Chapter IV: Preface (4)

The performers in this concert, who should be of nearly the same size, take their places behind a sheet stretched across the room at the height of their chins. They then put stockings on their arms and boots on their hands (or this may be done before they come into the room), and stand looking over the sheet at the company, with their hands and arms carefully hidden. The concert begins by the singing of the first verse of a song. Immediately the verse is finished, the singers, stooping down so that their heads disappear from view, thrust up their arms and wave them about, the effect being that of a row of people standing on their heads. The chorus is thus sung. Then they pull down their arms and put up their heads again and sing the next verse.

The Dancing Dwarf

This is a very amusing illusion and easy to arrange. All the players but two are sent out of the room and these stand behind a table. One stands close to the table, his arms in front of him so that the fingers rest on the table. Boots, or stockings and shoes, are put on their arms and a long dark cloak is thrown over the shoulders of the first player covering the one behind him. The one behind furnishes the arms by thrusting his out in front. The little feet resting on the table show from the folds of the cloak and give the appearance of a dwarf. The players are then called back and the dwarf, whose face should be disguised, performs any feat that they ask for--he sings a song, or makes a speech or prophesies the future of any one who desires it, always ending with a wild dance performed by the arms and hands of the other person. The light should be turned down somewhat and the audience should be straight in front of the table to keep the illusion at its best.

Charades

"Charades" can be written in advance and carefully rehearsed, but in this book we are concerned more nearly with those that are arranged a few minutes (the fewer the better) before they are performed. As a rule a word of two or three syllables is chosen, the syllables are first acted, then the whole word, and then the audience guess what it was. Sometimes the word is brought in, both in its complete form and in its syllables; and sometimes--and this is perhaps the better way--it is acted. Thus, if the word were "Treason," one way would be to make the acts themselves anything that occurred to you, merely saying "Tree" with some distinctness in the first; "Son" or "Sun" in the second; and "Treason" in the third. The other and more interesting way would be to make the first act relate to tree-felling or tree planting, or, say, a performance by Mr. Tree; the second to a son or the sun; and the third to some treasonable situation, such as, for example, the Gunpowder Plot. On account of the time which is occupied in preparing and acting it is better to choose two-syllabled words--which, with the whole word, make three scenes--than three- or four-syllabled ones; although there are certain four-syllabled words which split naturally into two halves of two syllables each. "Parsimony," for example, could be performed: Parsee, money, parsimony. As a general rule the charades that are arranged during the evening are better performed in dumb show, with plenty of action, than with any talking at all. Under the circumstances gestures are so much easier than words and not any less amusing.

Dumb Performances

Very good fun can be had also from impromptu pantomimes, where the performers enact some story which every one knows, such as "Aladdin" or "Red Riding Hood" or "Cinderella"; or a scene from history proper, or from village or family history. The contrast between the splendor of Cinderella's carriage in the story and the old perambulator which has to serve in the charade only adds to the fun. Every one, being dumb, acts to the utmost. It is sometimes more amusing if all the parts are turned upside down and a boy plays the heroine and a girl the hero. Where the scene is too tremendous for any representation to be given, it is best to meet the case frankly and use, as they did in Shakespeare's day, written labels, such as "This is Aladdin's Palace."

Dressing Up

It is, of course, much more fun to dress up; but dressing up is not so important that a charade is spoiled without it. If, on the day of your party, you know that charades will play a part in it, it is wise to put in a convenient room a number of things suitable to dress up in. Then at the last minute there need be no furious running up-stairs to pull things out of closets and boxes, and the unpleasantness will be avoided which sometimes follows when you have taken somebody's best clothes for a rather violent performance.

Almost the best garment there is for dressing-up purposes is a fur coat. While priceless for Red Riding Hood's wolf it will make also most of the other animals in the Zoo. A soldier's uniform is a great possession, and a real policeman's helmet has made the success of many charades. Most kinds of hat can, however, easily be made on the morning of a party out of brown paper. Epaulettes and cockades are also easily made of the same material. Powder or flour for white hair, some corks for moustaches and beards (you hold them in the candle for a minute and wait till they are cool enough to use), and a packet of safety-pins should be in handy places. Cherry tooth-paste makes serviceable rouge.

Tableaux Vivants

"Tableaux Vivants" are a change from acting, but they need, if done at all well, a great deal of preparation and rehearsal, and are therefore perhaps better left to older people. But quickly-arranged groups representing (not too seriously) scenes in American history might be good fun.

