Can't you smell it in the air?
I wish you'd cut down to Bangle's and get me a pair of straps for my skates." To my astonishment, not wholly unmixed with amusement, Odger junior regarded me majestically for a moment, and then, ejaculating the oracular phrase, "Oh, ah!" walked off, his four-foot-one drawn to its full height, his hands behind his back, and his mouth still drawn up for whistling, but apparently too overcome with dignity to emit the music which an observer would naturally be led to expect.
I was not on the whole a short-tempered youth.

My laziness saved me from that.

It certainly did occur to me on this bright frosty morning that it would be exhilarating both for young Odger and me if I were to go after him and kick him.

But what was the use?
He would enjoy it as much as I should.

There would be plenty of ways in which to pay him out less fatiguing than an undignified chase round the playground.