Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-04-13
SOWING SEEDS IN DANNY
By NELLIE L. McCLUNC


Of uncrowned king among the crofters.
lt was tight race for popularity be-
tween mother and Tonald In that set,
and when the two stars met face to
face in the Balance all ~ Tonald sur
passed all former efforts. He cracked
his heels together. he snapped his
| fingers; he threaded the needle; he
wrung the dishcloth-oh you should
have seen Tonald!
Then big John clapped his hands to-
gether,. and the first figure was over.
In the second figure, for which the
violins played my Love Is But Lassie
YETI Mrs. Slater's memory began to
revive, and the dust Of twenty years
fell from her dancing experience. She
went down the center and back again
right and left on the side, ladies' chain
on the head, right hand to partner and
grand right and left, as neat as you
please, and best of all, when all the
ladies circled to the left, and all the
gentlemen circled to the right, no one
was quicker to see what was the up
shot Of it all; and before big John told
them to "Form the basket" mother
whispered to father that she knew what
was coming, and father told mother she
was a wonderful woman for Meth
odist. Turn the. basket inside OUT
|
back, circle to the right" "Swing the
girl with the hole in her SOCK" PRONE
made once and half around on the
head, once and a half around on the
side" Turn 'em around to place again
and balance oil !" "Clap! Clap Clap Z"
Mother wanted to quit then, but dear
me, no! No one would let her. They
would dance the breakdown now,
and leave out the third figure. and as
a special inducement they would dance
"Dan Tucker
She would stay for Dan Tucker"
Peter came in for Tucker" an extra
man being necessary, and then off they
went into
Clear the way for old Dan Tucker,
He's too late to come to supper.
Two by two they circled around,
Peter in the center singing O..
Old Dan Tucker
Was fine old man
Then back to the right
He washed his face
In the frying pan.
Then around in a circle hand in
hand
He combed his hair
On a wagon wheel.
And died with the toothache
In his heel!
As they let 60 Of their partners hands
and went right and left, Peter made his
grand dash into the circle, and when the
turn of the tune came he was swing
ing his mother. his father had Tonald s
partner, and Tonald was in the center
in the title roll of Tucker, executing
some Of the most intricate steps that
had ever been seen outside Of the Isle
of Skye.
Then the tune changed into the skirl-
ing bagpipe Tilt all Highlapders love-
and which we who know not the Gaelic
profanely call "Weel may the keel row"
and Tonald got down to his finest
work.
He was in the byrc now at home be-
yond the sea, and it iss not strange
| faces he will be seein'. but the lads and
lassies of the Glen, and it iss John Nc
Neash who holds the crone under his
arm and the chanter in his hands, and
the salty tang Of the sea comes up to
! him and the peat smoke is in his nos
trils. and the pipes skirl higher and
higher as ,Tonald Mckenzie dances the
dance of his forebears in a strange land.
They had seen Tonald dance before, but
| this was different. for it was not TOnald
Mckenzie alone who danced before them,
but the incarnate spirit of the High :
| lands, the unconquerable, dauntlcss,
lawless Highlands, with its purple hills
and treacherous caverns that fling def
ance at the world and fear not man nor
devil.
Tonald finished with leap as nimble
as that with which n cat springs ON its
victim while the company watched spell
bound.
He slipped away into corner and
would dance no more that night.
When ~ o'clock came. the dane
ing was over, and with the smell OF
coffee and the rattle Of dishes in the
kitchen it was not hard to persuade big
John Kennedy to sing.
Big John lived alone in a little
shanty in the hills, and the prospect
of a good square meal was pleasant
one to the lonely fellow who had been
his own cook so long. Big John lived
among the crofters, whose methods of
cooking were simple in the extreme, and
from them he had picked up strange
ways Of housekeeping. He ate out Of
the frying pan he MIXED the COW in the
porridge pot, and only took what he
needed for each meal, reasoning that
she had better way Of keeping it than
he had. Big John had departed almost
entirely from white mans ways" and
lived wild life free from the demands
Of society. His ability to ''call of
at dances was the one tie that bound
him to the Canadian people on the plain.