Remarks on Acting

The drawback to all charades and dressing up at a party is that they make away with so much valuable time of the players who are out of the room, and unsettle those who are left in. It should be the first duty of every one taking part in acting at parties to decide quickly on the subject or word, and to perform it quickly. Many and many a party has been spoiled by the slowness of the actors outside. Historical or family scenes with no dressing up and some action are perhaps better than much dressing up and absolute stillness. In "Canute and the Waves," for example, it is better that the incoming tide should be represented by a boy rolling slowly over the carpet than that there should be nothing but fixed eyes and stern faces.

RAINY-DAY GAMES

This is a chapter written to meet the needs of several children shut up together in bad weather. The chapter on "Indoor Occupation and Things to Make" gives suggestions for a single child, but here are a few suggestions for several occupations for a group of children, which do not mean the destruction of the furniture.

Any one of the games given in the chapter "In the Train" is suitable for rainy days.

There are of course many games treated elsewhere in this book which can be played on rainy days indoors. Many of the parlor and outdoor games are equally suitable for indoors. All the card games and back-gammon, checkers, etc., are invaluable resorts in case of a long dreary day, but there are a few other recreations which, in some families are saved for such occasions.

Bean-Bags

One of these is the old fashioned game of bean-bag. One rainy morning can be spent in making the outfit. The girls can be occupied in making the cloth bags, from six to ten inches square, partly filled with beans: and the boys in making the board which is shown in the illustration.

It should be about three feet square of any sort of boards and propped up at one side so that it forms an inclined plane. Five holes are cut in it, about seven inches square, all but the centre one which is only five inches square. The players stand off from six to twelve feet according as their skill increases with practice and try to throw the bags through the holes. There are various rules for playing the game which you can arrange to suit yourself, or to make a change. One way is have the bags in sets of six, each six being of one color, different from the others. The players stand in a line and all throw at once, trying to get their six bags in the holes as soon as possible. When they have thrown their bags they rush up to the board, gather up those which have gone wild and run back to the firing line. The one who gets his six bags in first wins the game. A bag thrown through the small centre hole counts as two.

Another way to play it is to throw in turn, each throwing all his six bags one after another. The one who gets most in is the winner.

Ring-Toss

Ring-toss is another game in which skill can be acquired only through practice and it is very good for rainy-days. It is really indoor quoits, and is a favorite game for shipboard. Any one with a little patience and care can make the rings which are of rope fastened together with slanting seam, wound with string so that there is no bulging, overlapping hump at one side.

A stake is nailed upright to a board (the stake can be a section of an old broom handle, or a smooth, small, straight peeled branch of a tree) and the outfit for the game is complete. It is played with the same rules as quoits (see "Outdoor Games for Boys"), and a very considerable degree of skill can be obtained by practice. As in pitching quoits, the rings should be thrown with a little level twist to make them whirl about.

Ring-the-Nail

A variation of this can be played with common large nails and brass curtain rings. Eight nails are driven into a board in a circle, leaving about an inch sticking up. In the centre, one is driven, standing about three inches tall. Small rings, curtain rings, for instance, are thrown toward this. Each time they encircle one of the lower nails is counted five, and the centre nail ten.

Soap-Bubbles

A soap-bubble race is easy to arrange and very good fun. An old shawl or blanket is laid on a table or the floor, goals are made at each end of it with piles of books, leaving an opening between, and each person is provided with a pipe for blowing bubbles. One bowl of soap-bubbles is enough for the company (see page 279 on the best way to make lasting soap-bubbles). The game is to see who can most quickly blow a bubble, deposit it on the woolen cloth at one end and blow it through the goal at the other. Of course you try to direct your puffs so that you will not only blow your own bubble along but will force your opponent's back.

Another way is to stretch a cord across the room and divide into two sides, standing three feet from the cord. At a given signal dip your pipes in the bowl of soap-suds, blow a bubble, and try to blow it over the cord. The side which succeeds in landing most bubbles in the enemy's territory wins.

Jack-Stones

A game which is good, quiet fun for a rainy day is Jack-stones. Although not played much nowadays it is very interesting and is to indoors what "mumble-the-peg" is to outdoors. It is played usually with small pieces of iron with six little feet: but it can also be played with small pebbles all of a size. All kinds of exercises can be used, many of which you can invent yourself but a few of the commonest are given below. 1. The five stones are thrown up and caught on the back of the hand. 2. Four of the stones are held in the hand while one is thrown up. They must then be laid on the table, or floor, in time to catch the stone before it comes down. It is then thrown up again, and the four stones are picked up either one at a time or all together, and the stone caught again.

Nearly all the exercises are variations of this. One stone is thrown up and different things must be done quickly with the others before it falls again.

Tying Knots

Another occupation for rainy days that will interest several children (as well as one) is puzzling out the construction of some of the simplest sailor's knots. This is a useful and a very desirable accomplishment. Often several together can solve a difficult knot better than one, and after some proficiency is acquired it is interesting to have a competition to see who can tie them most quickly and perfectly. Every one is supplied with a piece of clothes-line (the best rope for this purpose) and some one calls out "Running Noose," or "Figure of Eight." Every one must then make this as quickly as possible.

