entered into the spirit of
the dance. One very old and feeble man, with a smile on his face, was
executing little clumsy hops, deeply intent on the performance. A few
others stood round admiring the sport; a little apart was a tall grave
man, talking loudly to himself, with flowers stuck all over him, who
was spinning round and round in an ecstasy of delight. Becoming giddy,
he took a few rapid steps to the left, but fell to the ground, where he
lay laughing softly, and moving his hands in the air. Presently one of
the officials said a word to the leader of the dance; the ring broke
up, and the performers scattered, gathering up little bundles of leaves
and flowers that lay all about in some confusion, and then trooping out
to the brakes. The quarry was deserted. Several of the group waved
their hands to me, uttering unintelligible words, and holding out
flowers.

I was so much surprised at the odd scene that I asked one of the
officials what it all meant. He said politely that it was a picnic
party from the Pauper Lunatic Asylum at H----. The mystery was
explained. I said: "They seem to be enjoying themselves." "Yes,
indeed, sir," he said, "they are like children; they look forward to
this all the year; there is no greater punishment than to deprive a man
of his outing." He entered the last brake as he said these words, and
the carriages moved off, a shrill and aged cheer rising from thin and
piping voices on the air.

The whole thing did not strike me as grotesque, but as infinitely
pathetic and even beautiful. Here were these old pitiful creatures, so
deeply afflicted, condemned most of them to a lifelong seclusion, who
were recalling and living over again their childish sports and
delights. What dim memories of old spring days, before their sad
disabilities had settled upon them, were working in those aged and
feeble brains! What pleased me best was the obvious and light-hearted
happiness of the whole party, a compensation for days of starved
monotony. No party of school-children on a holiday could have been
more thoughtlessly, more intently gay. Here was a desolate company,
one would have thought, of life's failures, facing one of the saddest
and least hopeful prospects that the world can afford; yet on this day
at least they were full to the brim of irresponsible and complete
happiness and delight, tasting an enjoyment, it seemed, more vivid than
often falls to my own lot. In the presence of suc