HEG. Because this is my birthday; for that reason I'd like you to be invited to dinner at my house.
ERG. 'Tis kindly said. HEG. But if you can be content to eat a very little—
ERG. Aye, even ever so little; for on such fare as that do, I enjoy myself every day at home.
HEG. Come, then, please, set yourself up for sale.
ERG. I'll put myself up for purchase, just like a landed estate, unless any one shall privately make a better offer that pleases myself and my friends more, and to my own conditions will I bind myself.
HEG. You are surely selling me a bottomless pit {6}, and not a landed estate. But if you are coming, do so in time.
ERG. Why, for that matter. I'm at leisure even now.
HEG. Go then, and hunt for a hare; at present, in me you have but a ferret {7}, for my fare is in the way of frequenting a rugged road.
ERG. You'll never repulse me by that, Hegio, so don't attempt it. I'll come, in spite of it, with teeth well shod.
HEG. Really, my viands are but of a rough sort {8}. ERG. Are you in the habit of eating brambles?