Moody, or will
you oblige me with a back at leap-frog? I'm not mad, my dear young lady;
I'm only merry. I live, you see, in the London stink; and the smell of
the hedges and the wild flowers is too much for me at first. It gets
into my head, it does. I'm drunk! As I live by bread, I'm drunk on fresh
air! Oh! what a jolly day! Oh! how young and innocent I do feel!" Here
his innocence got the better of him, and he began to sing, "I wish I
were a little fly, in my love's bosom for to lie!" "Hullo! here we are
on the nice soft grass! and, oh, my gracious! there's a bank running
down into a hollow! I can't stand that, you know. Mr. Moody, hold my
hat, and take the greatest care of it. Here goes for a roll down the
bank!"
He handed his horrible hat to the astonished Moody, laid himself flat
on the top of the bank, and deliberately rolled down it, exactly as he
might have done when he was a boy. The tails of his long gray coat flew
madly in the wind: the dog pursued him, jumping over him, and barking
with delight; he shouted and screamed in answer to the dog as he rolled
over and over faster and faster; and, when he got up, on the level
ground, and called out cheerfully to his companions standing above him,
"I say, you two, I feel twenty years younger already!"--human gravity
could hold out no longer. The sad and silent Moody smiled, and Isabel
burst into fits of laughter.
"There," he said "didn't I tell you you would get used to me, Miss?
There's a deal of life left in the old man yet--isn't there? Shy me down
my hat, Mr.
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