But I got so used to drinking wine that I was dying for it.And when I saw that my straw trick wouldn't work,I decided to make a spout by carving a little hole in the bottom of the jug and then sealing it off neatly with a little thin strip of wax.When it was mealtime,I'd pretend I was cold and get in between the legs of the miserable blind man to warm up by the little fire we had.And the heat of it would melt the wax,since it was such a tiny piece.Then the wine would begin to trickle from the spout into my mouth,and I got into a position so that I wouldn't miss a blasted drop.When the poor fellow went to drink he wouldn't find a thing.He'd draw back,astonished,then he'd curse and damn the jar and the wine,not knowing what could have happened.
"You can't say that I drank it,Sir,"I said,"since you never let it out of your hand."
But he kept turning the jug around and feeling it,until he finally discovered the hole and saw through my trick.But he pretended that he hadn't found out.
Then one day I was tippling on my jug as usual,without realizing what was in store for me or even that the blind man had found me out.I was sitting the same as always,taking in those sweet sips,my face turned toward the sky and my eyes slightly closed so I could really savor the delicious liquor.The dirty blind man saw that now was the time to take out his revenge on me,and he raised that sweet and bitter jug with both his hands and smashed it down on my mouth with all his might.As I say,he used all his strength,and poor Lazaro hadn't been expecting anything like this;in fact,I was drowsy and happy as always.So it seemed like the sky and everything in it had really fallen down on top of me.The little tap sent me reeling and knocked me unconscious,and that enormous jug was so huge that pieces of it stuck in my face,cutting me in several places and knocking out my teeth,so that I don't have them to this very day.
From that minute I began to hate that old blind man.Because,even though he took care of me and treated me all right and fixed me up,I saw that he had really enjoyed his dirty trick.He used wine to wash the places where the pieces of the jug had cut me,and he smiled and said,"How about that,Lazaro?The very thing that hurt you is helping to cure you."And he made other witty remarks that I didn't particularly care for.
When I had about recovered from the beating and the black and blue marks were nearly gone,I realized that with a few more blows like that the blind man would have gotten rid of me.So I decided to be rid of him.But I didn't run away right then;I waited until I could do it in a safer and better way.And although I wanted to be kind and forgive the blind man for hitting me with the jug,I couldn't because of the harsh treatment he gave me from then on.Without any reason he would hit me on the head and yank on my hair.And if anyone asked him why he beat me so much,he would tell them about the incident with the jug:"Do you think this boy of mine is just some innocent little fellow?Well,listen and see if you think the devil himself would try anything like this."
After they'd heard about it,they would cross themselves and say,"Well--who would ever think that such a little boy would do anything like that!"
Then they'd laugh at the prank and tell him,"Go on,beat him.God will give you your reward."
And this advice he followed to the letter.
So,for revenge,I'd lead him down all the worst roads on purpose to see if he wouldn't get hurt somehow.If there were rocks,I'd take him right over them;if there was mud,I'd lead him through the deepest part.Because even though I didn't keep dry myself,I would have given an eye if I could have hurt two eyes of that man who didn't even have one.Because of this,he was always beating me with the end of his cane so that my head was full of bumps,and with him always pulling on my hair a lot of it was gone.I told him I wasn't doing it on purpose and that I just couldn't find any better roads,but that didn't do any good.The old traitor saw through everything and was so wary that he wouldn't believe me any more.
So that you can see how smart this shrewd blind man was,I'll tell you about one of the many times when I was with him that he really seemed to show a lot of perception.When we left Salamanca,his plan was to go to Toledo because the people were supposed to be richer there,although not very free with their money.But he pinned his hopes on this saying:"You'll get more water from a narrow flowing stream than you will from a deep dry well."And we'd pass through the best places as we went along.Where we were welcomed and were able to get something,we stayed;where this didn't happen,we'd move on after a few days.
And it happened that as we were coming to a place called Almorox when they were gathering the grapes,a grape picker gave him a bunch as alms.And since the baskets are usually handled pretty roughly and the grapes were very ripe at the time,the bunch started to fall apart in his hand.If we had thrown it in the sack,it and everything it touched would have spoiled.He decided that we'd have a picnic so that it wouldn't go to waste--and he did it to please me,too,since he'd kicked and beat me quite a bit that day.So we sat down on a low wall,and he said:"Now I want to be generous with you:we'll share this bunch of grapes,and you can eat as many as I do.We'll divide it like this:you take one,then I'll take one.But you have to promise me that you won't take more than one at a time.I'll do the same until we finish,and that way there won't be any cheating."
