--_Suffolk Words._ Duckstone A large stone called the Duckstone or Duck-table is placed on the ground, generally with a wall for a background, but this is of little consequence. Several boys take a stone each, and a place pretty near the Duckstone is chosen for home. One of the boys puts his stone on the Duckstone, and he is called the Tenter. He has to guard the home and catch the other boys if he can. Each boy in turn throws his stone at the stone on the Duck-table and immediately runs home. The Tenter tries to catch him before he can touch the wall or post or whatever is chosen for the home. If the Tenter can catch him he becomes Tenter, and puts his stone on the Duckstone, and the original Tenter takes his turn in throwing. One rule of the game is that the Tenter s stone must always be on the Duck-table when he is trying to catch a boy, so if it is knocked off it must be replaced before he can try to catch the boy running home. The chance of getting home is increased for the boy who knocks it off.
1.] [Illustration: Fig. 2.] [Illustration: Fig. 3.] [Illustration: Fig. 4.] (_c_) Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, p. 36, gives a slightly different version of the verses, and says they were sung by children at their sports in Glasgow. Mactaggart alludes to this game as Bumpkin Brawly, an old dance, the dance which always ends balls; the same with the Cushion almost.
| |31.| -- |Robbed a house and | -- | | | |killed a man. | | |32.| -- | -- | -- | |33.| -- | -- | -- | |34.| -- | -- | -- | |35.| -- | -- | -- | |36.| -- | -- | -- | |37.| -- | -- | -- | |38.| -- | -- | -- | |39.
From five feet apart we exchanged the grip, the tactile password impossible for the Psiless to duplicate--just a light tug at each other s ear lobes, but perfect identification as TK s. I m Fowler Smythe, he said. Twenty-fifth degree, he added, flexing his TK muscles. What is it, buster? You on Crap Patrol? I paused before I answered. Twenty-fifth degree? Since when could a gambling casino afford a full-time Twenty-fifth? TK s in the upper degrees come high. I had already figured my fee at a hundred thousand a day, if I straightened out the casino s losses to the cross-roader. Wally Bupp, I said at last, deciding there was no point to trying some cover identity. My gimpy right wing was a dead giveaway. Thirty-_third_ degree, I added. He had a crooked grin, out of place beneath his scholarly glasses.
Being _=given=_ a point by the dealer. 3rd. Holding the _=Highest=_ trump. 4th. Holding the _=Lowest=_ trump. 5th. Winning a trick with the _=Jack=_ of trumps in it. 6th. Making the majority of the pips that count for what is called _=Game=_. _=Turning the Jack=_ is entirely a matter of chance, and should not occur more than once in thirteen deals.
_=Playing.=_ The discards settled, the eldest hand leads any card he pleases, and the others must follow suit if they can, but no one is obliged to win a trick if he has a smaller card of the suit led, and does not want the lead. The two adversaries of the single player do their best to get him between them, and combine their forces to prevent him from winning tricks that contain counting cards, especially Aces. Whatever tricks they win are placed together, and the counting cards contained in them reckon for their joint account. The tricks have no value as such, except the last. _=Showing.=_ The winner of the last trick takes the stock, and each side then turns over its cards and counts the total value of the points won. The lower score is deducted from the higher, and the difference is the value of the game. If all 35 points are won by either side, they count double, 70. _=Scoring.
III. Please, mother, may we go out to play? Yes, if you don t frighten the chickens. No, mother, we won t frighten the chickens. [They all go out and say, Hush! hush! to pretended chickens.] Where have you been? To grandmother s. What for? To go on an errand. What did you get? Some plums. What did you do with them? Made a plum-pudding. What did she give you? A penny. What did you do with it? Bought a calf.
