Part 18 (1/2)
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 a.s.semble. 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 ent.i.tled 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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.p.a.ce, 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
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