that I shall not try to relate the half of them.
At length, on a sunny day, they came to the banks of the river Ebro. As the knight sat on Rozinante’s back and gazed at the flowing water and at the grass and trees which bordered the banks with living green, he felt very happy. His squire, however, was in no pleasant humor, for the last few days had been days of weary toil.
Presently Don Quixote observed a little boat which was lying in the water near by, being moored by a rope to the trunk of a small tree. It had neither oars nor sail, and for that reason it seemed all the more inviting.
The knight dismounted from his steed, calling at the same time to his squire to do the same.
“Alight, Sancho,” he said. “Let us tie our beasts to the branches of this willow.”
Sancho obeyed, asking, “Why do we alight here, master?”
“You are to know,” answered Don Quixote, “that this boat lies here for us. It invites me to embark in it and hasten to the relief of some knight, or other person of high degree, who is in distress.”