Well, at the end of each term there was what they called an "exhibition
ball," in which the scholars danced cotillons and country-dances; also
something called a "gavotte," and I think one or more walked a minuet.
But all this is not what--I wanted to say. At this exhibition ball he
used to bring out a number of hoops wreathed with roses, of the perennial
kind, by the aid of which a number of amazingly complicated and startling
evolutions were exhibited; and also his two daughters, who figured
largely in these evolutions, and whose wonderful performances to us, who
had not seen Miss Taglioni or Miss Elssler, were something quite
bewildering, in fact, surpassing the natural possibilities of human
beings. Their extraordinary powers were, however, accounted for by the
following explanation, which was accepted in the school as entirely
satisfactory. A certain little bone in the ankles of each of these young
girls had been broken intentionally, secundum artem, at a very early age,
and thus they had been fitted to accomplish these surprising feats which
threw the achievements of the children who were left in the condition of
the natural man into ignominious shadow.
--Thank you,--said I,--you have helped out my illustration so as to make
it better than I expected. Let me begin again. Every poem that is
worthy of the name, no matter how easily it seems to be written,
represents a great amount of vital force expended at some time or other.
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