looked all round, and seeing nobody, at once dismounted from Rocinante and bade Sancho get down from Dapple and tie both beasts securely to the trunk of a poplar or willow that stood near by. Sancho asked him the reason of this sudden dismounting and tying.

Don Quixote made answer: "Thou must know, Sancho, that this bark here is plainly calling and inviting me to enter it, and in it to go to give aid to some knight or other person of distinction in need of it, who is no doubt in some sore strait; for that is the way of the books of chivalry and of the enchanters who figure and speak in them. When a knight is involved in some difficulty from which he cannot be delivered save from the hand of another knight, though they may be at a distance of two or three thousand leagues one from the other, they either take him up on a cloud, or they provide a bark for him to get into, and in less than a twinkling of an eye they carry him where they will and where his help is required; and so, Sancho, this bark is placed here for the same purpose; tie Dapple and Rocinante together and let us proceed."

"As that's the case," said Sancho, "there's nothing for it but to obey; but for all that I must warn your worship that in my opinion this bark is no enchanted one, but belongs to some of the fishermen of the river."

As Sancho said this he tied the beasts, leaving them. to the care and protection of the enchanters.

"Now they are tied," said Sancho, "what are we to do next?"

"What?" said Don Quixote, "weigh anchor; I mean embark and cut the moorings by which the bark is held; and jumping into it, followed by Sancho, he cut the rope, and the bark began to drift slowly from the bank.

When Sancho saw himself about two yards out in the river, he began to tremble and give himself up for lost; but nothing distressed him more than hearing Dapple bray and seeing Rocinante struggling to get loose, and said he to his master: "Dapple is braying in grief at our leaving him, and Rocinante is trying to escape and plunge in after us. O dear friends, peace be with you, and may this madness that is taking us away from you turn into sober sense and bring us back to you."

They now came in sight of some water-mills, and the instant Don Quixote saw them he cried out to Sancho : "Seest thou there, my friend? There stands the city, castle, or fortress, where there is, no doubt, some knight or ill-used queen in aid of whom I am brought hither."

"What is your worship talking about, señor?" said Sancho; "don't you see that those are mills to grind corn?"

"Hold thy peace, Sancho," said Don Quixote; "though they look like mills they are not so; I have already told thee that enchantments transform things and change their proper shapes."

By this time the boat, having reached the middle of the stream, began to move less slowly. The millers, when they saw the boat coming down the river, and on the point of being sucked in by the draft of the wheels, ran out in haste, several of them with long poles to stop it. They raised loud shouts, crying, "Are you mad? Do you want to drown yourselves, or dash yourselves to pieces among these wheels?"

"Did I not tell thee, Sancho," said Don Quixote at this, "that we had reached the place where I am to show what the might of my arm can do? See what ruffians and villains come out against me; see what monsters oppose me; see what hideous countenances come to frighten me! You shall see, scoundrels!"

Then standing up in the boat he began in a loud voice to hurl threats at the millers, exclaiming, " Ill-conditioned and worse-counselled rabble, restore to liberty and freedom the person ye hold imprisoned in this your fortress, for I am Don Quixote of La Mancha, for whom it is reserved to give a happy issue to this adventure."

So saying he drew his sword and began making passes in the air at the millers, who, hearing him but not understanding his nonsense, strove to stop the boat, which was now getting into the rushing channel of the wheels. Sancho fell on his knees, devoutly appealing to Heaven to deliver him from such imminent peril, which it did by the activity and quickness of the millers, who, pushing

against the boat with their poles, stopped it; not, however, without upsetting it and throwing Don Quixote and Sancho into the water.

Lucky it was for Don Quixote that he could swim like a goose, though the weight of his armor carried him twice to the bottom. The millers plunged in and hoisted them both out, and more drenched than thirsty, they were landed. The fishermen, the owners of the boat, which the mill-wheels had dashed to pieces, now came up, and seeing it smashed they proceeded to demand payment for it from Don Quixote; but he with great calmness told the millers and fishermen that he would pay for the bark most cheerfully, on condition that they delivered up to him, free and unhurt, the person or persons that were imprisoned in that castle of theirs.

"What persons or what castle art thou talking of, madman?" said one of the millers; "art thou for carrying off the people who come to grind corn in these mills?”

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"That's enough," said Don Quixote to himself; it would be preaching in the desert to attempt by entreaties to induce this rabble to do any virtuous action. In this adventure two mighty enchanters must have encountered one another, and one frustrates what the other attempts. One provided the bark for me, and the other upset me. I can do no more." And then turning toward the mills he said aloud, “Friends, whoever ye be that are immured in that prison, forgive me that I cannot deliver you

from your misery; this adventure is doubtless reserved and destined for some other knight."

So saying he settled with the fishermen, and paid fifty reals for the boat, which Sancho handed to them very much against his will, saying, "With a couple more bark businesses like this we shall have sunk our whole capital.”

The fishermen and the millers stood staring in amazement at the two figures, so very different to all appearance from ordinary men, and were wholly unable to make out the drift of the observations and questions Don Quixote addressed to them; and coming to the conclusion that they were madmen, they left them and betook themselves, the millers to their mills, and the fishermen to their huts. Don Quixote and Sancho returned to their beasts, and this was the end of the adventure of the enchanted bark.

- MIGUEL DE CERVANTES.

THE OWL

In the hollow tree in the gray old tower,
The spectral owl doth dwell;

Dull, hated, despised in the sunshine hour,
But at dusk, he's abroad and well:

Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him ;
All mock him outright by day;

But at night, when the woods grow still and dim,
The boldest will shrink away;