Hoop

“ Every body wears hoops, but how few—‘tis a melancholy consideration—how very few can manage them! There’s my friend Lady C——; in an elegant undress she passes for very genteel, but put her into a hoop and she looks as pitiable a figure, as much a prisoner, and as little able to walk, as a child in a go-cart. ”

“ Even children unconsciously stopped in their play; I saw a little boy with his hoop-stick pointed slanting toward the ground in the act of steering the hoop around the corner; and so he had stopped and was listening—the hoop was rolling away, doing its own steering. ”

“ Stella sings: "Hoop, hoop, Roll along, Faster bowl along, Hoop. Slow, to the turning, Now go!—Go! Quick! Here's the stick. Rat-a-tap-tap it, Pat it, flap it. Fly like a bird or a yellow-backed bee, See how soon you can reach that tree. Here is a path that is perfectly straight. Roll along, hoop, or we shall be late." Minna sings: "Trip about, slip about, whip about Hoop. Wheel like a top at its quickest spin, Then, dear hoop, we shall surely win. First to the greenhouse and then to the wall Circle and circle, And let the wind push you, Poke you, Brush you, And not let you fall. ”

“ The child had given sharpness, above all, to his sense of the flight of time: it was but the day before yesterday that he had tripped up on her hoop, yet his experience of remarkable women—destined, it would seem, remarkably to grow—felt itself ready, this afternoon, quite braced itself, to include her. ”

“ My first recollection of the future poetess is that of a plump girl, grown enough to be almost mistaken for a woman, bowling a hoop round the walks, with the hoop-stick in one hand and a book in the other, reading as she ran, and as well as she could manage both exercise and instruction at the same time. ”

“ While dancing within the hoop each girl has to wave her arms vigorously and cry, “Flax, grow,” or words to that effect. When she has done she leaps out of the hoop or is lifted out of it by her partner. ”

“ Yes, fairy girl, that briar rose you are doing in the centre of your little canvas hoop is not more delicate in the tinting than are your cheeks; your hands that ply the needle so daintily are whiter than the May blossoms on its border ”

“ A little boy of nine years old, who had had a hoop to play with, asked "why a hoop, or a plate, if rolled upon its edge, keeps up as long as it rolls, but falls as soon as it stops, and will not stand if you try to make it stand still upon its edge?" ”

“ The magnificence of the full-dress hoop carries with it a most noble and majestic appearance, and I hope will never be given up or hors de la mode as long as England can boast of such fine women as appear within the circle of a Drawing Room. ”

“ If you can crown your opponent without her catching the hoop, a kiss is the old-established forfeit. The object of the game, as in “Shuttlecock and Battledoor,” is to keep both hoops flying without once touching the floor. Beginners had better first play with only one hoop. ”

“ Ah, well! you see the three lions were to jump through a great hoop. Leo first, Sara second, Nero last. Now Nero had a terrible hatred of me and he hated the hoop. I called and cracked my whip. He growled and crouched. ”

“ The hoops, to be thrown over the stake or within one or another of the circles, were made of willow withes, tightly interwoven. When a hoop went over the stake the thrower would give a yell of delight, and would make a mark for himself or herself in a square on the ground. ”

“ Pass around a number of candles, and when each has received one, ask the children to eat them. The candles are made out of apples; the wick is made of a bit of almond, which on being lit will blaze for a minute. After this suspend a hoop in the doorway and make snowballs of tissue-paper by crushing them into round shapes. Give each scholar four balls, and standing them a given number of feet away, see how many of the balls each can put through the hoop at the first trial. Give the child who can do this a bag of peanuts as a reward. ”

“ The ground all around was lit up by a kind of subdued light, p. 94and he observed every movement of these beings. By and by the meteor which had at first attracted his attention appeared again, and then the fiery hoop came to view, and when it reached the spot where the dancing was, the lady and gentleman who had arrived in it jumped into the hoop, and disappeared in the same manner in which they had reached the place. Immediately after their departure the Fairies vanished from sight, and the man found himself alone and in darkness, and then he proceeded homewards. ”

