But is _Jodocus_ at Home?

_Mi._ I can't tell, but I'll go see.

_Pe._ Go in first, and ask him if he pleases to be at Home now.

_Mi._ Go yourself, and be your own Errand Boy.

_Pe._ Soho! _Jodocus_, are you at Home?

_Jo._ No, I am not.

_Pe._ Oh! You impudent Fellow I don't I hear you speak?

_Jo._ Nay, you are more impudent, for I took your Maid's Word for it
lately, that you were not at Home, and you won't believe me myself.

_Pe._ You're in the Right on't, you've serv'd me in my own Kind.

_Jo._ As I sleep not for every Body, so I am not at Home to every Body,
but for Time to come shall always be at Home to you.

_Pe._ Methinks you live the Life of a Snail.

_Jo._ Why so?

_Pe._ Because you keep always at Home and never stir abroad, just like a
lame Cobler always in his Stall. You sit at Home till your Breech grows
to your Seat.

_Jo._ At Home I have something to do, but I have no Business abroad, and
if I had, the Weather we have had for several Days past, would have kept
me from going abroad.

_Pe._ But now it is fair, and would tempt a Body to walk out; see how
charming pleasant it is.

_Jo._ If you have a Mind to walk I won't be against it.

_Pe._ In Truth, I think we ought to take the Opportunity of this fine
Weather.

_Jo._ But we ought to get a merry Companion or two, to go along with us.

_Pe._ So we will; but tell me who you'd have then.

_Jo._ What if we should get Hugh?

_Pe._ There is no great Difference between _Hugo_ and _Nugo._

_Jo._ Come on then, I like it mighty well.

_Pe._ What if we should call _Alardus?_

_Jo._ He's no dumb Man I'll assure you, what he wants in Hearing he'll
make up in Talking.

_Pe._ If you will, we'll get _Naevius_ along with us too.

_Jo._ If we have but him, we shall never want merry Stories. I like the
Company mainly, the next Thing is to pitch upon a pleasant Place.

_Pe._ I'll show you a Place where you shall neither want the Shade of a
Grove, nor the pleasant Verdure of Meadows, nor the purling Streams of
Fountains, you'll say it is a Place worthy of the Muses themselves.

_Jo._ You promise nobly.

_Pe._ You are too intent upon your Books; you sit too close to your
Books; you make yourself lean with immoderate Study.

_Jo._ I had rather grow lean with Study than with Love.

_Pe._ We don't live to study, but we therefore study that we may live
pleasantly.

_Jo._ Indeed I could live and dye in my Study.

_Pe._ I approve well enou