It is impossible to give directions in words about tying knots. The best way is to get clear illustrations and then work over them until you have mastered the intricacies. A few simple knots are shown here, but there are many books which give an almost endless variety.

Illustrating

A competitive game which is easy to manage is hit-or-miss illustrating. Any old magazine (the more the better) will furnish the material. Figures, furniture, landscape, machines--anything and everything--is cut out from the advertisement or illustrations, and put in a box or basket in the middle of the table. Every one is given a piece of paper and a proverb is selected for illustrating. Twenty minutes is allowed to choose suitable pictures, to paste them on to sheets of paper and to add, with pencil, accessories that are necessary: and then results are compared. The variety and excellence of these patchwork pictures are surprising. This can be played during convalescence. It is not necessary to select a proverb for illustrating. Any suggestive title will do. A few that have been found fruitful of varied and spirited pictures are given here.

A trying moment.
Companions in misery.
This is my busy day.
"I didn't know it was loaded."
His proudest moment.
The unhappy experimenter.
The best of friends.
A great scare.
Fine weather for ducks.
"Won't you have some?"
"Don't we make a pretty picture?"
Too busy to stop.
No harm done.
"I didn't mean to do it."
Stage-struck.
A great success.
"See you later."
A temporary quarrel.
A narrow escape.
A happy family.
The peace-maker.
A happy mother.

Shuffle-Board

A game which is often played on shipboard can be modified for an indoor, rainy day game very easily. This is shuffle-board, all the outfit for which you can easily make yourself. If you can have a long table that scratching will not injure your board is all ready, but you can easily procure a common, smooth-finished piece of plank, two feet wide, if possible, and four feet long. On one end mark a diagram like the preceding, about ten inches by eight inches. Mark a line at the other end of the board about four inches from the edge, put your counters on the line and you are ready to play. The counters may be checkers (or any round pieces of wood) or twenty-five cent pieces, or large flat buttons, although discs of lead are the best because the heaviest. Your pusher should be a little tool made especially, like the illustration, about a foot long, and anybody with a jack-knife can whittle a satisfactory "shovel" as it is called.

But if an impromptu game is desired, your counters may be pushed off with a common ruler, with a long lead-pencil, or even snapped with the finger nail, though this is apt to hurt. Each player has six counters which he plays by three's, thus one person begins by shoving off three of his counters toward the board on the end, trying to make them fall on the places that count the highest. The next player then shoots three of his counters, trying not only to place his own men well but to dislodge his adversary's men if they are in good places. After all have played in turn, the first player shoots his other three counters and so on till all have played again. At the close of each round the board is inspected and each person is credited with the sum of the numbers on which his men rest. The game is continued thus, until some one has reached the limit set, which may be a hundred, or fifty, or any other number according to the skill of the players.

The counters of each player may be distinguished from the others by any distinctive sign marked on them. They must not be pushed along but struck a sharp blow with your shovel. The head of your shovel must not pass the line marked for the counters. Counters which rest on, or touch a line do not count. A very considerable degree of skill can be attained in this game and it is a never failing resource on dull days.

A rainy day is a good time to practice various tricks and puzzles so as to perfect yourself in performing them.

Balancing Tricks

There are a number of balancing tricks which are easy and ingenious. The secret of most such tricks is in keeping the centre of gravity low, and when this idea is once mastered you can invent tricks to suit yourself. For instance a tea-cup can be balanced on the point of a pencil thus: put a cork through the handle of the cup (it should be just large enough to be pushed in firmly) and stick a fork into it, with two prongs on each side of the handle, and with the handle under the bottom of the cup. (Fig. 1.) The centre of gravity is thus made low, and if you experiment a little and have a little skill, and a steady hand you can balance the whole on a pencil's point.

Or you can balance a coin edgeway on a needle's point. The needle is stuck firmly into the cork of a bottle, and the coin is fixed in a slit cut in a cork, in which two forks are stuck. (Fig. 2.)

The simplest of these tricks is to balance a pencil on the tip of your finger by sticking two pen-knives in it, one on each side. (Fig. 3.)

A cork with two forks stuck in it can be made to balance almost anywhere--on the neck of a bottle from which the contents are being poured for instance. (See fig. 4.)

Amusing toys can be constructed on this principle. Tumbling dolls are made of light wood or cork, glued to the flat side of a half bullet. No matter how often they are knocked flat, they rise again at once.

