ooking woman with a
robust or dumpy blue-eyed girl about four or five years old on her lap.
Most of the people were standing about in groups waiting for the storm
to blow over, and presently I noticed my two wild-haired dark little
girls moving about in the crowd. It was impossible not to seen them,
for they could not keep still a moment. They were here, there, and
everywhere, playing hide-and-seek and skipping and racing wherever they
could find an opening, and by and by, taking hold of each other, they
started dancing. It was a pretty spectacle, but most interesting to see
was the effect produced on the other children, the hundred girls, big
and little, the little ones especially, who had been standing there
tired and impatient to get out to the sea, and who were now becoming
more and more excited as they gazed, until, like children when listening
to lively music, they began moving feet and hands and soon their whole
bodies in time to the swift movements of the little dancers. At last,
plucking up courage, first one, then another, joined them, and were
caught as they came and whirled round and round in a manner quite new
to them and which they appeared to find very delightful. By and by I
observed that the little rosy-faced dumpy girl on my neighbour's knees
was taking the infection; she was staring, her blue eyes opened to their
widest in wonder and delight. Then suddenly she began pleading, "Oh,
mummy, do let me go to the little girls--oh, do let me!" And her mother
said "No," because she was so little, and could never fly round like
that, and so would fall and hurt herself and cry. But she pleaded still,
and was ready to cry if refused, until the good anxious mother was
compelled to release her; and down she slipped, and after standing still
with her little arms and closed hands held up as if to collect herself
before plunging into the new tremendous adventure, she rushed out
towards the dancers. One of them saw her coming, and instantly quitting
the child she was waltzing with flew to meet her, and catching her round
the middle began spinning her about as if the solid little thing weighed
no more than a feather. But it proved too much for her; very soon she
came down and broke into a loud cry, which brought her mother instantly
to her, and she was picked up and taken back to the seat and held to the
broad bosom and soothed with caresses and tender words until the sobs
began to subside. Then, even before the tears we