Stilt

“ Any boy may make his own stilts; nothing is required but a pair of poles, about six or seven feet long, upon which some broad pieces of leather or iron hoop are nailed for the feet, so as to leave the top of the stilt within a few inches of the arm-pit. The boy may at first place his foot-holds very low, till he can balance himself, and then raise them every few days, till he obtains a complete command over them. I have known boys who had great command over stilts, to wade through rivers three or four feet deep ”

“ Thus encouraged, Bunny and Bill scampered across the grass, the fox-terriers yelping at their heels, and, from a convenient out-house all sizes of stilts were produced.
These accomplished children could do all manner of amazing feats on the stilts; even little Bill laughed at our awkward attempts. But, after many falls, Angel and I could limp haltingly about the garden, and experienced the new joy of looking down at things instead of up. ”

“ STILTS, poles provided at a certain distance above the ground with steps or stirrups for the feet, for the purpose of walking on them. As a means of amusement stilts have been used by all peoples in all ages, as well as by the inhabitants of marshy or flooded districts. ”

“ To remedy this evil, they have fallen upon a plan not more simple than ingenious; they all walk on stilts, exactly similar to those with which our school-boys amuse themselves; the only difference lying here, that whereas the school-boys’ stilts are with us seldom raised above ten or twelve inches from the ground, those of the French peasants are elevated to the height of six or eight feet. ”

“ Stilton, Miss Fetters and her father, and myself. It was a still, cloudy, sultry evening, after one of those dull, oppressive days when all the bad blood in a man seems to be uppermost in his veins. The manifestations upon the table, with which we commenced, were unusually rapid and lively. "I am convinced," said Mr. Stilton, "that we shall receive important revelations to-night. My own mind possesses a clearness and quickness, which, I have noticed, always precede the visit of a superior spirit. Let us be passive and receptive, my friends. ”

“ What the "backstay" is to the inhabitant of the district around Lydd,
the stilts are to the lonely dwellers in the Landes. The peasants of
the department are not exactly born on stilts, but a child learns to
walk on them about the age that his British brother is beginning to
toddle on foot.
Stilts have the elementary recommendation of overcoming the difficulty
of moving about in the Landes. In addition, they raise a man to a
commanding altitude, and enable him to go about his daily business at
a pace forbidden to ordinary pedestrians. ”

“ On getting up, the first thing that attracted my attention was a sight of the people's feet and legs passing by the top of the window without their bodies, the height of their stilts carrying the rest of their persons so high in air that the low window of the auberge only afforded a view of half a man at a time. Be it remarked, however, that at Guizan the use of stilts is quite a work of supererogation. In the sandy parts of the Landes this contrivance is very necessary to enable the shepherds to follow their flock ”

“ So saying, he set the prince on the ground, and ran toward the shepherd, who, seeing him coming, at once took to flight. His stilts were so long that he made enormous steps, and he got over the ground very fast. The giant had long legs, and he ran swiftly, but he had a great deal of trouble to get near the man on stilts, who dodged in every direction, and rushed about like an enormous crane. The poor frightened sheep scattered themselves over the fields, and hid in the bushes. ”

“ Yet thou sittest sadly on thy horse, the roses are scattered from thy shield. Ah! if the daughter of the King of England knew, she would take it very ill of thee that thou hast allowed so simple a man to wound thee.” Saith Zibrid: “I would not count it an honour, if I allowed a worse man than myself to take me.” Saith Stilfrid: “Please God, thou hast to find that I am as good a man as thyself, and I will be thy match in all things, save that roses do not fall in showers from me; know that Stilfrid will spoil all that.” ”

“ There was a great pounding of feet on the floor overhead, the shriek and crash of the orchestra, the muffled roar of applause. All the young men were in evening clothes except Stilson who had come direct from the office. The young women were dressed for the street. Stilson guessed that they were “extras” as at that time the full force of the company must be on the stage.
The music ceased, the pounding of feet above [263] became irregular instead of regular, and into the room streamed a dozen of the chorus girls in tights, with bare necks and arms and painted lips and cheeks. ”