The Dancing Egg

Another good trick that needs a little practice is to make an egg dance. Boil an egg hard, keeping it in an upright position (between cups set in the water or in some other way). Then turn a plate bottom side up and put the egg on it. Turn the plate around, more and more quickly, always holding it flat and level, and the egg will rise on its end and stand quite straight while it spins about.

The Dancing Pea

A pea can be made to dance on a column of air as you sometimes see a rubber ball rising and falling in a fountain of water. Take a piece of a clay pipe about three inches long, and make one end into a little rounded cup, by cutting the clay carefully with a knife or file. Then run two small pins cross-wise through a big, round pea, put the end of one pin in the pipe and hold the pipe in an upright position over your mouth. Blow gently through the pipe and the pea will dance up and down.

The Glass-Maker

Another trick to play with pins is the glass-making pin. Cut an ordinary rubber band in two, and stick a bent pin through the middle of this. Now hold an end of the elastic in each hand and whirl it rapidly around, stretching it a little. The revolving pin will at once assume the appearance of a tiny glass vase, or tumbler, and the shape can be varied at will. It is best to have a strong ray of light on the pin and the rest of the room darkened.

Electricity

Various tricks can be played by means of the electricity in paper. Ordinary sealing wax, rubbed briskly on a coat-sleeve until it is warm will attract bits of tissue paper, or any other soft paper. A variation on jack-straws can be played by means of this trick. Tiny scraps of tissue paper, each numbered, are piled in the centre of the table and each player by means of a piece of sealing wax tries to draw out the greatest number in the shortest time. This is a fascinating game and arranged impromptu in a very short time. The pieces of paper need not be of tissue paper, as any very thin paper will do. They should be about a quarter of an inch wide by an inch long and numbered up to twenty. They must be removed from the centre pile and put in piles before the players without touching with the fingers. It will be found that shaking them off the sealing wax is often harder than making them stick to it. Of course an effort should be made to secure those pieces of paper which have the largest numbers on them, as a few of these count more than many of the others.

Electric dancers are easy to make. Cut little figures out of tissue paper and lay them on the table. Put on each side of them two books and lay a sheet of glass over them about an inch and a half above them. Rub the glass briskly with a flannel cloth and they will jump up and down.

A rubber comb rubbed with a silk handkerchief will attract small bits of paper, feathers or wool. Various games and tricks can be devised by this means, such as "bringing the dead to life," _i. e._, raising paper figures to an upright position from a grave made of books, or a box.

OUTDOOR GAMES FOR GIRLS

Outdoor games for girls and outdoor games for boys are very often the same, although they are separated here for the sake of convenience.

Battledore and Shuttlecock

"Battledore and Shuttlecock" is equally good for one player or for two. The only game to be played is to see how long the shuttlecock can be kept in the air. If you are alone the best way is to set yourself a number, say a hundred, and persevere until you reach it. This can be varied by striving to reach, say, thirty, by first hitting the ball each time as hard as possible, and then hitting it very gently so that it hardly rises at all.

Jumping Rope

Ordinary skipping is good enough fun for most of us, but for those who are not satisfied with it there is skipping extraordinary, one feat of which is now and then to send the rope round twice before you touch the ground again. To do this, as it cannot be done with a mere rope, you must make a new rope of whipcord, in the middle of which you place a small chain about a foot long. This chain gives the weight necessary for whirling the rope very swiftly through the air.

Tom Tiddler's Ground

The player who is first going to be Tom Tiddler stands or sits inside the part of the garden (or room) marked off for him, pretending to be asleep. The others venture on his ground, crying, "Here we are on Tom Tiddler's ground, picking up gold and silver." As Tom still sleeps they grow bolder and bolder until he suddenly awakens and dashes for them. The one that is caught becomes Tom Tiddler. Tom may not cross the boundary-line.

Old Stone

Another "Tom Tiddler's Ground." One player crouches down pretending to be a stone. The others run round about her, gradually, as she shows no sign of life, getting nearer and more bold. The stone suddenly leaps up and begins to chase them, and the one caught is the old stone.

Hen and Chickens

Even more exciting than "Tom Tiddler's Ground" is "Hen and Chickens." In this game one player represents a fox and sits on the ground looking sly and hungry. The others, who are the hen and chickens, form a procession, holding each other's skirts or coats by both hands, and march past the fox, saying in turn--

Chickany, chickany, crany crow,
I went to the well to wash my toe,
And when I came back a chicken was dead.

Then they leave go of each other and stand round the fox, and the leader, the hen, says, "What are you doing, old fox?" The fox replies, "Making a fire"; and the conversation goes on like this:--

The Hen: What for?
The Fox: To boil some water.
The Hen: What is the water for?
The Fox: To scald a chicken.
The Hen: Where will you get it?
The Fox: Out of your flock.

