72 I GO A-FISHING. 



An angler talks sometimes as he casts ; right along, 

 steadily, perseveringly ; without a rise, without, after a 

 little, even expecting a rise. That being a custom of the 

 guild, it would be out of place and character to stop the 

 talking of a fellow-angler. 



As we rode home the Doctor talked with great satis- 

 faction, and, as anglers are apt to do, rode his favor- 

 ite hobby, which had nothing to do with trout-fishing. 

 Philip had received a package of old books from Leipsic 

 a few days before, and among them were some of the 

 Basle editions of the works of Erasmus those beautiful 

 editions which Froben ornamented with borders by Urse 

 Graff, and initial letters which are attributed by some to 

 Holbein. The Doctor is not a collector of books him- 

 self, but is something of a Dibdin, enjoying the libraries 

 of his friends, and it is not saying much to affirm that he 

 knows more about old books and old editions than Mr. 

 Dibdin ever knew. So he began to discuss with Philip a 

 question in which he is interested, and no one else in 

 America can possibly be interested, as to what was the 

 first book which Erasmus ever published. Now this hap- 

 pened, without being directly in my line, to be a point on 

 which I fancied I could throw a little light, and as they 

 dismounted at the door, and I heard the Doctor affirm, 

 " I tell you, the edition of his friend Hermann's poems is 

 the first thing he ever put to press," I put in a word 



" That's Mercator's edition of 1497, isn't it, Doctor?" 



" Yes, it is" (very gruffly). 



" Well, Erasmus published poems of his own before 

 that." 



" What do you know about it ? Stick to your old wood- 

 cuts, and don't bother about editions." 



" But I've got the book." 



