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.
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:
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:
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:
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.