With these words the fox springs up and the hen and chickens run in all directions. The chicken that is caught becomes the new fox, and the old fox is the new hen, the leader of the procession.

The same game is played by Essex children with an old woman in place of the fox, and with different words. In this case the hen and chickens make a procession in front of a player who personates an old weeping woman. As they march by, the hen sings--

Chickens, come clock, come clock, come clock,
Chickens, come clock, come clock, come clock,
The hawks are away and the crows are asleep,
It's time that my chickens had something to eat.

Then they leave go of each other and stand round the old weeping woman, and between her and the hen the following conversation is held:

The Hen: What are you crying for, my poor old woman?
The Old Woman: Because I've lost my needle.
The Hen: What do you want a needle for?
The Old Woman: To sew a bag with.
The Hen: What do you want a bag for?
The Old Woman: To put salt in.
The Hen: What do you want salt for?
The Old Woman: To scour a saucepan.
The Hen: What do you want a saucepan for?
The Old Woman: To boil one of your chickens in.

The old woman then leaps up and tries to catch a chicken, and the hen tries to stop her.

Other Garden Games

Many of the games described in other parts of this book are good also for the garden; such as "Still Pond! No More Moving!" (p. 4), "Puss in the Corner" (p. 7), "Honey-pots" (p. 11), "Nuts in May" (p. 12), "Here I Bake" (p. 13), "Lady Queen Anne" (p. 20), "The Mulberry Bush" (p. 28), and "Looby, Looby" (p. 29).

Witches

"Witches" is a home-made game played thus, according to the description of E. H.--"One player is made witch. A good spot is chosen for home, and here the others wait until the witch has had time to hide. The idea is that the country round is preyed upon by the witch, home being the only place where she has no power. The rest of the children have to explore the witch's country without being caught by her. It must be a point of honor to leave no suspicious place unexamined. The child chosen for witch need not be a particularly fast runner, but she must be clever and a good dodger. Any one that the witch succeeds in touching is at once turned to stone and may not stir except as she is moved about by the witch, who chooses a spot to stand her victim in as far removed from home as possible. The stone can be released only by some other child finding her and dragging her safely home, where the spell ceases to act. But until actually home the victim remains stone, so that if the rescuer is surprised by the witch and lets go her hold, the stone has to stand where she is left and is so recovered by the witch. The witch must not, of course, guard her prisoners too closely. She ought to try and intercept the rescuers on their way home, rather than spring upon them in the act of finding the stone. But each time the stone is recovered the witch may place her in a more inaccessible spot, so that it becomes more and more dangerous to release her. Sometimes at the end of the game all the children are turned to stone in different parts of the garden, but sometimes, of course, a swift runner will outstrip the witch and drag the victim safely home. A clever witch acts the part too--appearing and disappearing suddenly, prowling about in a crouching attitude, making gestures of hate and rage, and so on."

The Ballad Game

Another home-made game is described by E. H. thus:--"The game is taken from the player's favorite ballads. In our play the eldest of the four players, who was also the best organizer, represented the cruel father. The youngest little girl was the fair damsel. The other two represented the wicked lover and the faithful knight, the part of the faithful knight being taken by the fleetest of the party to balance the combination of the father and the wicked lover. The game begins by the fair damsel being imprisoned in the coach-house because she refuses to marry the wicked lover. (Of course any shed would do.) Here she waits until her knight comes to rescue her, and they escape together, pursued by the other two. If the lovers succeed in getting away the story has a happy ending; but the more dramatic ending is the tragic one, when the faithful knight is overtaken, and after killing the cruel father and the wicked lover, himself dies of his wounds, the fair damsel slaying herself with his sword over his dead body.

"The interest of this game is greatly increased by having retainers. These are armies of sticks which are planted at particular corners. There must be some mark by which your own retainers can be distinguished from the enemy's. For instance, the faithful knight may have peeled sticks and the others unpeeled. If, when charging round the house, you come across a troop of the enemy's retainers, you cannot go on until you have thrown them all down, as they are set to guard the pass. So, if the lovers are escaping and they find their way blocked by the father's retainers (the father and the wicked lover may have separate sets of retainers, in which case the war is always bitterest between the two rivals, as the father's retainers are sometimes spared for the damsel's sake), they have to lose time by first overcoming the retainers and that gives time to their pursuers to come up. But if they are so far in advance that they can stop to set up their own retainers in the place of the enemy, it serves to give them further time to make good their escape, as the others have to wait to overthrow the knight's sticks in their turn. In no case are you allowed to take away your enemy's sticks. If the lovers are overtaken, the rivals have to fight, and meanwhile the father once more carries off and imprisons the damsel."

