_Trim_ ran down and brought up his master's supper, ----to no purpose: --_Trim's_ plan of operation ran so in my uncle _Toby's_ head, he could not taste it. --_Trim_, quoth my uncle _Toby_, get me to bed. --'Twas all one. --Corporal _Trim's_ description had fired his imagination, --my uncle _Toby_ could not shut his eyes. --The more he considered it, the more bewitching the scene appeared to him; --so that, two full hours before day-light, he had come to a final determination, and had concerted the whole plan of his and Corporal _Trim's_ decampment.
My uncle _Toby_ had a little neat country-house of his own, in the village where my father's estate lay at _Shandy_, which had been left him by an old uncle, with a small estate of about one hundred pounds a-year. Behind this house, and contiguous to it, was a kitchen-garden of about half an acre; and at the bottom of the garden, and cut off from it by a tall yew hedge, was a bowling-green, containing just about as much ground as Corporal _Trim_ wished for; --so that as _Trim_ uttered the words, "A rood and a half of ground to do what they would with," --this identical bowling-green instantly presented itself, and became curiously painted all at once, upon the retina of my uncle _Toby's_ fancy; --which was the physical cause of making him change colour, or at least of heightening his blush, to that immoderate degree I spoke of.
Never did lover post down to a beloved mistress with more heat and expectation, than my uncle _Toby_ did, to enjoy this self-same thing in private; --I say in private; --for it was sheltered from the house, as I told you, by a tall yew hedge, and was covered on the other three sides, from mortal sight, by rough holly and thick-set flowering shrubs: --so that the idea of not being seen, did not a little contribute to the idea of pleasure pre-conceived in my uncle _Toby's_ mind. --Vain thought! however thick it was planted about, ----or private soever it might seem, --to think, dear uncle _Toby_, of enjoying a thing which took up a whole rood and a half of ground, ----and not have it known!

Trim ran down and brought up his master's supper; - yet the plan ran so in my uncle Toby's head, that he could not taste it.
'Trim,' quoth my uncle, 'get me to bed.' But Trim's description had so fired his imagination, that he could not shut his eyes. The more he considered it, the more bewitching the idea appeared; so that, two hours before day-light, he had decided on the whole plan of his and Corporal Trim's decampment.
My uncle Toby had a little neat country-house, in the village near my father's estate at Shandy Hall. Behind his house was a kitchen-garden of about half an acre; and at the bottom of the garden, and cut off from it by a tall yew hedge, was a bowling-green of about a quarter-acre: so as soon as Corporal Trim uttered the words, 'a quarter-acre,' this bowling-green instantly became painted upon my uncle Toby's fancy.
Never did lover hasten to a beloved mistress with more heat and expectation than my uncle Toby did, to enjoy this thing in private. As well as being sheltered from the house by a tall yew hedge, it was screened on the other three sides by holly and flowering shrubs: so that the idea of privacy added to my uncle's Toby's pleasure.
Vain thought! however private it might seem - to think, dear uncle Toby, of enjoying a thing which took up a quarter-acre of ground, - and not have it known!
