Her hands passed up beyond my shoulder, to my neck. It s in yore haid, she said. In yore darlin haid! Fingers worked over my scalp. Oh, there! she gasped. Hit s ahurtin me! Hurtin , hurtin , and I m a draggin it off n yuh! Her backwoods twang sharpened as she aped some contemporary witch. Hurt? She didn t know what it meant. She fired a charge of thermite in my head, and it seared its way down my arm to my fingers. My right arm came off the bed and thrashed like a wounded snake. She wrestled it, climbed onto the bed, and held it down with her boney knees. Her fingers kneaded it, working some imaginary devil out through the fingertips, till the hurt was gone.
No moah, she said. You ll lose. Of course he did. I TK d the one-two up. Little Joe from Kokomo, one of the stick-men called. They raked losing bets and paid winners with the speed of prestidigitators. Roller keeps the dice, the stick-man told my neighbor. The gambler cursed and threw the dice to the roller on his left. He spat blame at Sniffles for not riding with him. He was one big clot of crushed misery.
As to the respective merits of these table games, there is little to be said. Curiously enough they are played by entirely different classes of people. Backgammon has always been highly respectable, and seems likely to retain its position as the fashionable game. Draughts is peculiarly the game of the middle classes, popular at the workman’s dinner hour, in the sitting-rooms of cheap hotels, in country clubs, and in fire engine stations; the latter being a favourite training ground for our checker champions. Chess is probably the most universal game of all, and its general character is understood by almost every educated person in the world. CHESS. Chess is played upon a square board, divided into sixty-four smaller squares of equal size. These small squares are usually of different colours, alternately light and dark, and the board must be so placed that each player shall have a light square at his right, on the side nearer him. Each player is provided with sixteen men, eight of which are called _=pieces=_, and eight _=pawns=_. The men on one side are red or black, and those on the other side are white or yellow, and they are usually of a standard pattern, which is known as the Staunton model.
Tricks count before honours, and if he feels certain of making, by cards, the few points necessary to win the rubber, he may entirely disregard the honours. With such a hand it would be better to play without a trump, and to announce a _=grand=_, in which there are neither trumps nor honours, and every trick over the book is multiplied by 8. Two by cards at grand is worth more than two by cards and two by honours with any trump but cayenne. There is still another resource, to announce _=nullo=_, in which there is no trump, and the object of the players is to take as few tricks as possible. In nullo, every trick over the book counts for the adversaries, and is multiplied by 8. A peculiarity of nullo is that the Ace of each suit ranks below the deuce, unless the player holding it wishes to declare it higher than the King. In the latter case he must announce it when he plays it, and before his left-hand adversary plays to the trick. If the dealer transfers the right of making the trump to his partner, he must use the phrase, “You make it, partner.” If a player makes the trump out of turn, his adversaries may consult as to the propriety of demanding a new deal. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.
_=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ The cards dealt, the player to the left of the dealer begins by leading any card he pleases, and the others must follow suit if they can. The highest card played, if of the suit led, wins the trick. There is no trump suit. If a player has none of the suit led, he may discard anything he pleases. The winner of the trick takes it in and leads for the next trick, and so on until all the cards have been played. The tricks themselves have no value as such, and need not be kept separate. _=Irregularities in Play.=_ If any player omits to play to a trick, and plays to a following one, he is not allowed to correct his error, but is compelled to take the thirteenth or last trick, with whatever hearts it may contain. If a player is found, during or at the end of a hand, to be a card short, all others at the table having their right number, and all having played to the first trick, the player with the short hand is compelled to take the last trick, with whatever hearts it may contain.
_=40. Fattening.=_ If no player will open, the cards are reshuffled, cut, and dealt, usually by the same dealer, and each player adds one counter to the pool. _=41. Coming In.=_ If any player opens the pot for a certain amount, each player in turn, on his left, can come in by putting up a similar amount, regardless of the value of his hand. Any player on the right of the opener who passed on the first round may now come in. Any player declining to put up the amount for which the pot is opened must abandon his hand, and all his interest in the pool. _=42. Raising the Opener.
| -- | -- | -- | |32.|Give him a pipe of | -- | -- | | |tobacco to smoke. | | | |33.|Suppose the pipe | -- | -- | | |should fall and break.| | | |34.|We ll give him a bag | -- | -- | | |of nuts to crack. | | | |35.|Suppose the nuts were | -- | -- | | |rotten and bad. | | | |36.| -- |Set a dog to bark all | -- | | | |night.
If you have led from King and Queen only, you must go on with the fourth-best; because you have not both the second and third-best. This fourth-best is the card that was the fourth-best originally. Having led the King from this:-- [Illustration: 🃎 🃍 🃈 🃆 🃅 🃃 ] the card to follow the King is the six, if the King wins the first trick. _=The Fourth-best.=_ From any combination of cards, if you have not the best, or both the second and third-best, in your hand for the second round, lead your original fourth-best. From all the following, the proper lead on the second round would be the fourth-best, in each case the four of the suit: [Illustration: 🂡 🂭 🂧 🂤 🂢 | 🂾 🂽 🂸 🂴 🃁 🃋 🃉 🃄 🃃 | 🂮 🂭 🂧 🂤 🃑 🃙 🃘 🃔 🃓 | 🃎 🃋 🃊 🃄 ] _=Leading Trumps.=_ A trump lead is sometimes adopted when all the plain suits are bad ones to lead away from, such as A Q, or A J, or K J in each and no length. If a player holds high cards which are not in sequence, such as the major tenace, ace and queen, it is very probable that the declarer holds the king. By refusing to lead such suits, and waiting for them to come up to the tenace, the declarer’s high card may be caught and a valuable trick saved. When a good player opens his hand with a trump, right up to the declaration, his partner should lead his best supporting cards boldly up to dummy’s weak suits.
