There is an old proverb which says : ` Everything comes to him who knows how to wait . ' It is not all men who know hot to wait , any more than it is all men who can learn by experience ; but Gilguerillo was one of the few and instead of thinking his life wasted because he could not have the thing he wanted most , he tried to busy himself in other directions . So , one day , when he expected it least , his reward came to him . He happened to be reading a book many hundreds of years old , which told of remedies for all kinds of diseases . Most of them , he knew , were merely invented by old women , who sought to prove themselves wiser than other people ; but at length he came to something which caused him to sit up straight in his chair , and made his eyes brighten . This was the description of a balsam -- which would cure every kind of sore or wound -- distilled from a plant only to be found in a country so distant that it would take a man on foot two months to go and come back again . When I say that the book declared that the balsam could heal every sort of sore or wound , there were a few against which it was powerless , and it gave certain signs by which these might be known . This was the reason why Gilguerillo demanded to see the king 's foot before he would undertake to cure it ; and to obtain admittance he gave out that he was a shoemaker . However , the dreaded signs were absent , and his heart bounded at the thought that the princess was within his reach . Perhaps she was ; but a great deal had to be accomplished yet , and he had allowed himself a very short time in which to do it . He spared his horse only so much as was needful , yet it took him six days to reach the spot where the plant grew . A thick wood lay in front of him , and , fastening the bridle tightly to a tree , he flung himself on his hands and knees and began to hunt for the treasure . Many time he fancied it was close to him , and many times it turned out to be something else ; but , at last , when light was fading , and he had almost given up hope , he came upon a large bed of the plant , right under his feet ! Trembling with joy , he picked every scrap he could see , and placed it in his wallet . Then , mounting his horse , he galloped quickly back towards the city . It was night when he entered the gates , and the fifteen days allotted were not up till the next day . His eyes were heavy with sleep , and his body ached with the long strain , but , without pausing to rest , he kindled a fire on is hearth , and quickly filling a pot with water , threw in the herbs and left them to boil . After that he lay down and slept soundly . The sun was shining when he awoke , and he jumped up and ran to the pot . The plant had disappeared and in its stead was a thick syrup , just as the book had said there would be .
He lifted the syrup out XXXXX a spoon , and after spreading it in the sun till it was partly dry , poured it into a small flask of crystal .
against as at from in of than till with within