The weather cleared up, and the young people resumed their usual walks
in the garden. The swing was out of order, and Madame D’Hernilly would
not permit them to make use of it till it was repaired. The
imagination of our juvenile group quickly suggested something to
supply its place. A plank, placed across a very solid marble bracket,
which they happened to find on the ground in the middle of the bower,
was fastened to it by iron cramps, in order to render it more secure.
The gardener, one of those ingenious fellows to whom we give the name
of jack-of-all-trades, because he knew a little of every thing, and
was besides a very decent mason, smith, and even blacksmith, seconded
the impatience of the young ladies: the see-saw was soon ready, and
Adriana and Aglaé were the first to spring upon it. They were both of
them of the same height, and about the same weight, conditions quite
necessary for the players at this game. Madame D’Hernilly watched that
their alternate ascent and descent should be managed without any jerk,
which might derange the machine, or, which was worse, make the young
ladies, who were seated at each extremity, lose their balance.
[Illustration: Girls on a see-saw]
I recollect at this moment some moral lines upon the game of see-saw;
they are rather obsolete, and the versification is not distinguished
for its elegance, but the lines contain a maxim well worth
remembering, the force of which could not be heightened by the finest
language:
Behold the play-game; those who rise
Seem as they would reach the skies;
But soon they find that they descend,
And to the earth as quickly tend.
Thus Fortune guides the rolling ball,
While these ascend, the others fall.
There are some see-saws of a double construction, which are mounted
upon a revolving pivot, four persons may balance themselves at the
same time upon these machines, two and two; the one who descends
touches the ground lightly, with his foot to the right or to the left;
it results from this, that the persons who play move continually in
rotation in one direction or another; this variety of motion is
indispensable, for the head would become giddy if the players moved
very long in the same direction.
When Adriana and Aglaé were tired of their new sport, two of the elder
girls mounted the see-saw, and while they were enjoying this exercise,
two others occupied themselves with a more common amusement; each of
them, armed with a battledore, threw to one another a shuttlecock.
This game is too well known to our young readers, for any description
of it to be necessary.
Such of our little friends as are curious respecting the manners,
customs, and amusements of distant countries, may like to know, that
in China, and other countries of Asia, they play at shuttlecock with
the foot. The Chinese shuttlecock, like ours, is decorated with
feathers, but they place at the bottom a small bit of lead, or some
pieces of copper money to render it heavier; they make use of the
instep to push it, as is frequently done at the game of football. The
following verses were written upon the play of shuttlecock by Pannard,
and are thus translated:
Reason, whene’er your humour’s gay,
You treat us just as children play,
When with their battledores they force
The shuttlecock in airy course.
About you beat us as you please,
Till tir’d, we wish the game to cease;
And, when we fall upon the floor,
You pick us up to play, as you have done before.
[Illustration: Girls with shuttlecocks and rackets]
When all the young ladies were tired of the game of see-saw, and that
Adriana had taken, or tried in vain to take, a sufficient number of
butterflies, the whole party united and continued to play at
shuttlecock. It is not impossible for four or five people to amuse
themselves together, when they have a sufficient number of
battledores, but it is better to do it by turns, or in the following
manner. When a player fails to send back the shuttlecock which is sent
to her, she should give up her place to another, and if the new player
fails, she also should in her turn yield her place to a fresh
competitor, and so on, till each enjoys the amusement in rotation.
Such was the method pursued by our young players; but we do not know
whether disputes might not sometimes have arisen from it, had not
Madame D’Hernilly, as we before observed, always mixed in the sports
of the children, and, by her presence, prevented squabbles.
The famous Christina, queen of Sweden, was very fond of the game of
Shuttlecock. One day, during this queen’s stay in France, in the time
of Louis XIV., she asked the learned Bochart, whom she had attracted
to her court, to play with her. He did not need much entreaty, but
immediately taking off his cloak, began a game with her Majesty. Some
of his friends ridiculed his complaisance, but they were wrong; a
refusal would have been at once pedantic and ill-bred.
Before we quit this subject, we must say a few words respecting
_sognettes_, or, as we call them in English, battledores. They are, as
every body knows, little hoops of wood bent in an oval, and the
extremities, united to form a handle, are kept together by strips of
white leather bound round them. The interior of the battledore is a
netting made of catgut, which is stretched lightly.
Those learned people who found fault with Bochart for making use of
the battledore, have written several grave dissertations, for the
purpose of ascertaining whether the ancients were acquainted with this
game; those who are of opinion they were, cite this verse of Ovid:
Reticuloque pilæ leves fundantur aperto.
This passage of the Latin poet evidently means a net-work, upon which
not shuttlecocks, but light balls, were tossed backwards and forwards.
As to our young rattle-pates, they were not at all curious to learn
whether the amusement was of ancient or modern invention; leaving that
to be ascertained by graver heads, they entered with so much ardour
into the spirit of the game, that time flew unperceived, till their
amusement was at last interrupted by the castle bell announcing the
dinner-hour.
On the following day, as there was not a sufficient number of
battledores and shuttlecocks for every body, one of the young
visitors, named Valeria, contrived a very ingenious means of supplying
their place. She took a small hoop, which she had procured from a
barrel of oysters, and bound it round with pink and white ribbon; five
or six young persons, armed with sticks, stood in a group, one of them
threw this hoop to a great height in the air, and each of them caught
it and threw it up again in her turn. When any one failed, they were
obliged to quit the game for a moment, or to give a forfeit. This is
called the game of the “_flying ring_,” it resembles in many respects
the play of the “_funnel_,” which we shall speak of by-and-by.
Sometimes, in order to heighten the pleasure of the game, the players
added three little bells to the ring, and these bells striking while
the ring turned in the air, served to announce its approach.