This was a matter which could not be managed without great difficulty, on account of the turnings and windings which they had to pass; the trees, hedges, and other obstacles also made the hoop upset every moment. Added to this, the young ladies in imitation of what they had seen their brothers do, were mischievous enough to try to take advantage of those who played with them, and by pushing their hoops a contrary way, to occasion those of their competitors to fall, in order that they themselves might have a better chance of being first at the goal.
While two of them were amusing themselves at this game, the others having seized on a skipping-rope, made their young friends skip alternately. The two young ladies who held the cord moved it circuitously, but gently; a third, and sometimes several of them jumped with their feet close together through it. Sometimes they practised the most difficult steps which they had learned from their dancing-master, or tried who could
rise the highest from the ground in cutting capers. The most boisterous endeavoured to imitate the boys, and like them they asked for vinegar, that is the term which they use when they want the rope to go more quickly.
When Victor and his companions returned, they were quite delighted to find that the young ladies had been playing at their games. Victor proposed the next day that they should all play together; but the young ladies very properly refused. They contented themselves with being spectators. The boys, who were some of them first-rate players both at the hoop, and the rope, shewed considerable skill and strength. Victor excelled in the double leaps, the chevaliers or knights’ cross, and he even performed several triplets with infinite grace and lightness.
The player who performed, without interruption, the greatest number of the knights’ double crosses, won the game. The cord turned with so much swiftness in Victor’s hands, that you could hardly believe he held it if you had not heard it whiz in the air, for it passed between his feet and the floor of the apartment without touching either, and it was almost imperceptible to the sight.
When they had each amused themselves singly, as long as they liked with the rope, they formed into groups of six or eight, to dance in the middle of the long skipping-rope.
The first who touched the rope with his foot stopped the play; he was obliged, by way of penance, to stand on one side, and was left out of the game till some one else had failed in it.
THE ROPE.
Masters and misses, by your leave,
I beg this kind advice to give;