What Shall We Do Now? by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (unputdownable books .TXT) 📕

The players stand in as wide a circle as the size of the room allows, with one player in the middle. He has a rope or heavy cord in his hand with some object, rather heavy but not hard, tied to it, such as a small cushion or a large bunch of rags. Stooping down, he begins swinging this around the circle. As it comes to them the players must jump over the cord. As the cushion is swung faster and faster it goes higher and is more difficult to jump over. The first one to miss takes the place of the person swinging the rope, who is not allowed to raise his hand higher than his knee.

In this game goals are set up at each end of the room, the players are provided with fans, and the football is a blown hen's egg, which is wafted backward and forward along the floor.

A string is stretched across the room at a height of about three or four feet. The players divide into sides and line up on each side of the string. The balloon is then thrown up, the game being to keep it in the air backward and forward over the string, so that if it falls it will fall in the other side's camp. It ought to be tapped with the back of the fingers and not hit hard.

In this game tissue-paper is cut into pieces three or four inches square. As many squares as there are players are placed in a line at one end of the room, and at the other are placed two books, or other objects, a foot or so apart. At the word of command each competitor, who is armed with a Japanese fire-screen or fan, starts to fan his square through the goal-posts. For the sake of distinguishing them it is better to mark the papers or have them of different colors. A competitor may not fan any other square except by accident.

This game should not be played unless there are some older, stronger players to prevent possible accidents, but it is very amusing. Each player in turn goes to the end of the room, takes a cane or umbrella, puts his head down on the handle, closes his eyes and, stooping over thus, whirls rapidly about six times, not moving the point of the cane from its original position. Then instantly he straightens up and tries to walk steadily the length of the room along a string laid down or line marked. The one who steps nearest to the line all the time is the winner.

This is a good game for a hall or landing. Two baskets are needed, which are placed at one end of the hall about two yards apart, and then in a line from each basket are placed potatoes, at intervals of a yard or so all down the floor, an equal number to each line. Any even number of competitors can play, the race being run in heats. Each competitor is armed with a long spoon, and his task is to pick up all the potatoes on his line and return them to the basket before his opponent can. Each potato must be carried to the basket in turn, and if dropped on the way must be picked up again before another can be touched, and the spoon only must be used. Any help from the other hand or from the foot disqualifies.

At a fire in the country, where there is no hose, a line of men extends from the burning house to the nearest pond, and buckets are continually being passed along this line. Hence the name by which this excellent game is called here. It is played thus. A large number of miscellaneous and unbreakable articles—balls, boots, potatoes, books, and so on—are divided into two exactly equal groups, and each group is placed in a clothes basket. The company then forms into two equal lines, and each chooses a captain. Each captain stands by the basket at one end of his line, at the other end being a chair and another player standing by that. At the word "Start," the articles are handed one by one by the captain to the first player in the line, and passed as quickly as possible without dropping to the player by the chair. As they come to him he piles them on the chair (without dropping any) until all are there, and then returns them with equal speed until the basket is filled again. The side which finishes first is the winner. If an article is dropped it must be picked up before any other of the articles can pass the player who dropped it.

In many of the games already described mention has been made of "Forfeits." They do not now play quite so important a part in an evening's entertainment as once they did, but they can still add to the interest of games. "Paying a forfeit" means giving up to the player who is collecting forfeits some personal article or other—a knife, a pencil, a handkerchief—which, at the end of the game, or later in the evening, has to be recovered by performing whatever penance is ordered. When the times comes for "crying the forfeits," as it is called, the player who has them sits in a chair, while another player, either blindfolded or hiding her eyes, kneels before her, the remaining players standing all around. The first player then holds up a forfeit, remarking, "I have a thing, and a very pretty thing. Pray what shall be done to the owner of this pretty thing?" To which the blindfolded one replies by asking, "Is it fine or superfine?" meaning, Does it belong to a boy (fine) or a girl (superfine)? The answer is either "It is fine," or "It is superfine," and the blindfolded one then announces what its owner must do to get possession of it again. Of stock penances there are a great number, most of which are tricks which, once known, are necessarily very tame afterward. In the case of those that follow, therefore, something definite and practical is required.