clean over his nose, for that when he looked down he could see her
feet, wherever she moved; and Charley had often been heard to say that
she had the prettiest foot and ankle he had ever seen. But there he
goes, head over heels across a chair, tearing off Caroline's gown
skirt in his fall, as he clutches it in the hope of saving himself.
Now, that is what I call retributive justice; for she threw down the
chair for him to stumble over, and, if he has grazed his knees, she
suffers under a torn dress, and must retire until one of the maids
darn up the rent. But now the mirth and glee grow 'fast and furious,'
for hoodman blind has imprisoned three or four of the youngest boys in
a corner, and can place his hand on whichever he likes. Into what a
small compass they have forced themselves! But the one behind has the
wall at his back, and, taking advantage of so good a purchase, he
sends his three laughing companions sprawling on the floor, and is
himself caught through their having fallen, as his shoulder is the
first that is grasped by Blindman-buff--so that he must now submit to
be hooded."

[Illustration: BLINDMAN'S BUFF.
(_In the last century_.)]

THE CHRISTMAS DANCE.

"Again the ball-room is wide open thrown,
The oak beams festooned with the garlands gay;
The red dais where the fiddlers sit alone,
Where, flushed with pride, the good old tunes they play.
Strike, fiddlers, strike! we're ready for the set;
The young folks' feet are eager for the dance;
We'll trip Sir Roger and the minuet,
And revel in the latest games from France."[83]

"Man should be called a dancing animal," said _Old Florentine_; and
Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," says, "Young lasses are never
better pleased than when, upon a holiday, after _even-song_, they may
meet their sweethearts and dance." And dancing is just as popular at
Christmas in the present day, as it was in that mediaeval age when
(according to William of Malmesbury) the priest Rathbertus, being
disturbed at his Christmas mass by young men and women dancing outside
the church, prayed God and St. Magnus that they might continue to
dance for a whole year without cessation--a prayer which the old
chronicler gravely assures us was answered.

[Illustration: THE CHRISTMAS DANCE.]

CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE OLDEN TIME.

And well our Christian sires of old
Loved when the year its course had roll'd,
And brought blithe Christmas back again,
Wi