“ But association weaves mysterious ties. It unites people who otherwise would come to blows. Fanny and Sylvia had been brought up together. The mesh woven in younger days was about them still, and on this particular noon in May they made a picture which, while contrasting, was charmful.
"You really like my hat?"
The hat was gray. The girl's dress was gray. The skirt was of the variety known as trotabout. The whole thing was severely plain, yet astonishingly smart. Sylvia was also in street dress. The latter was black.
[22] They were in the parlor. For in New York there are still parlors. ”

“ From the tunnel's mouth at the base of the ancient hill, the long, black road sloped up gradually. Far ahead loomed the walls and domes of a great city. Oleric rose in his stirrups and pointed to where they were outlined against the sky.
"Yonder lies Adlaz, chief city of the Children of Ad," he cried.
Midway in their course to the city, the shouting drivers pulled their horses suddenly to one side of the road, and the riders of the escort scattered to right and left to leave a clear passage. From far up the wonderful street sounded the clash and clatter of pounding hoofs in desperate haste. ”

“ They wore no head coverings, and their faces and bare arms were tanned from exposure to the sun. Their feet were covered with leather sandals, buckled at the ankle. Their limbs were bare from the sandals to the short, loose-legged trousers, which they wore beneath their tunic skirts. The texture of their garments was dyed in several different hues.
Nearly all wore close-cropped beards like that of Kard, and their hair was trimmed at the neck. Armlets and rings and the buckles on their garments, all of the strange, iridescent metal, glittered in the sunlight as they ran. ”

“ Typartitus, riding to the meadow, cried out: “Where art thou, Stilfrid? Neither cross nor sign shall help thee, people shall tell a new tale of us.” Stilfrid, on hearing this, gave thanks to S. Wenceslas, and said: ‘Give me the yellow pennon, that colour is the firmness of every noble man.” Typartitus cried out wrathfully and caracoled haughtily upon his horse. Stilfrid delayed not to charge him, and soon cut short his curvetting, casting him far behind his horse, so that shield and helmet flew up high above the horse, and ere he reached the ground his soul departed from him. ”

“ Now she measures it. Here some gathers, here a pleat; lifts a bit and snips a bit; dress is looking now quite neat, just a perfect fit. Wouldn't it be luck, indeed, when life's pattern goes awry, when it doesn't fit the need, we had only just to cry: "Fetch the fitter, pray"? Swiftly she would come and smile (fitters always are so nice) , cut the day to beauty's style, without grumbling, in a trice, perfect fitting day.
BAGPIPES
Since I have heard the great pipes playing, not on the stage nor crowded street, but out on a moorland with heather swaying to the pibroch's rhythm about our feet. ”

“ No wonder life lays on the [314] lash.” But he gathered a bundle of newspapers from the stand at Fifty-ninth Street and Madison Avenue and, seating himself in the corner of the car, strapped on his mental harness and began to tug and strain at his daily task—“like a dumb ox,” he muttered.
He was outwardly in his worst mood—the very errand boy knew that it was not a good day to ask favours. A man to whom he had loaned money came in to pay it and, leaving, said: “God will bless you.” Stilson sat staring at a newspaper. “God will bless me,” he repeated bitterly. ”

“ The King of England began sorrowfully to cry: “Theobaldus! meet Stilfrid valiantly, that the damsels and ladies may thank thee.” Theobaldus, the margrave, went merrily down into the meadow, saying: “Look out for thyself, Stilfrid! stand firm and flee not, for it cannot be otherwise.” Saith Stilfrid; “Give me the blue pennon, that colour betokeneth the steadfastness of a noble man.” Taking the lance, he rode down with speed; Theobaldus was there caracoling before him. Stilfrid aventred his spear and ran against him ”

“ Hansen says not this, but the neighboring Reisehoog, was the residence of Finn; but in a matter of this kind even the wisest may err, and we prefer to believe that we have stood where Ekke told his love-woes to the king, and have seen the heath where the queen sang the weird baby-song which Dorret Bundis heard as she lay crouching above.
Sylt is very nearly the paradise of an archæologist. Lift your eyes where you will on all that fragrant plain, remains of long-vanished races meet them in those most permanent of all historical monuments, mounds and barrows. Each has its tale. ”

