Latin American Folktales by John Bierhorst

does Doña Fortuna think she is? Why should I go back to her? With a sack full of money I don’t need anyone.”
    He walked on. Then wouldn’t you know, the knapsack got tangled in a vine. The vine pulled down a wasps’ nest, and the wasps stung him. He ran out of the woods as fast as he could, but when he reached the cleared fields, he discovered the knapsack had fallen off somewhere. He went back but couldn’t find it. Something he didn’t know: the wasps were thieves in disguise.
    He returned sadly to the lady and told her what had happened. She said, “Don’t worry about losing the money. Just go home.”
    The man had a neighbor who was better off than he was, thanks to Doña Fortuna, who took good care of him. After the poor man had left, the lady sent this neighbor a basket of bananas. Hidden under the bananas was the poor man’s knapsack with all the money. Not realizing the money was there, and knowing that his neighbor was in need, the good man told the messenger to take the bananas to his friend. “He is worse off than I am,” he said.
    The poor man was pleased with the gift. And when he took out the bananas, there was the knapsack. He was amazed. He hid the money and said nothing to his family. He ran to Doña Fortuna. “Now I know there’s a God. And you! You knew the truth. Without luck, there can’t be money.”
    The lady looked at him kindly. “Since you are repentant, I am going to tell you something. Find yourself a piece of land, whatever it costs, and offer to buy it. When you’ve made a deal, come to me for the purchase price.”
    The man went to see a landowner who owned a finca worth fifteen thousand pesos. The owner said to him, “If you bring me the money this afternoon, I’ll give you my land for five thousand.” He only said it to mock the poor man. But the poor man said, “It’s a deal.” And in no time at all the man who had been poor became rich.
    Don Dinero turned to Doña Fortuna and said, “That man was so poor, now he’s so rich!”
    “Yes,” said Doña Fortuna, “but it was only to prove that without my good fortune your money is nothing.”
    Dominican Republic / José Guzmán Ribera

7. Mistress Lucía
    Very well then. Here was a king who wished to marry the most beautiful woman in the world, and with that in mind he left his kingdom and took to the road. He looked everywhere and tried all the different countries. But although he was shown the prettiest young women, he was quick to see their faults and kept putting off a decision. At last, tired of the traveling and the disappointments, he decided to go home and forget the whole matter.
    After he had been back awhile, it happened that a peddler arrived in the kingdom selling picture postcards and all kinds of portraits. Down the street he came, wheeling his cart with the little portraits arranged under an open umbrella. And who but the king should be on hand to hear his cry:
    “Get your portraits! Portraits here! Pretty faces ready to go, some not so pretty, and some so-so. Portraits! Get your portraits!”
    The king called the man over, took a look at the portraits, and saw one that pleased him. The longer he looked at it, the more he liked it. Unable to take his eyes off it, he asked who the young woman was and where she lived.
    “Sacred and Royal Majesty,” said the peddler, “she whom you admire is the mistress Lucía, who lives in the town of La Cañada. I must tell you, she’s an orphan, whose brother Juan watches over her closely. In fact he lets her come out on her balcony only one day a year. I myself have never seen her, but those who have spend the entire year waiting for the day to come round again.”
    Hearing this, and already smitten by the portrait, the king suffered an attack of lovesickness and had to retire to his chambers, where he immediately dispatched messengers to find the young man named Juan and to ask him for the hand of his sister Lucía.
    When Juan had been brought to the palace and