Page:Waverley Novels, vol. 22 (1831).djvu/196

 me,” he said, “in the multitude of state affairs, yet I am well assured, that had he some pretty pastime to array for entertainment of the Queen’s Grace, horse and man would be seeking the humble cottage of Erasmus Holiday. Parvo contentus, in the meanwhile, I hear my pupils parse, and construe, worshipful sir, and drive away my time with the aid of the Muses. And I have at all times, when in correspondence with foreign scholars, subscribed myself Erasmus ab Die Fausto, and have enjoyed the distinction due to the learned under that title; witness the erudite Diedrichus Buckerschockius, who dedicated to me under that title his treatise on the letter Tau. In fine, sir, I have been a happy and distinguished man.”

“Long may it be so, sir!” said the traveller; “but permit me to ask, in your own learned phrase, Quid hoc ad Iphycli boves, what has all this to do with the shoeing of my poor nag?”

“Festina lente,” said the man of learning, “we will presently come to that point. You must know that some two or three years past, there came to these parts one who called himself Doctor Doboobie, although it may be he never wrote even Magister artium, save in right of his hungry belly. Or it may be, that if he had any degrees, they were of the devil’s giving, for he was what the vulgar call a white witch—a cunning man, and such like.—Now, good sir, I perceive you are impatient; but if a man tell not his tale his own way, how have you warrant to think that he can tell it in yours?”

“Well, then, learned sir, take your way,” answer-