Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes, Chapter VII, Paragraphs 7-16

CHAPTER 7:That night the housekeeper burned to ashes all the books that were in the yard and in the whole house; and some must have been consumed that deserved preservation in everlasting archives, but their fate and the laziness of the examiner did not permit it, and so in them was verified the proverb that the innocent suffer for the guilty.

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 7:
The housekeeper burned the books, good and bad. So we confirm that bad things happen, even to good books.

CHAPTER 8: One of the remedies which the curate and the barber immediately applied to their friend's disorder was to wall up and plaster the room where the books were, so that when he got up he should not find them (possibly the cause being removed the effect might cease), and they might say that a magician had carried them off, room and all; and this was done with all despatch. Two days later Don Quixote got up, and the first thing he did was to go and look at his books, and not finding the room where he had left it, he wandered from side to side looking for it. He came to the place where the door used to be, and tried it with his hands, and turned and twisted his eyes in every direction without saying a word; but after a good while he asked his housekeeper whereabouts was the room that held his books.

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 8:
Talk about extremes. The priest and barber/doctor wall up the door to the room where the books had been kept in hopes Don Quixote wouldn't notice that the books and the room were missing. Don Quixote, although crazy as a lemur, realized that the room was missing and asked his housekeeper where it was.

CHAPTER 9: The housekeeper, who had been already well instructed in what she was to answer, said, "What room or what nothing is it that your worship is looking for? There are neither room nor books in this house now, for the devil himself has carried all away."

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 9:
The housekeeper denies that that there was a room. But then she suggests that if there were a room, the devil has taken it away (I'm going to have to remember that one the next time someone asks me where something missing is).

CHAPTER 10: "It was not the devil," said the niece, "but a magician who came on a cloud one night after the day your worship left this, and dismounting from a serpent that he rode he entered the room, and what he did there I know not, but after a little while he made off, flying through the roof, and left the house full of smoke; and when we went to see what he had done we saw neither book nor room: but we remember very well, the housekeeper and I, that on leaving, the old villain said in a loud voice that, for a private grudge he owed the owner of the books and the room, he had done mischief in that house that would be discovered by-and-by: he said too that his name was the Sage Munaton."

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 10:
The niece poo-poo's the devil theory and suggests that a magician rode in on a snake, and made the room disappear in a puff of smoke because he was pissed at Don Quixote (I was buying this one until the snake part). The magician said his name was Sage Munaton.

CHAPTERS 11-13: "He must have said Friston," said Don Quixote.

"I don't know whether he called himself Friston or Friton," said the housekeeper, "I only know that his name ended with 'ton.'"

"So it does," said Don Quixote, "and he is a sage magician, a great enemy of mine, who has a spite against me because he knows by his arts and lore that in process of time I am to engage in single combat with a knight whom he befriends and that I am to conquer, and he will be unable to prevent it; and for this reason he endeavours to do me all the ill turns that he can; but I promise him it will be hard for him to oppose or avoid what is decreed by Heaven."

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTERS 11-13:
Don Quixote buys into the magician theory even though there is some dispute over the spelling of his name. He says the magician has a grudge against him for some great deed Don Quixote will eventually do that involves beating up a friend of the magician (these people stretch a lie to the point of breaking).

CHAPTER 14: "Who doubts that?" said the niece; "but, uncle, who mixes you up in these quarrels? Would it not be better to remain at peace in your own house instead of roaming the world looking for better bread than ever came of wheat, never reflecting that many go for wool and come back shorn?"

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 14:
The niece plays along with Don Quixte but asks him why he doesn't just stay home where he is safe rather than wandering around looking for the perfect slice of bread or going out for wool and getting your hair cut off (I think she is using analogies about fool's errands and quests for things that don't exist).

CHAPTER 15: "Oh, niece of mine," replied Don Quixote, "how much astray art thou in thy reckoning: ere they shear me I shall have plucked away and stripped off the beards of all who dare to touch only the tip of a hair of mine."

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 15:
Don Quixote starts talking trash about how he'd cut off the beards of anyone who dared try and cut his hair.

CHAPTER 16: The two were unwilling to make any further answer, as they saw that his anger was kindling.

TIM'S COMMENTS ON CHAPTER 16:
The housekeeper and niece decided the smartest thing to do at this point was shut up, because Don Quixote was getting all worked up.