_ "LET us have a dance!" exclaimed Minnie Wall, when all the games had
been played, and the little people stood for a moment, wondering
what they should do next.
"O Mrs. Legrange! will you play for us?"
"Certainly. What will you have, Minnie? But, in the first place, can
you all dance?"
"Yes'm, every one of us. Even 'Toinette and Bessie have learned at
their Kindergarten; and the rest of us all go to Mr. Papanti. O Mrs.
Legrange! last Saturday, when you let Susan bring 'Toinette to
dancing-school, I told Mr. Papanti what a pretty little dancer she
was; and he made her stand up, and she learned the cachuca with half
a dozen others of us; and he did laugh and bow so at her, you never
saw; and he called her enfant Cherrytoe, or something like that"--
"Cerito," suggested Mrs. Legrange, smiling.
"Yes'm, I guess that was it; and she learned it beautifully. Have
you seen her dance it?"
"Yes, the old gentleman called me Cherrytoe; and you must, mamma,
and every one, because I dance so pretty, with my little toes. Will
you call me Cherrytoe always, mamma?" asked 'Toinette, with such a
complacent delight in her own accomplishments, that her mother's
smile was sad as it was tender. But she felt that this was not the
time or place to reprove the vanity so rankly springing in the
child's heart; so she only said,--
"Mr. Papanti was in fun when he called you Cherrytoe, darling. She
was a woman who danced better than I hope you ever will. Now, who is
ready for Virginia reel?"
Tom Burroughs led Minnie Wall to the head of the set, other children
rushed for places, Mrs. Legrange seated herself at the piano, and
the merry dance went on; but, when it was over, Minnie Wall returned
to Mrs. Legrange's side, followed by two or three more, begging her
to play the cachuca, and see how nicely 'Toinette could dance it.
Half unwillingly the mother complied, and found really astonished as
she noticed the graceful evolutions and accurate time of the child,
who went through the intricate motions of the dance without a single
mistake, and, at the close, dropped her little courtesy, and kissed
her little hand, with the grace and self-possession of a danseuse.
The children crowded around her with a clamor of delight and
surprise; but the mother, anxiously watching her darling's flushed
face and sparkling eyes, whispered to her cousin, as he playfully
applauded,--
"Oh, don't, Tom! The child will be utterly ruined by so much
flattery and admiration. I feel very badly about it, I assure you."
"But she is absolutely so bewitching! How can we help admiring her?"
replied he, laughing.
"No: but it is wrong; it won't do," persisted Mrs. Legrange. "Just
see how excited and happy she looks because they are all admiring
her! You must help me to check it, Tom. Come, you are so famous for
stories, tell them one about a peacock, or something,--a story with a
moral about being vain, you know, only not too pointed."
"A pill with a very thick sugar-coat," suggested Mr. Burroughs, and,
as his cousin nodded, continued, in a louder voice,--
"A story, ladies and gentlemen! Who will listen to the humble
attempts of an unfortunate improvisator?"
"Yes, yes, a story; let us have a story!" shouted with one accord
both girls and boys; and with 'Toinette perched upon his knee, and
the rest grouped about him, Cousin Tom began the story of THE
CHILDREN OF MERRIGOLAND. _