The lad for the field and marketplace, a servant in the household of Alonso Quijano, appears in the novel's first paragraph but immediately disappears without a trace. However, one need only pay careful attention to the hidden erotic dimension of the vocabulary used in his presentation to realize that his fun-filled escapades ¿though never explicit¿ contribute to sharpening the characterization of the housekeeper, the niece, and above all, Don Quixote