Two men were lighting and passing up bombs to the sergeant, who, standing clear out in the opening, grabbed and hurled the balls with an extraordinary prancing and dancing and arm-swinging series of contortions, while the crowded trench laughed and applauded.

[Footnote 141: 'St Andre:' a famous French dancing-master.]

Some of these, with two or three bigger ones, were singing and dancing about a fire they had made on the ground....

I encouraged as much as possible dancing, merriment and dress, for which Saturday afternoon and night and Sunday morning were dedicated.

Many of them made twenty bushels of corn to sell, and they vied with each other in dress and dancing....

When peace returned and Kingsley attempted to restore his Eden with a mixture of African and American negroes, a serpent entered in the guise of a negro preacher who taught the sinfulness of dancing, fishing on Sunday and eating the catfish which had no scales.

Seeing a swarm, or rather herd, of young negroes creeping and dancing about the door and yard of his mansion, all appearing healthy, happy and frolicsome and withal fat and decently clothed, both young and old, I felt induced to praise the economy under which they lived.

Thus Daniel R. Tucker in 1858 sent a general invitation over the countryside in central Georgia to a sextuple wedding among his slaves, with dinner and dancing to follow.

It was a matter of discomfort that in the evangelical churches dancing and religion were held to be incompatible.

Fithian marveled at the evidences of wealth and the stratification of society, but he reckoned that a well recommended Princeton graduate, with no questions asked as to his family, fortune or business, would be rated socially as on an equal footing with the owner of a £10,000 estate, though this might be discounted one-half if he were unfashionably ignorant of dancing, boxing, fencing, fiddling and cards.

"It is the dancing costume of the Old Country," he explained.

They may be dancing.

The orchestra was playing a waltz and the pair swung into the whirl, dancing fast and gracefully.

Then April, sleepy child of Spring, Awakes, to music yields, Goes dancing 'cross the fields.

"They came with drums and dancing fire, And wreaths and chants and incense sweet; They stole away my heart's desire, That was all fair and lithe and fleet.

He wondered why they seemed so shallowwhy he had never noticed their irresponsible dancing from light to shade, from light affection to unreasonable and trifling fretfulness.

But when I was presented to Lord Nevil I desired, perhaps too ardently, to please him; I displayed all my talents, dancing, singing, and extemporising before himI believe, though I am not certainthat I appeared to Lord Nevil somewhat too wild; for although he treated me very kindly, yet, when he left my father he said that he thought his son too young for the marriage in question.

"The Mysteries of Paris" is partly melodrama; it has faults both in construction and in art; its characters are mere puppets, dancing hither and thither at the end of their creator's string.

To attempt to dance without a knowledge of dancing is not only to make one's self ridiculous, but one's partner also.

[B] [Footnote A: It will be understood that we use the word "ball" to signify a private party, where there is dancing, as well as a public ball.]

Should an impromptu polka or quadrille be got up after supper at a party where no dancing was intended, be sure not to omit putting on gloves before you stand up.

A prudent hostess will always invite a few more guests than she really desires to entertain, in the certainty that there will be some deserters when the appointed evening comes round; but she will at the same time remember that to overcrowd her room is to spoil the pleasure of those who love dancing, and that a party of this kind when, too numerously attended is as great a failure as one at which too few are present.

A very long and narrow room is obviously of the worst shape for the purpose of dancing, and is fit only for quadrilles and country dances.

To attempt to dance without a knowledge of dancing is not only to make one's self ridiculous, but one's partner also.

Meanwhile, I watched the squirrels up in the beech-trees and the dancing of the green leaves against the sky; and thought dreamily of home, of my father, of the far past, and the possible future.