The moonshine had taken the colour out of the sandy road and the heather, and had painted black shadows by every boulder, and most things looked asleep except the rill that went on running.

Only we and the rabbits, and the night moths and the beetles, seemed to be stirring.

An occasional bat appeared and vanished like a spectral illusion, and I saw one owl flap across the moor with level wings against the moon.
"Oh, I _have_ enjoyed it!" was all I could say when I parted from the bee-master.
"And so have I, Master Jack," was his reply, and he hesitated as if he had something more to say, and then he said it.

"I never enjoyed it as much, and you can thank your mother, sir, with old Isaac's duty, for sending us to church.

I'm sure I don't know why I never went before when I was up yonder, for I always took notice of the bells.