AN UP-COUNTRY DANCE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 273, 11 August 1908, Page 5

AN UP-COUNTRY DANCE.

Till some happy chanco has guided one's straying footsteps to an up-country dance, one lias never seen complete enjoyment of life. " There it is to be seen in all its fullness, ■ every moment made tho most of, as though never again could such joys occur, and for days after it is.talked of, and all its little incidents fully discussed, whenever any of those who wero present meet together again.

'''Distance is no nor is rain or floods. The night' arrives, and so, do tho guests', all gathering in the hall, or rather woolshed (sometimes a schoolroom) decorated for t[ie, occasion by willing hands with treeferns, palms, mosses, and pictures that are frequently of famous racehorses. Young and old, from the hard-working, toil-worn- mother who says she has only come to look on but later will be found dancing as gaily as you please,; to a sprinkling of girls With their hair down—even a baby or two—all: are thero to enjoy themselves. No time is lost in tho filling of the programmes, for punctually on the stroke of eight (thoy begin their pleasures early in the country) an M.C. calls out in stentorian tones, " Take your partners for the polka." The , music strikes up (sometimes it is a concertina only) and away they go. There is no languid strolling in at'the last moment by the men, or watching tho scene from distant- doorways.y Fresh, smiling girls dressed, in their smartest frocks pass by with their carefully-arraycd partners, and elderly men and women who are even more energotic than ,the ; youhger ones hop gaily rolmd tho room. It is their night for pleasure, and not a moment must be missed. . -

There is no ceremony on these occasions; as two young men once found out to their great surprise and. consternation. Curiosity drew them to look in for a second or two as they were, passing by,, when a woman who, was sitting on a form near • where they were standing observed them, and turning said to one, " Wouldn't you like, a dance ?" and, before ho had time to realiso things had bundled tho baby, sho was holding into'his companion's arms and had marched him off to join -in the waltz just going on. Luckily tho baby consented to bo ' amused with proceedings, and surveyed things quite happily till its mother came back'onco more to claim it. Tho two young men did not linger. ....

Thero is no more _ important man than tho M.C... His responsibilities and the importance of his position weigh heavily upon him and ,he becomes a veritable will-o'-the-wisp, flying here," there, and everywhere) introducing ; strangers,. (not;, that,: they always wait for introductions,, but how and again: a lady is hiughty and looks askance, upon the daring stranger who asks, " Feel, like having a fly round, miss?"), makes up tho square dances, and sees to things gonerally. Square dances are danced with' the ' utmost precision,, not,one movement out of time witn the beat of tho music, and tho bold individuals who venture into a sot and are at sea as to, what 1 comes next, get most withering glances bestowed upon them, and should feel humbled to the dust. The men are very careful of their partners) and would not dream of whisking them madly about tho rooirr as though they were feather brooms, nor do'they themselves gallop ; blindly from one end of it to, another in tne lancers, utterly regardless of the lives and' limbs of others. .Yet they thoroughly ' enjoy themselves.

Swiftly and surely 'tho hours of the night; fly by, and daybreak lias gained a strong hold in the world before the last of the revellers mount their horses and ride away in the keen freshness -of early morning,' to work once more, tired, but feeling their energies were spent in a good cause. The only tiling they regret is that.it is not Christmas week, when they would have danced every night till New Year was over, and then have slept for the whole of tho. next week, according to tho custom of many of those who aro the advance guard of sottied communities.-