Counting-Out Rhymes

To decide who is to begin a game there are various counting-out rhymes. All the players stand in a circle, surrounding the one who counts. At each pause in the rhyme (which occurs wherever a stroke has been placed in the versions which follow) this one touches the players in turn until the end is reached. The player to whom the last number comes is to begin. This is one rhyme:--

Eena-a, | deen-a, | dine-a, | dust, |
Cat'll-a, | ween-a, | wine-a, | wust, |
Spin, | spon, | must | be | done, |
Twiddlum, | twaddlum, | twenty-one. |
O- | U- | T | spells | out. |

Others:--

Intery, | mintery, | cutery | corn, |
Apple | seed | and | apple | thorn; |
Wine, | brier, | limber | lock, |
Five | geese |in | a | flock; |
Sit and sing | by a spring |
O- | U- | T | and | in | again. |

One-ery, | two-ery, |
Ziccary | zan; |
Hollowbone, | crack-a-bone, |
Ninery, | ten; |
Spittery | spot, |
Must | be | done, |
Twiddledum, | twaddledum,
Twenty-one.

Ring | around | a ring-pot, |
One spot | two spot | three spot | san |
Bob-tailed | winnie-wack | tittero | tan |
Ham | Scram |
Fortune | man |
Singum | sangum | Buck! |

Daisy Chains

The old way of making a daisy chain is to split one stalk and thread the next through it up to the head, as in this drawing. That is for out-of-doors. If you are using the chain for decorations indoors, it is perhaps better to cut off the stalks and thread the heads on cotton; but there seems to be no great need to use daisies in this way at all.

An ivy chain is made by passing the stalk of one leaf through the point of another and then bending it round and putting it through the point of its own leaf, the hole thus made being used for the stalk of the next, and so on, as in this drawing.

Flower Show

A flower-show competition is an excellent garden game. A handkerchief on sticks forms the tent. Underneath this is a bed of sand in which the flowers, singly or in groups, can be fixed. Some one can easily be persuaded to come out of the house to act as judge.

Garden Shop

Shop in the garden or out-of-doors is played with various things that resemble articles of food. Thus you can get excellent coffee from sorrel, and capital little bundles of rhubarb can be made by taking a rhubarb leaf and cutting the ribs into stalks. Small stones make very good imitation potatoes, and the heads of marguerite daisies on a plate will easily pass for poached eggs.

Flower Symbols

In this place a word might be said about some of the curious things to be found in flowers and plants. If you cut the stalk of a brake fern low down, in September, you find a spreading oak tree. The pansy contains a picture of a man in a pulpit. A poppy is easily transformed into an old woman in a red gown. The snap-dragon, when its sides are pinched, can be made to yawn. The mallow contains a minute cheese. By blowing the fluff on a dandelion that has run to seed you can tell (more or less correctly) the time of day. An ear of barley will run up your sleeve if the pointed end is laid just within it; and an apple's seeds make exquisite little mice.

Summer Houses

If the garden has no summer-house or tent a very good one can be made with a clothes-horse and a rug.

OUTDOOR GAMES FOR BOYS

This book is written for children who need help in amusing themselves. It is natural that there should be some difficulty about thinking of games for indoors, or when there is a problem of a large company to amuse; but it is hard to imagine any healthy boy, turned loose out of doors, who cannot take care of his own entertainment. The number of things to do is without limit and the boy so uninventive as to be at a loss with all outdoors before him must be in a sad way. Hence there has been no effort made in this chapter to make an exhaustive list of outdoor games, only those being given which are suggestive, that is, which can be infinitely varied according to your ingenuity; which are, so to speak, the first of a series.

Also, the rules of regular games are not given here (such as baseball, football, hockey, etc.). There are plenty of small manuals, given away with the outfits for these games, which print in much more detail than would be possible here, their principles. More than that, most boys absorb a general knowledge of these games through their pores, and need a book only to settle some small, knotty, disputed point of ruling.

One of the best things to have when out of doors is a ball. There is no end to the uses one can make of it.

Ball Games

The simplest thing to do with a ball is to catch it; and the quicker one is in learning to catch well the better baseball player one will become. Ordinary catching in a ring is good, but the practice is better if you try to throw the ball each time so that the player to whom you throw it shall not need to move his feet in order to catch it. This teaches straight throwing too. Long and high throwing and catching, and hard throwing and catching (standing as close together as you dare), are important. There is also dodge-catching, where you pretend to throw to one player and really throw to another and thus take him unawares. All these games can be varied and made more difficult by using only one hand, right or left, for catching.

