He stopped, and the children disappeared from his shoulders, like birds
from a tree when they hear a sound. He clapped his hands, they turned
round, bowed, and vanished.
'As this feat pleases you,' said the father, 'and as we have a gentleman
here to-night who has proved himself a liberal patron of artists, I will
show you something that I rarely exhibit; I will hold the whole of
the Baroni family with my two hands;' and hereupon addressing some
stout-looking fellows among his audience, he begged them to come forward
and hold each end of a plank that was leaning against the wall, one
which had not been required for the quickly-constructed stage. This they
did with some diffidence, and with that air of constraint characteristic
of those who have been summoned from a crowd to perform something which
they do not exactly comprehend.
'Be not afraid, my good friends,' said Baroni to them, as Francis
lightly sprang on one end of the plank, and Josephine on the other; then
Alfred and Adelaide skipped up together at equal distances; so that the
four children were now standing in attitude upon the same basis, which
four stout men endeavoured, with difficulty, to keep firm. At that
moment Madame Baroni, with the two young children, came from behind the
curtain, and vaulted exactly on the middle of the board, so that the
bold Michel on the one side, and the demure Carlotta on the other,
completed the group.
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