Alice, dancing

There was once a boy called Alice who was mostly happy but who was sad about two things.

The first was his name. The midwife who attended Alice's birth was rather short-sighted and, by the time someone noticed that there was more to Alice than might have been expected, his Grandfather had already carved a name plate for Alice's nursery and no-one had the heart to make the old man do it again.

The second thing that made Alice sad was that, whilst he loved to dance, he didn't think that he was very good at it. And so he never danced when anyone could see him.

And then, one day, when he thought that he was alone, Alice danced his heart out all around the kitchen and the great hall and up and down the grand staircase. But Alice was not alone. A famous dancer was staying with Alice's family and, unknown to Alice, she had watched the boy's joyful, unfettered dancing. That evening, as the family were moving away from the dining table, the famous dancer took Alice to one side and, apologising for having inadvertently spied upon Alice's secret dancing, she told him that, in all her years as a famous dancer, she had never before seen anyone dancing quite as badly as Alice.