This page has been validated.
A NEW-ENGLAND TALE.
63

CHAPTER V.


"I am for other, than for dancing measures."

As You Like It.


A few months after Jane entered her aunt's family, an unusual commotion had been produced in the village of —— by an event of rare occurrence. This was no less than the arrival of a dancing-master, aed the issuing of proposals for a dancing-school.

This was regarded by some very zealous persons as a ruse de guerre of the old Adversary, which, if not successfully opposed, would end in the establishment of his kingdom.

The plan of the disciple of Vestris, was to establish a chain of dancing-schools from one extremity of the county to the other; end this was looked upon as a mine which would be sprung to the certain destruction of every thing that was 'virtuous and of good report.' Some clergymen denounced the impending sin from their pulpits. One said that he had searched the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and he could not find a text that expressly treated of that enormity, but that was manifestly because it was a sin too heinous to be spoken of in holy writ; he said that dancing was one