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el ratonar del bodigo.
Como hallase el pan ratonado y el queso comido y no cayese el ratón
que lo comía, se daba al diablo. Preguntaba a los vecinos qué
podría ser comer el queso y sacarlo de la ratonera y no caer ni
quedar dentro el ratón y hallar caída la trampilla del gato.
Acordaron los vecinos no ser el ratón el que este daño hacía,
porque no fuera menos de haber caído alguna vez. Le dijo un vecino:
-En vuestra casa yo me acuerdo que solía andar una culebra, y ésta
debe ser sin duda. Y lleva razón, que, como es larga, tiene lugar
de tomar el cebo, y aunque la coja la trampilla encima, como no entre toda
dentro, tornase a salir.
Cuadró a todos lo que aquél dijo y alteró mucho a mi
amo. De ende en adelante no dormía tan a sueño suelto, que
cualquier gusano de la madera que de noche sonase pensaba ser la culebra
que le roía el arca. Luego era puesto en pie, y con un garrote que
a la cabecera, desde que aquello le dijeron, ponía, daba en la pecadora
del arca grandes garrotazos, pensando espantar la culebra. A los vecinos
despertaba con el estruendo que hacía y a mí no dejaba dormir.
Se iba a mis pajas y las trastornaba, y a mí con ellas, pensando
que se iba para mí y se envolvía en mis pajas o en mi sayo,
porque le decían que de noche acaecía a estos animales, buscando
calor, irse a las cunas donde están criaturas y aun morderlas y hacerlas
peligrar.12
Yo las más veces hacía del dormido, y en la mañana
me decía él:
-¿Esta noche, mozo, no sentiste nada? Pues tras la culebra anduve,
y aun pienso se ha de ir para ti a la cama, que son muy frías y buscan
calor.
-Plega a Dios que no me muerda
-decía yo-, que harto miedo le tengo.
De esta manera andaba tan elevado y levantado del sueño, que, mi
fe, la culebra (o el culebro,13 por mejor decir), no osaba roer
de noche ni levantarse al arca; mas de día, mientras estaba en la
iglesia o por el lugar,
hacía mis saltos. Los cuales daños viendo él, y el
poca remedio
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Inasmuch as he found the bread gnawed and the cheese
eaten and the mouse that had eaten it not having fallen into the trap, he
cursed it. He asked the neighbors how the cheese could have been eaten and taken from the trap
and the mouse not been caught nor remain inside with the trap-door having
been triggered. The neighbors agreed that it wasn't
a mouse causing the damage, because it couldn't fail to be caught eventually.
A neighbor said to him:
"In your house I remember there used to be a snake wandering about;
without a doubt this is what it must be. And it stands to reason that, as
the snake is longer, it has space to take the bait, and although the trap-door
slips over it, as all of it isn't inside, it goes back out again."
What he said squared with everyone and it much disturbed my master. From
then on he didn't sleep so easy, because any woodworm making a sound in
the night he thought to be the snake gnawing at the chest. He was on his
feet at once and, with a cudgel he had at his headboard ever since he'd
been told about the snake, he gave that sinner of a chest a good beating,
thinking to frighten the snake. The racket he made woke the neighbors and
it didn't let me sleep either. He went to my bed and messed up the straw,
and me along with it, thinking the snake would come for me and wrap around
me in my straw or in my garment, because they told him that in the night
it happens that these animals, looking for warmth, go to the crib where
there are infants, even biting them and placing them in jeopardy.12
I for the most part got to sleep and in the morning he said to me:
"Last night, boy, didn't you hear anything? I chased after the snake
and I was even thinking it had to go for you in the bed, since they are
very cold and look for warmth."
"Pray to God it doesn't bite me," I said, "as fearful as
I am of them."
In this way was he so riled up and awake, that, by my
faith, the snake (or the trickster,13 to be
more precise) didn't dare gnaw by night nor get up to the chest; but by day,
while he was in the church or out in another place, I made my assaults.
Seeing such damage and the small remedy that could be
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