"You have poured out a large quantity, Escalanta, my daughter; but God
will give me strength." Whereupon, without once taking breath, and at
one draught, she poured the whole from the cup down her throat. "It is
real Guadalcanal,"[29] said the old woman, when she had taken breath;
"and yet it has just a tiny smack of the gypsum. God comfort you, my
daughter, as you have comforted me; I am only afraid that the wine may
do me some mischief, seeing that I have not yet broken my fast."

[29] A favourite wine, grown on the shore of the Manzanares.

"No, mother; it will do nothing of the kind," returned Monipodio, "for
it is three years old at the least."

"May the Virgin grant that I find it so," replied the old woman. Then
turning to the girls, "See, children," she said "whether you have not a
few maravedis to buy the candles for my offerings of devotion. I came
away in so much haste, to bring the news of the basket of linen, that I
forgot my purse, and left it at home."

"Yes, Dame Pipota,"--such was the name of the old woman,--"I have some,"
replied Gananciosa; "here are two cuartos for you, and with one of them
I beg you to buy a candle for me, which you will offer in my name to the
Señor St. Michael, or if you can get two with the money, you may place
the other at the altar of the Señor St. Blas, for those two are my
patron-saints. I also wish to give one to the Señora Santa Lucia, for
whom I have a great devotion, on account of the eyes;[30] but I have no
more change to-day, so it must be put off till another time, when I
will square accounts with all."