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On the road, some little distance away, a party of girls and young men were dancing polkas to the music of a melodeon, in a cloud of dust. When I had looked on for a little while I met some girls I knew, and asked them how they were getting on. 'We're not getting on at all, said one of them, 'for we've been at the races for two hours, and we've found no beaux to go along with us.
"I'll risk saying that he isn't calm inside," said Dalton. "How could any man be at such a time?" "You're right. Duck! Here comes a shell!" But the shell fell short and exploded on the slope. "Now listen, will you!" exclaimed Harry. "That's the spirit!" Immediately after the shell burst a Southern band began to play. And it played the merriest music, waltzes and polkas and all kinds of dances.
They had no waltzes, polkas, or the like, but dignified quadrilles, and stately minuets; and it was only when the company had become perfectly acquainted with each other, at the end of the assembly, that the reel was inaugurated, with its wild excessive mirth its rapid, darting, circling, and exuberant delight.
"Yes, by his music, by playing waltzes and polkas in the Avenue de la Motte Piquet. His earnings are five francs a day, and for thirty-five francs a month he has a room where many of the disinherited ones of art, many of those you see here, sleep. His room is furnished ah, you should see it!
Yes, that would all happen. We should denounce those people in round terms, and call them hard names. And suppose we found this paragraph in the newspapers: "Yesterday a visiting party of American pork-millionaires had a picnic in Westminster Abbey, and in that sacred place they ate their luncheon, sang popular songs, played games, and danced waltzes and polkas." Would the English be shocked?
Grandmamma announced in her most decided tone that she would have no waltzes and no polkas at her party. Roger assured her that there was no possibility of giving a dance without them, and Jessie seconded him as much as she ventured; but Mrs. Langford was unpersuadable, declaring that she would have no such things in her house.
It is needless to say that the signora was not very sincere in her offer. She was never sincere on such subjects. She never expected others to be so, nor did she expect others to think her so. Such matters were her playthings, her billiard table, her hounds and hunters, her waltzes and polkas, her picnics and summer-day excursions.
'No, said the child; 'but she's a very dear little kit, though she doesn't jump through rings nor dance polkas. 'Well, tastes differ, said Jinx; 'I prefer Skirrywinks. 'You've got a picture like mine, said Rosalie, after a time, when she saw that Jinx seemed inclined to talk. 'Yes, he said; 'have you one like it? I got it at Pendleton fair.
Waltzes and polkas she utterly abandoned; and though she did occasionally stand up for a quadrille, she did it in a very lack-a-daisical way, as though she would have refused that also had she dared to make herself so peculiar. And thus on the whole Arthur Wilkinson enjoyed himself that winter, in spite of his blighted prospects, almost as well as he had on any previous winter that he remembered.
I guess there was nothing Doc couldn't do if he tried, though why accordion was more than I could answer. But it wasn't loafing that kept him stuffed in a hot shed all day, wheezing polkas out of the hurdy-gurdy, but a real good idea of improving on the handcart.
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