Part 10 (1/2)

The man.

What he was wearing.

What he was doing.

(Met) Adjective for a woman.

The woman.

What she was wearing.

What she was doing.

The person he would much rather have met.

Where they met.

What he thought.

What he said.

What she thought.

What she said.

What he gave her.

What she did with it.

Where they went.

What they did.

What the consequence was.

What the world said.

Example:--

The honorable Theodore Roosevelt, who was dressed in a Moire antique bath-towel and was eating walnuts, met coy Aunt Priscilla in a Khaki tea-gown playing with her Noah's Ark, when he would much rather have met Madame Tussaud. They met at South Hampton. What he thought was, ”Here's this woman again,” but he merely said, ”That's a very chic costume of yours.” What she thought was, ”I wonder if he's seen Peter Pan,” but she only said, ”That's wet paint you're leaning against.” He gave her a piercing glance, and she swallowed it. So they went to prison together and learned to ride the bicycle, and the consequence was they caught influenza, and the world said, ”It's an ill wind that blows n.o.body good.”

Composite Stories

Another folding-over and pa.s.sing-on game is ”Composite Stories.” Paper is pa.s.sed round, and for five minutes each player writes the opening of a story with a t.i.tle prefixed. The papers are pa.s.sed on, and each player reads through as much of the story as has been written and for five minutes adds to it. And so on, until each player has written once on each paper. The papers are then pa.s.sed on once more, with the result that each paper will be found to be lying before the player who began it. The next and last five minutes are then spent by each person in reading through the story and bringing it to an end, sometimes a difficult enough task. If six persons are playing and allowances of five minutes have been given, there will be at the end of thirty-five minutes six complete stories to read aloud.

Another Story Game

A variety of the story game is for each player to write the name of a well-known person or friend of the family on the top of the paper, fold it over, and pa.s.s it on. This happens, say, five times, which means that when the papers are opened the names of five persons will be found on each. A story has then to be written introducing these people.

Improbable Stories

Another story game is one in which each player attempts to tell the most improbable or impossible story. In this case the papers are not pa.s.sed on, but a certain amount of time is given for the stories to be written in.

The Newspaper

This is a rather elaborate but really very easy game to play. One player, who acts as editor, takes as many sheets of paper as there are players and writes at the head of each the t.i.tle of a section of a newspaper. Thus on one he will write, Paris Correspondence; on another, English Correspondence; on another, Berlin Correspondence; on a fourth, Political News; on a fifth, Our Fas.h.i.+on Page; on a sixth, Reviews; on a seventh, Weather Report; and so on. Each player then, for a given time, writes on the subject allotted to him, more or less in the manner of the daily press, and at the end the result is read aloud by the editor.