Up the plain and down the plain, As stippy [slippery] as a glass, We will go to Mrs. ---- To find a pretty lass. [Annie] with her rosy cheeks, Catch her if you can, And if you cannot catch her I ll tell you who s the man. [Annie] made a pudding, She made it very sweet; She daren t stick a knife in Till George came home at neet [night]. Taste [George], taste, and don t say Nay! Perhaps to-morrow morning ll be our wedding day. [The bells shall ring, and we shall sing, And all clap hands together.][2] --Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy). (_b_) A full description of this game could not be obtained in each case. The Earls Heaton game is played by forming a ring, one child standing in the centre. After the first verse is sung, a child from the ring goes to the one in the centre.
The field of combat is usually the crown of a hat. The object of each party is to crush the nuts of his opponent. A nut which has broken many of those of the adversary is a Cob-nut.--Brand, ii. 411; Hunter s _Hallamshire Glossary_. (_b_) This game is played in London with chestnuts, and is called Conquers. In Cornwall it is known as Cock-haw. The boys give the name of Victor-nut to the fruit of the common hazel, and play it to the words: Cockhaw! First blaw! Up hat! Down cap! Victor! The nut that cracks another is called a Cock-battler (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 61). Halliwell describes this game differently.
For instance: A wins 4 tricks, three times which is 12; from which he deducts 9, the number he did not take, and finds his loss to be 3 red counters. Again; A wins 7 tricks; three times which is 21; minus 6 tricks not taken, a net loss of 15. No matter in what proportion the other tricks may be divided between the three other players, this total payment will always be found correct. For instance: A wins 6 tricks; Y 2; B 5; and Z none. A loses 6 x 3 = 18-7 = 11, of which he gives 4 to Y; 1 to B; and 6 to Z. If two players tie for the greatest number of tricks taken, they calculate their losses in the same manner; but each pays only half the total. For instance: A and Y each take 5 tricks; B taking 1, and Z 2. The 7 red counters lost by A and Y being divided, shows a loss of 35 white counters for each of them. If three players take four tricks apiece, they each pay the fourth man a red counter. _=WINNING THE POOL.
Chess Player’s Chronicle. Chess Monthly. _Westminster Papers_, 1868 to 1879. Of these works, “Minor Tactics” will be found most useful to the beginner, as it simplifies the openings by grouping them, and concentrates the attention on the essential points of chess strategy. CODE OF CHESS LAWS. ADOPTED BY THE FIFTH AMERICAN CHESS CONGRESS. _=Definitions of Terms Used.=_ Whenever the word “_Umpire_” is used herein, it stands for any Committee having charge of Matches or Tournaments, with power to determine questions of chess-law and rules; or for any duly appointed Referee, or Umpire; for the bystanders, when properly appealed to; or for any person, present or absent, to whom may be referred any disputed questions; or for any other authority whomsoever having power to determine such questions. When the word “_move_” is used it is understood to mean a legal move or a move to be legally made according to these laws. When the word “_man_” or “_men_” is used, it is understood that it embraces both Pieces and Pawns.
[Illustration: 🃒 🂦 🃖 🂷 🃗 ] If you have duplicates of two different cards you can form four fifteens; because you can replace the Seven first, and then the Six, and then put the first Seven back again with the new Six. This will make the combination of the same value as if you had three duplicates of one card, 12 points; 8 for the four fifteens, and 4 for the two single pairs. _=Combinations.=_ The beginner’s greatest difficulty is in counting hands which contain all three varieties of counts; pairs, sequences, and fifteens. But if he is familiar with the values of the various combinations taken separately, he will have no difficulty in computing them when they are found together. Some regular order should be observed in going over the hands, so that nothing shall be forgotten. The majority of players begin with the fifteens, as they are more liable to be overlooked, and then reckon the value of the runs and pairs together. Take the following examples:-- No. 1. [Illustration: 🃕 🂵 🂥 🃖 🃇] No.
On each side of one sits a pair of adversaries so that the initial arrangement, if pair A had the deal, would be this:-- [Illustration: B C +-----+-----+ | 5 | 6 | | | | A |1 | 4| A | | | | 2 | 3 | +-----+-----+ B C ] Numbers are placed on the tables to indicate the positions to which the players shall move after each deal. The player at 6 goes to 5; 4 to 3; 3 to 2; 2 to 1, and 1 to 6. Each pair of partners, as they fall into the end seats, have the deal. If the dealer at either end will not declare on his own cards, he passes it, and the Dummy hand opposite him must be handed to the dealer that sits at the other end of the long table, who must declare for his partner. The usual four hands are dealt and played at each table, and scored as usual. Three scores must be kept, because there are three separate rubbers going on at once,--that between A and B; between A and C, and between B and C. If one pair wins its rubber against one of the others, three players will be idle at one end of the table for one deal, but then all will come into play again, for the next deal. Some persons think this is better than four playing a rubber while two look on. _=DOUBLE DUMMY BRIDGE.=_ In this form of the game, the dealer always deals for himself.
If either party permit a bystander to take part in the contest, that party shall forfeit the game. * * * * * The foregoing laws differ very slightly from those of the British Chess Association, and it is to be hoped that an international code will be agreed upon before a second edition of this work is issued. CHECKERS, OR DRAUGHTS. _=The Board.=_ Checkers is played upon a board which is not more than sixteen, nor less than fourteen inches square, and is divided into sixty-four smaller squares of equal size. These squares are of different colours, alternately light and dark, and the board must be so placed that each player shall have a light square at his right on the side nearer him. _=The Men.=_ Each player is provided with twelve men, which are circular in form, one inch in diameter, and three eighths thick. The men on one side are red or black; those on the other white or yellow. The men must be placed on the _=black=_ squares.