“ The Count felt about with his feet till they touched the floor of the loft into which he had scrambled. “Here I am landed at last, at all events,” he said to himself; “but this, though dry enough, is not a pleasant place in which to pass the night; and besides, my friend Stilkin will be searching for me, and be very much alarmed at not finding the vessel, or if he does find her—supposing she has not gone to the bottom—when he discovers that I have absconded. What can I do? I must try and get down into the street, and then, perhaps, I shall meet him and relieve his anxiety. ”

“ I hear, well, almost any hour, a secret whispered by the breeze. The sun's more generous with his gold; he spilt it at my feet to-day. A happy wren was very bold and carolled forth a roundelay. The sturdy tit with sable breast, the blue tit, lovely little thing, are pecking with the greatest zest at fat a-dangling from a string! On every slender willow bough (with ecstasy this news I write) the Persian Kittens frolic now; the boisterous wind gives them delight. They jump about like anything; and how their silver fur coats gleam! They prove that it is really Spring—and not a tantalizing dream! ”

“ That I must escape? Nay, Kard; death shall find me in thy valley of Sardanes, or I shall find Helicon, thy prince, and the Rose. Yesterday, or was it many yesterdays agone?—it was all for the North. Now it is all for the Rose. I come, dear heart; I come, to win, or to die in the losing!"
He leaped to the sledge, tore away the thongs that bound the carcasses of the dead bears and rolled them into the snow alongside the dead men. ”

“ Far other, however, was the truly fashionable gentleman of those days. His dress, which served for both morning and evening, street and drawing-room, was a linsey-woolsey coat, made, perhaps, by the fair hands of the mistress of his affections, and gallantly bedecked with abundance of large brass buttons; half a score of breeches heightened the proportions of his figure; his shoes were decorated by enormous copper buckles; a low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat overshadowed his burly visage; and his hair dangled down his back in a queue of eel-skin. ”

“ Her smile was dreamy, her soul apparently wrapped in the delirium of the dance. Her whole body was in constant motion. It seemed to Stilson that at every movement of shoulders or hips, of small round arms or tapering legs, at every swing of that little head crowned with glittering waves of golden light, a mysterious, thrilling energy was flung out [259] from her like an electric current. He who had not cared for women of the stage watched this girl as a child at its first circus watches the lady in tights and tarlatan. ”

“ Penrose,” said “John.” “It’s out o’sight.”
They took a second glass of the champagne and left the rest for “John.” When they were a few feet down the passage, Stilson went back to the door of the “cork-room.” The shutter lifted at his knock and he cast his friendliest look into the wicked, good-humoured, bull-dog face. “My name is Stilson,” he said. “You won’t forget me if I should come again alone?”
“I never forget a face,” said “John.” “That’s why I keep my job.”
Stilson’s infatuation increased with each of Marguerite’s appearances. ”

“ It made him realize the degradation of appearing a fool before Stella. So, [263] collecting his scattered wits he raised his head and smiled upon the waiting maiden. There was a quivering of the lip, however, as he said in a manner laboriously offhand—and, of course, unsuccessful:
"Oh, well, I must try again. Thank you, Stella. Good-by."
As he reached the gate she saw him toss the flowers to the ground.
His state of mind as he walked blindly along the village street, beneath the arching elms, could not be described in articulate language. Sorrow, anger, humiliation, all struggled for control. ”

“ If a man falls from a horse, must I take physic for that?—This arguing makes you mad; but it is true right reason, not to be disproved.—I am glad at heart to hear poor Stella is better; use exercise and walk, spend pattens and spare potions, wear out clogs and waste claret. Have you found out my pun of the fishmonger? don’t read a word more till you have got it. And Stella is handsome again, you say? and is she fat? I have sent to Leigh the set of Examiners: the first thirteen were written by several hands, some good, some bad ”