76 WINTER TALKS ON SUMMER PASTIMES. 



know, who are really 'talked out' before they begin to talk 

 at all, because they never have anything either useful or 

 edifying to say. " 



"That's all very well, but for my part, when I am in the 

 woods 1 don't care to be very 'edifying' myself nor to be 

 very greatly edified by others, if by 'edifying* you mean 

 only such conversation as would be expected from a party 

 of monks in a cloister or of a bevy of savans in a salon." 



"Nor do I, for I don't go to the woods myself to be super- 

 latively grave, but to be innocently happy. My companion 

 is aufait in all the intricacies of the law, in all the mysteries 

 of the sciences, and, like all the graduates of Old Union 

 when its historical President was at its head, he is as pro- 

 found in the classics as he is familiar with current events. 

 There is no subject about which he cannot converse 

 gravely, if the subject demands it, or humorously if other- 

 wise. And as for myself, ask him, and if his friendship 

 does not induce him to hide my faults, he will tell you that, 

 while lounging around our camp-fire, I talk 'an infinite 

 deal of nonsense; more than any man in all Venice.' No; 

 there is neither wearisome sameness nor somnolent gravity 

 in our party of two during the restful hours between early 

 gloaming and our night retreat. If our conversation is not 

 always what would please a fool if it is never what would 

 disgust a scholar." 



"lean very well believe that; but it has always seemed 

 to me that at least a third party is necessary to give piquancy 

 to persoaal jests; for how can one laugh at his own joke, 

 or how can the other fellow be expected to laugh when he 

 is its subject. A looker on in such an encounter is a mighty 

 stimulant to one's wit." 



"As to that, we are never without subjects that provoke 

 laughter; but we always find it pleasanter to laugh with 

 than at each other. He is walking on thin ice and 

 making a dangerous experiment with assumed friendship 

 who habitually indulges in either personal or practical jokes. 

 He must be something more than a saint who always re- 

 ceives them with equanimity, and he a great deal worse 



