At the entrance of the village, so says Cide Hamete, Don Quixote saw two boys quarrelling on the village threshing-floor, one of whom said to the other, 'Take it easy, Periquillo; thou shalt never see it again as long as thou livest.
' Don Quixote heard this, and said he to Sancho, 'Dost thou not mark, friend, what that boy said, ‘Thou shalt never see it again as long as thou livest’? ' 'Well,' said Sancho, 'what does it matter if the boy said so? ' 'What!
' said Don Quixote, 'dost thou not see that, applied to the object of my desires, the words mean that I am never to see Dulcinea more?
' Sancho was about to answer, when his attention was diverted by seeing a hare come flying across the plain pursued by several greyhounds and sportsmen. In its terror it ran to take shelter and hide itself under Dapple.
Sancho caught it alive and presented it to Don Quixote, who was saying, 'Malum signum, malum signum! a hare flies, greyhounds chase it, Dulcinea appears not.
' 'Your worship’s a strange man,' said Sancho; 'let’s take it for granted that this hare is Dulcinea, and these greyhounds chasing it the malignant enchanters who turned her into a country wench; she flies, and I catch her and put her into your worship’s hands, and you hold her in your arms and cherish her; what bad sign is that, or what ill omen is there to be found here?
' The two boys who had been quarrelling came over to look at the hare, and Sancho asked one of them what their quarrel was about.
He was answered by the one who had said, 'Thou shalt never see it again as long as thou livest,' that he had taken a cage full of crickets from the