Thinks I, 'What es he up to now?'
An' I stood up to see, but quiet-like, so's I shudn' scare 'n.
"I hadn' long to wait. He jest steps up behind the scarecrow, makes
a leg, so grave as you plaise, an' commences for to dance round 'un--
fust 'pon wan leg, then 'pon t'other--like as ef 'twas a haythen
dancin' round a graven image. But the flauntin' ins'lence o't, sir!
The brazen, fleerin' abusefulness! Not a feather, ef you'll believe
me, but fairly leaked wi' ribaldry--jest _leaked_.
"Th' ould bird had got ha'f-way round, a-mincin' an' japin', an'
throwin' out hes legs this way an' that an' gettin' more boldacious
an' ondacent wi' ivery step, when he cocks his head askew for a
second, jest to see how the pore image was a-takin' o't, an' that
moment he catches the scarecrow's eye.
"Aw, sir, to see the change as comed over that bird!
The forthiness [10] went out o'n for all the world like wind out 'n a
pricked bladder; an' I reckon nex' minnit there warn't no meaner,
sicklier-lookin' critter atween this an' Johnny Groats' than that
ould rook. There was a kind o' shever ran through 'n, an' hes
feathers went ruffly-like, an' hes legs bowed in, an' he jes' lay
flat to groun' and goggled an' glazed up at that eye like a dyin'
duck in a thunderstorm. 'Twas a rich sight, sir; an' how I contrived
not to bust mysel' wi' laffin', es more'n I can tell 'ee to this day.
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