A BLIND beggar, who, like all other blind beggars, was led by a lazarillo [1], was once going his rounds, and directed his guide to take him past a house where he was in the habit of receiving help.
The good wife of the house gave him a fried sprat [2]. The lazarillo was a mischievous urchin, and on this occasion very hungry, so he ate the sprat himself, and told the blind man they had given him nothing. The blind beggar, however, who knew the smell of fried fish well enough, charged him with the theft, and gave him a good drubbing in punishment.
Presently, as they went along, the mischievous lazarillo led him through a troop of children, running about at their play: one of them, darting between the legs of the blind man, tripped him up. "You young rascal!" exclaimed the provoked beggar; "why didn't you take better care where you led me?"
"If you were so clever at smelling the sprat,
How came it you couldn't, too, smell out the brat?"
cried the lazarillo, running off to escape a second drubbing.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The name given to a boy serving as guide to a blind man.
[2] The Spanish sprat found in great abundance in the Mediterranean, called sardina, much larger than ours, those selected for frying being generally five or six inches long.