Ball Games Alone

A boy with a ball need never be very lonely. When tired of catching it in the ordinary way he can practice throwing the ball straight into the air until, without his moving from his place, it falls absolutely on him each time. He can throw it up and catch it behind him, and if he has two others (or stones will do) he can strive for the juggler's accomplishment of keeping three things in the air at once. Every boy should practice throwing with his left hand (or, if he is already left-handed, with his right): a very useful accomplishment. If it is a solid india-rubber ball and there is a blank wall, he can make it rebound at different angles, one good way being, in throwing it, to let it first hit the ground close to the wall's foot. He may also pledge himself to catch it first with the right hand and then with the left for a hundred times; or to bat it up a hundred times with a tennis racket or a flat bit of board. An interesting game for one is to mark out a golf course round the garden, making a little hole at intervals of half a dozen yards or so, and see how many strokes are needed in going round and getting into each hole on the way.

Races

All kinds of races are easy to arrange and these can be repeated from day to day as your proficiency increases. Here are a few.

The Spanish race, sometimes called the Wheelbarrow race, is played by forming the boys into two lines, one standing back of the other, and the front row on their hands and knees. At a signal to begin, each boy on the back row takes hold of the ankles of the boy is front of him and lifts his knees off the ground. The boy in front walking on his hands, and the boy behind trundling him along, make the greatest haste possible. The pair who first reach the goal are the winners.

Races may be run, hopping on the right foot, or on the left, or with both together, or with first a hop and then a jump. It is well to appoint one of the boys umpire during these odd races, to see that they are run fairly and none of the rules agreed upon are broken.

A sack race is fun. Each boy is tied into a gunny sack and shuffles his way to the goal. A substitute for this is the three-legged race, run by two boys. They stand side by side, and the right leg of one is tied to the left leg of the other and so with three legs between them they must somehow get to the goal.

Hands and knees races, backward races (run with your back to the goal), races with burdens on your back, or balancing a pole across your hand or on the tip of your finger--there is no limit to the ones you can invent.

But the best ones, after all, are the plain old trials of speed. There is no more fun than a good running race, and a walking race is next to it. Bicycle races are apt to be dangerous and a course that is very wide should always be selected.

Quoits

Quoits is a game not played as much as it should be by American boys. It is easy to arrange, for although there is an outfit sold in the toy shops, a home-made one is just as good. It consists of a collection of horseshoes and a stake driven in the ground--certainly not a difficult apparatus to assemble. The stake should not project more than an inch above the ground and the players, according to the grown-up rules, should stand about fifteen yards away from the stake (which is usually called "the hub"). But for boys the distance from the hub can be determined by your skill. You may increase it as you improve with practice. Every player has a certain number of quoits (horseshoes) and standing at a fixed distance from the hub he tries to pitch them so that they will go as near as possible to the hub. Some very good players can cast a quoit so that it falls about the hub. This is called a "ringer" and counts ten, but it is a rare shot. Every one pitches his quoits and then all go to the hub and reckon up the score. The one whose quoits lie nearest to the hub counts one point for each quoit, but each quoit entitled to count must be nearer the hub than any of the opponents' quoits. This continues until the score is complete. People usually play for eleven. This game can be played with flat stones instead of horseshoes and with any rules that you choose to make.

Duck on a Rock

Duck on a Rock is a variation of Quoits which is excellent fun. One of the players, chosen by counting out, puts a stone (called in this game the "duck") about as big as his fist, on the top of a smooth rock and stands near it. All the other players have similar "ducks" and try to dislodge the one on the rock by throwing their stones, or ducks at it. As soon as each has thrown his duck he tries to watch his chance to run up to it and carry it back before the player standing by the rock can touch him. When some one knocks off the duck from the rock the "it" (the player by the rock) must put it back before he can tag any of the players. This is therefore, of course, the great time for a rush of all the players to recover their ducks and get back to their own territory before the "it" can tag them. If any player is touched by the "it" while attempting to rescue his duck he must become "it" and put his duck on the rock.

Bowling

Bowling is the best of sports but this usually needs too much apparatus for the average boy to have. Nine pins, however, can be arranged in a rough sort of a way, by setting up sticks and bowling at them with round apples. Your own ingenuity will devise ways to use the materials you find about you.

Hop-Scotch

Hop-scotch is a great favorite which scarcely needs a description, although there are various ways of marking the boards. The game is played by any number of persons, each of whom kicks a small stone from one part to another of the diagram by hopping about on one foot. The diagram is drawn on a smooth piece of ground with a pointed stick or on a pavement with a bit of chalk. The most usual figure is given here.

To begin, a player puts a pebble or bit of wood into the place marked 1, and then, hopping into it with his right foot, he kicks the counter outside the diagram. Then hopping out himself, he kicks it (with the foot on which he is hopping) into the part marked 2. He hops through 1 to 2, kicks the counter out again, and follows it out. This continues until he has kicked the counter in and out of every space in the diagram, without stepping on a line, or so casting the counter that it rests on a line. If this occurs he is put back a space, and it is the turn of the next player. Each one plays until he has made a fault, and when it is his turn again, he takes up the game where he left off. The one who first gets through the required figures is the winner.