“ The flashing of the bright tin pans, the struggles of the players to catch the ball and elude the loose thread, the 324comically careful movements of those who have become entangled in the yarn, all tend to make the game a very merry one, to the lookers-on as well as the participants.
Hoop Dance Some of the games played with wooden hoops are full of fun, and the constant changing of position of the players forms a very pretty moving picture for the spectator. ”

“ But from the hoop’s bewitching round,
Her very shoe has power to wound. ”

“ These hoops they were to roll down the sides of the mountains, and jump backwards and forwards through them, when they were at full speed. It was a good game for their purpose, because anyone who touched the side of the hoops would be cut in two, because of the sharp edges.
But the dog guessed this, and said to the boy: 'Friend, do not go near those people who are playing. ”

“ Ladies wear hoops; the hoops expand and expand, until the maximum of possibility in size is reached. Something must be done! The crinoline contracts until these same ladies appear in clinging skirts, and the pull-back lives its little hour. ”

“ Nature seemed prim and staid that day and the globe gave no hint that it was flying round a circus ring of its own. Could they really be true, I wondered, all those bewildering things I had heard tell of circuses? Did long-tailed ponies really walk on their hind-legs and fire off pistols? Was it humanly possible for clowns to perform one-half of the bewitching drolleries recorded in history? And how, oh, how dare I venture to believe that, from off the backs of creamy Arab steeds, ladies of more than earthly beauty discharged themselves through paper hoops? ”

“ If an object is not what we wish it to be in one light, let us see if there is not some other light under which it will surely meet our views. This dear little girl is a little girl and not a doll, that is true. She did not come up in the place of the wax doll, and she is not a miracle in that light. But look at her in another light, and surely she is a miracle—do you not see? Look at her, the darling little girl, isn't the very meaning and sweetness of all Christmas in her loving, trusting, innocent little face?
Monks. Yes, yes, she is a miracle, a miracle, indeed! ”

“ And circling still in a merry ring
We'll still clasp hands as we dance and sing
To the blessed tree and the blessed night
When the Christ-child walks in the candles' light!
Hurrah! Hurrah! for the Christmas-tree! ”

“ It would seem as if the physical ecstasy of the dance and the sensuous joy of all nature’s finery had breathed their spirit into the aspiration and that the beauty of leaf and flower, all of them familiar forms of the god’s metamorphosis—accessible to their touch and for the regalement of their senses—had brought such nearness and dearness, of affection between goddess and worshiper that all fear was removed. ”

“ Young men, dressed in red robes and crowned like the virgins with maize, then carried the idol in its litter to the foot of the great pyramid-shaped temple, up the steep and narrow steps of which it was drawn to the music of flutes, trumpets, cornets, and drums. “While they mounted up the idol all the people stood in the court with much reverence and fear. Being mounted to the top, and that they had placed it in a little lodge of roses which they held ready, presently came the young men, which strewed many flowers of sundry kinds, wherewith they filled the temple both within and without. ”

“ Now is their mourning into dancing turned, Their sackcloth doffed for garments of delight, Week-long the festive torches shall be burned, Music and revelry wed day with night. Still ours the dance, the feast, the glorious Psalm, The mystic lights of emblem, and the Word. Where is our Judas? Where our five-branched palm? Where are the lion-warriors of the Lord? Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the lyre, Sound the brass trumpet and the harsh-tongued horn, Chant hymns of victory till the heart take fire, The Maccabean spirit leap new-born! ”

“ Oh, the fire-gong beating fierce through the bells of Christmas day! [Pg 90]
Just a second there to choose, and a life to keep or lose—
To the curb he swung the horses, and he flung his life away!
Ring, swing, bells in the steeple!
Ring the Star and ring the Cross, for Star and Cross are one!
Ring, swing, bells, to tell the people
God is pleased with manly men, and deeds that they have done! ”

“ Amidst trembling prayers, in the darkened room, in the presence of some sweet shrouded and coffined form, the memory of some soft sealed face and folded hands, and spirit for ever at rest, has rose the hymn into pensive rapture:
Are we not tending upward too,
As fast as time can move? ”

