For when I do that, I rise next morning feeling free and
refreshed, like a man that has just eaten a water-melon; for what I
have to do and how it is to be done is all as plain to my sight as
this _mate_-cup I hold in my hand.
"In this difficulty I therefore resolved to take the subject of the
horses to bed with me, and to say, 'Here I have you and you shall not
escape from me.' But about supper-time Manuel came in to molest me,
and sat in the kitchen with a sad face, like a prisoner under sentence
of death.
"'If Providence is angry against the entire human race,' said he, 'and
is anxious to make an example, I know not for what reason so harmless
and obscure a person as I am should have been selected.'
"'What would you have, Manuel?' I replied. 'Wise men tell us that
Providence sends us misfortunes for our good.'
"'True, I agree with you,' he said. 'It is not for me to doubt it, for
what can be said of that soldier who finds fault with the measures of
his commander? But you know, Anselmo, the man I am, and it is bitter
that these troubles should fall on one who has never offended except
in being always poor.'
"The vulture,' said I, 'ever preys on the weak and ailing.'
"'First I lose everything,' he continued, 'then this woman must fall
ill of a calenture; and now I am forced to believe that even my credit
is gone, since I cannot borrow the money I require.
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