There is literally no end to the variations of this game, either in the diagram used or in the rules. Sometimes when people become very skilful they play it backward, and sometimes at the end the player is required to place the pebble on his toe and kick it in the air, catching it in his hand.

Strength Tests

Various trials of strength are good for boys out of doors, provided rules are fixed and adhered to. Cane-spreeing is good sport, but should only be tried by boys pretty well matched in size and strength. A cane (or broom-stick) about three feet long is held by two boys facing each other, each with a hand on each end of the cane, the respective right hands being outside the lefts, that is, nearest to the end. Then one tries to get the cane away from the other. It sounds simple, but there are a great variety of strategic tricks to be learned by practice. No struggle should last more than two minutes by the watch, when the boys should stop and get breath. The feet are not used, but it is quite allowable to use your body, if you get down on the ground in a sort of wrestling.

Hare and Hounds

Hare and Hounds can be played either in the country or the city and is fine fun, although it should be begun with a short run. In the excitement of the chase boys are apt to forget, and over-strain themselves. The "hares" are two players who have a bag of small paper pieces which they scatter after them from time to time as they run. They are given a start of five or ten minutes and then all the others, who are the "hounds," start after them, tracing their course by the bits of paper. In the city the hares take a piece of chalk and mark an arrow on the wall thus ----> showing in which direction they have gone. Good stout shoes should be worn to run in, or you will blister your feet.

Dog-Stick

A game for city pavements or for smooth country roads has so many names that it is difficult to say which is its right one, but a common one is "dog-stick." It is played something like hockey, the aim being to get a ball or counter over your opponent's goal line. The ball in this case is not a ball but a piece of wood which you can make yourself, of an odd shape. It is like a flattened ball with a tail to it. With a club or stick you strike the tail so that the ball springs up in the air and then before it falls you strike it with your club toward your enemy's goal line. The players are divided into sides who try to defend their goal lines and to send back the ball to the other side. Make your own rules as experience teaches you is fair.

Other Games

The endless variations of leap-frog should not be forgotten in devising outdoor games: and tournaments of long or broad jumping and high jumping are good. Stilts and the games to be arranged with them are also another great resource. And the seasons bring, as regularly as flowers and snow, the round of tops, and kites and marbles. Of these last a very summary account is given here as most boys and regions have their own rules.

Marbles

The first thing to learn in "Marbles" is the way that the marble should be held. Of course one can have very good games by bowling the marble, as if it were a ball, or holding it between the thumb-nail and the second joint of the first finger and shooting it with the thumb from there; but these ways are wrong. The correct way is to hold it between the tip of the forefinger and the first joint of the thumb. Marbles are divided into "taws," or well-made strong marbles with which you shoot, and "clays," or the ordinary cheap colored marbles at which you aim and with which you pay your losses.

Ring Taw

Two or three boys with marbles could never have difficulty in hitting on a game to play with them, but the best regular game for several players is "Ring Taw." A chalk ring is made on as level a piece of ground as there is, and each player puts a clay on it at regular distances from each other. A line from which to shoot during the first round is then drawn two yards or so from the ring, and the game begins by the player who has won the right of leading off (a real advantage) knuckling down on the line and shooting at one of the marbles in the ring. If a player knocks a marble out of the ring, that marble is his and he has the right to shoot again from the place where his taw comes to a stand; but if in knocking a marble out of the ring his taw remains in it (or if his taw remains in it under any condition whatever), he has to put all the marbles he has won into the ring, in addition to one for a fine, and take up his taw and play no more till the next game. There is one exception to this rule: If only one marble is left in the ring, and if, in knocking it out, a player's taw remains in the ring, he does not suffer, because the game is then over. The other two rules are these: If a player succeeds in hitting the taw of another the owner of that taw not only must leave the game but hand over any marbles he has won. (In no case are taws parted with.) Also, if it happens that only two players are left, and one of these has his taw hit, that ends the game, for the player who hit it not only has the marble of the taw's owner but all the marbles left in the ring too.

"Ring Taw" can be played by as few as two players; but in this case they must each put several marbles in the ring.

To decide which player is to begin, it is customary for them all to aim at the ring from the knuckling-down line, and whichever one places his taw nearest to the middle of the ring has the right to lead.

Other Games

Other garden games for boys will be found in the Picnic section. We might mention also "Steps" (p. 4), "Tug of War" (p. 38), and "Potato Races" (p. 40).

PICNIC GAMES