“ There are church bells and wedding bells, bells that cry the joy of a new birth or toll the sorrow of the huddled family, bells that ring victory in war and bells that scream the hilarity of la fiesta! ”

“ The bow in the cloud then is not a mere sign of God’s fidelity to his promises in general, but a particular token of his grace nigh at hand in emergencies, a sign for the hour of trouble and distress and alarm, a token of grace—not when the sky is clear, but when the heavens frown, when fear comes to the soul and it looks anxiously round for help. ”

“ And so, if the throwers succeed—as they usually do—in placing a ball through the window, the omen is considered most auspicious. They then dance and leap with joy, shouting that the god has risen from his couch. ”

“ I do not believe God means us to divide life into two halves—to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out of place even so much as to mention Him on a week-day.... Surely the children’s innocent laughter is as sweet in His ears as the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from ‘the dim religious light’ of some solemn cathedral; and if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amusement that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame or sorrow ... ”

“ Then wake, wake the song! our glad jubilee
Once more we hail with sweet melody,
Bringing our hymns of praise unto thee,
O most holy Lord!
2 Marching to Zion, dear blessed home!
Lord! by thy mercy hither we come;
Guide us, we pray, where'er we may roam,
Keep us in thy fear;
Fill ev'ry soul with love all divine,
Now cause thy face upon us to shine;
Grant that our hearts may be truly thine
All the coming year.
Then wake, wake the song! our glad jubilee
Once more we hail with sweet melody,
Bringing our hymns of praise unto thee,
O most holy Lord! ”

“ Saviour's feet. Then they retire to a distance and worship in silence like the shepherds. Again the angels' song is heard, and while it dies away the curtain closes and the lights are put out.
The play is over, and the evening has come. The people must go from the warm church into the frozen snow, and crunch their homeward way beneath the moon. But in their minds they carry a sense of light and music and unearthly loveliness. Not a scene of this day's pageant will be lost. It grows within them and creates the poetry of Christmas. Nor must we forget the sculptors who listen to the play. ”

“ More than 20,000 children—boys and girls—lead the way to the gorgeous temple, singing merry songs, and as they sing they dance with quivering limbs—a dance which flushes their cheeks with a feverish glow, and fires their eyes with an ardour which has nothing childish in it. ”

“ On Sunday the air is alive with the clanging of bells, and in orderly procession every family proceeds to church, the fathers in all the gravity of umbrellas and prayer-books, the matrons in silk mantles and clumsy ready-made elastic sides; the girls in all the gaiety of their summer dresses with lively bustles bobbing, the young men in frock-coats which show off their broad shoulders—from time to time they pull their tawny moustaches. ”

“ When we behold the light and brightness of the sun, the golden edges of an evening cloud, or the beauteous bow, we behold the adumbrations of his glory and goodness, and in the blue sky, of his mildness and gentleness. ”

“ Sweet bell! Church bell!
When earthly joys and sorrows end,
And towards our long repose we tend,
How mournfully thy tone doth call
The weepers to the funeral,
And to the last abode of clay,
With solemn knell mark out the way,
Sad bell! Church bell! ”

“ A prayer without a deed is an arrow without a bow-string;
A deed without a prayer is a bow-string without an arrow.
The heart of a man should be like a quiver full of arrows,
And the hand of a man should be like a strong bow strung for action. ”

“ The only bell which is heard is rung by Memory, as the hour of prayer draws nigh; some village-bell, far away, that vibrated over the hills of our nativity, the tones of which we have carried away in our soul, and which are awakened by the solemnity of the day. ”

“ In such mood imagination, in still series, visions a thousand parish-kirks, each with its own characteristic localities, Sabbath-sanctified; distributes the beauty of that hallowed day in allotments all over the happy land—so that in one Sabbath there are a thousand Sabbaths.
Keep carolling, then, all together, ye countless Larks, till heaven is one hymn! Imagination thinks she sees each particular field that sends up its own singer to the sky—the spot of each particular nest. ”