Chapter 50

CHAPTER 50

Involves a serious Catastrophe

The little race-course at Hampton was in the full tide and height of
its gaiety; the day as dazzling as day could be; the sun high in the
cloudless sky, and shining in its fullest splendour. Every gaudy
colour that fluttered in the air from carriage seat and garish tent
top, shone out in its gaudiest hues. Old dingy flags grew new
again, faded gilding was re-burnished, stained rotten canvas looked
a snowy white, the very beggars' rags were freshened up, and
sentiment quite forgot its charity in its fervent admiration of
poverty so picturesque.

It was one of those scenes of life and animation, caught in its very
brightest and freshest moments, which can scarcely fail to please;
for if the eye be tired of show and glare, or the ear be weary with
a ceaseless round of noise, the one may repose, turn almost where it
will, on eager, happy, and expectant faces, and the other deaden all
consciousness of more annoying sounds in those of mirth and
exhilaration. Even the sunburnt faces of gypsy children, half naked
though they be, suggest a drop of comfort. It is a pleasant thing
to see that the sun has been there; to know that the air and light
are on them every day; to feel that they ARE children, and lead
children's lives; that if their pillows be damp, it is with the dews
of Heaven, and not with tears; that the limbs of their girls are
free, and that they are not crippled by distortions, imposing an
unnatural and horrible penance upon their sex; that their lives are
spent, from day to day, at least among the waving trees, and not in
the midst of dreadful engines which make young children old before
they know what childhood is, and give them the exhaustion and
infirmity of age, without, like age, the privilege to die. God send
that old nursery tales were true, and that gypsies stole such
children by the score!

The great race of the day had just been run; and the close lines of
people, on either side of the course, suddenly breaking up and
pouring into it, imparted a new liveliness to the scene, which was
again all busy movement. Some hurried eagerly to catch a glimpse of
the winning horse; others darted to and fro, searching, no less
eagerly, for the carriages they had left in quest of better
stations. Here, a little knot gathered round a pea and thimble
table to watch the plucking of some unhappy greenhorn; and there,
another proprietor with his confederates in various disguises--one
man in spectacles; another, with an eyeglass and a stylish hat; a
third, dressed as a farmer well to do in the world, with his top-
coat over his arm and his flash notes in a large leathern pocket-
book; and all with heavy-handled whips to represent most