Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-08-15
How "a Fashionable Girl
climbs n Fence.

climb a fence? 1t is more of a show
than a circus with a whitewashed
elephant. First she looks around
to find out whether anbody is in
sight. Then if the coast is clear
she puts one foot on the second rail
of the fence, and looks around
again. Then she gives little hop
and gets her other foot upon the
second rail. Here she stops for
moment to rest and straighten her
hat.
The next manouvre is the critical
one, to get one foot up over the top
rail. She steadies herself for a
moment, then giver a quick little
upward kick that does not quite
reach the mark, but causes her
jump down on the ground again
with a tiny scream and tuck her
clothes in all around. Again she
surveys the surrounding country
and again hops up on the second
rail.
This time she is bolder and throws
her foot clear to the top of the
fence, where it catches by the heel
on the top rail, it is DOW or never
with her-then something must be
done instanter. Grasping the top
rail with all her might she pulls
herself up till she sits astraddle of
the fence, with the landscape spread
out beneath her like a map. If
anybody appears in sight she just
drops off the fence as if he had
been shot, and gathers herself up
when she gets there.
If the coast continues clear, she
proceeds in a very leisurely man.
ner to get down on the other side
of the fence. First she t1rns
around, facing the way she came,
and feels backward with the foot
which is already over the fence for
a good, steady, reliable rail. Hav-
ing foud such a rail, she plants her
self upon it and sets to work to get
the other foot over the fence.
This is very difficult and en-
barrassing piece of strategy, and
good many girls will sit on the top
ofa fence half a day before they
will attempt it. Some will even
stay there till a hOrrid man comes
along and lifts them off. Not so
the truly courageous girl-she who
is no more afraid to climb q fence
than to sit in the same room with a
mOusetrap. She will never give
up the fort till she gets OFF that
fence in the ancient and honorable
manner of her sex.
She grasps the top rail and leans
as far back as her arms will allow,
and then tries to coax the refractory
jump over after her. Alas, it is
too long, and she jumps back as
traddle, with a little laugh, and
tucks her skirts around her again.
After a brief rest she tries another
wrinkle. She lies down fat on her
face on the top rail and tries to side
off on her face on the top rail and
tries to side off sideways, as she
has often seen her little brother do.
This would be all well enough,
and would place her on terra firma
again, if she only had the courage
to carry out her intention. But
just as she is about to slip off, fear
seizes her. She screams, rights up
and straddles the fence once more.
This kind of thing continues for
five or ten minutes. Then the fair
acrobat begins to get wrothy. She
looks at the ground, only three or
four feet away, and makes up her
mind that she will reach it some
time, anyway.
SO she settles her hat on her
head with a determined look, steps
back on the reliable rail, and with
a mighty effort draws back her
other foot to the very edge of the
top rail, like an archer drawing an
arrow to the head.
0, if it only were not for that
French heel she would be free
But, alas, it holds her there with
the dull persistency of fate. A
look of terror and despair comes
over her countenance, her eyes
stick out like buttons. She gives
a quick backward leap, and lets go.
What surprise, what delight
She finds herself alighting right
side up with care, on the soft turf,
without somuch as a feather jOstled |
in her hat. She can't imagine how
it happened so. She fully expected |
to be picked up a complete wreck
and carried home to die among her
sorrowing friends.
But now that she is really safe
and sound upon the dear old earth
again, she looks up with unspeak-
able gratitude to the clear blue
sky; then brushing her skirts and
beating them out so that they will
hanO STRAIGHT. she VOWS that should I