Jehu now felt the combined
influence of music, women, brandy, and dancing, and snapped his
fingers over his head, and stamped his feet to mark the time, and
hummed the tune in a voice that from its power and clearness
astonished us all.
"Well done, old boy," said I, for I thought I might drop the quaker
now, "well done, old boy," and I slapped him on the back, "go it while
you are young, make up for lost time: now for the double shuffle. Dod
drot it, you are clear grit and no mistake. You are like a critter
that boggles in the collar at the first go off, and don't like the
start, but when you do lay legs to it you certainly ain't no slouch, I
know."
The way he cut carlicues ain't no matter. From humming he soon got to
a full cry, and from that to shouting. His antics overcame us all. The
doctor gave the first key-note. "Oh, oh, that man will be the death of
me," and again rubbed himself round the wall, in convulsions of
laughter. Peter saw nothing absurd in all this, on the contrary, he
was delighted with the stranger.
"Oigh," he said, "ta preacher is a goot feller after all, she will
tance with her hern ainsel;" and fiddling his way up to him again, he
danced a jig with Jehu, to the infinite amusement of us all. The
familiarity which Mr Judd exhibited with the steps and the dance,
convinced me that he must have often indulged in it before he became a
Christian.
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