Page:The Garden of Romance - 1897.djvu/96

84 everything. And this you may take for certain, as I know it to be so, that a clergyman must be excessively good indeed, if he can oblige his flock to speak well of him, especially in country villages." "You are certainly in the right," said Don Quixote, "and pray go on, for your story is very entertaining, and you, honest Pedro, relate it with a good grace." "May I never want God's grace," said the shepherd, "for, that is the main chance; and you must know, moreover, that though the uncle proposed to his niece, and described the good qualities of each in particular who asked her in marriage, desiring her to give her hand to some one, or other, and choose for herself; she never would give him any other answer, but that she did not choose to marry, for she was too young to bear the burden of matrimony. On account of these excuses, which seemed to have some reason in them, her uncle forbore to importune her, and waited till she should have more years and discernment to make choice of her own company; for, he said, and to be sure, it was well said, that parents should never dispose of their children against their own inclinations. But, behold, when we least thought of it, the timorous Marcella, one day, appeared in the habit of a shepherdess; and without imparting her design to her uncle, or anybody in the village, for fear they might have dissuaded her from it, she took to the field with her own flock, in company with the other damsels of the village. As she now appeared in public, and her beauty was exposed to the eyes of everybody, you cannot conceive what a number of rich youths, gentlemen, and farmers, immediately took the garb of Chrysostom, and went wooing her through the fields. One of these suitors, as you have heard, was the deceased,