Build it up with wood and stone, Wood and stone will fall away. Build it up with silver and gold, Silver and gold will be stolen away. Then we must set a man to watch, Suppose the man should fall asleep? Then we must put a pipe in his mouth, Suppose the pipe should fall and break? Then we must set a dog to watch, Suppose the dog should run away? Then we must chain him to a post. The two lines in _italic_ are all regularly repeated after each line.--M. Green. Another correspondent to this magazine, in the same volume, p. 507, observes that the ballad concerning London Bridge formed, in my remembrance, part of a Christmas Carol, and commenced thus-- Dame, get up and bake your pies, On Christmas-day in the morning. The requisition goes on to the dame to prepare for the feast, and her answer is-- London Bridge is fallen down, On Christ-mas day in the morning, &c. The inference always was, that until the bridge was rebuilt some stop would be put to the Dame s Christmas operations; but why the falling of London Bridge should form part of a Christmas Carol at Newcastle-upon-Tyne I am at a loss to know.
|Suppose this young man| -- |Suppose he were to | | |was to die. | |die. | | 31.| -- | -- | -- | | 32.| -- | -- | -- | | 33.|And leave the girl a | -- |And leave his wife a | | |widow. | |widow. | | 34.| -- | -- | -- | | 35.|Bells would ring, cats| -- | -- | | |would sing.
EXTENSIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS OF LITTLE WAR VI. ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE APPENDIX-- LITTLE WARS AND KRIEGSPIEL I OF THE LEGENDARY PAST LITTLE WARS is the game of kings--for players in an inferior social position. It can be played by boys of every age from twelve to one hundred and fifty--and even later if the limbs remain sufficiently supple--by girls of the better sort, and by a few rare and gifted women. This is to be a full History of Little Wars from its recorded and authenticated beginning until the present time, an account of how to make little warfare, and hints of the most priceless sort for the recumbent strategist.... But first let it be noted in passing that there were prehistoric Little Wars. This is no new thing, no crude novelty; but a thing tested by time, ancient and ripe in its essentials for all its perennial freshness--like spring. There was a Someone who fought Little Wars in the days of Queen Anne; a garden Napoleon.
See Duck Dance. Long Tag See Long Terrace. Long-Tawl A game at marbles where each takes aim at the other in turn, a marble being paid in forfeit to whichever of the players may make a hit.--Lowsley s _Berkshire Glossary_. Long Terrace Every player chooses a partner. The couples stand immediately in front of each other, forming a long line, one remaining outside of the line on the right-hand side, who is called the Clapper. The object of the game is for the last couple to reach the top of the line, each running on different sides, and keeping to the side on which they are standing. The object of the Clapper is to hit the one running on the right side of the line, which, if he succeeds in doing, makes him the Clapper, and the Clapper takes his place. [The next _last_ couple would then presumably try and reach the top.]--East Kirkby, Lincs.
| -- | | 16.| -- |..... pearl. | -- | | 17.| -- |..
| -- | -- | -- | | 39.| -- |Don t you think [ ] | -- | | | |a nice young man? | | | 40.| -- |Don t you think [ ] | -- | | | |as handsome as he? | | | 41.| -- |Then off with the | -- | | | |glove, on with the | | | | |ring. | | | 42.| -- |You shall be married | -- | | | |when you can agree. | | | 43.| -- | -- | -- | | 44.| -- | -- | -- | | 45.| -- | -- | -- | | 46.
If it is _=cocked=_ against a man, the edge of the board, or the other die, or if it jumps over the edge of the table in which it is thrown, both dice must be taken up and cast again. The caster must announce his throw as soon as made. _=The Moves.=_ As the men on each side are moved round the board in opposite directions to reach their respective homes, they are of course obliged to meet and pass a number of the adversary’s men, and they must pick their way among them by going to points which are unoccupied by the enemy; for if there are two or more of the enemy in possession of any point, that point is said to be _=covered=_, and must be jumped over. If only one adverse man occupies a point, it is called a _=blot=_, and the man may be captured, as will presently be explained. The numbers that appear on the upper faces of the two dice, when they are thrown, are the number of points that each of any two men, or that any one man may be moved at a time. If a player throws four-deuce, for instance, he may either move one man four points and another two; or he may move a single man four points and two points, or two points and four points. He cannot lump the throw and call it six points, because if the fourth point from where the man stood was covered by two or more of the enemy, the four could not be played with that man. If the second point from where the man stood was also covered, he could not be moved at all, although the sixth point from where he stood might be unoccupied. If Black’s first throw is five-deuce, for instance, he cannot move one of the two men on his adversary’s ace point for the five, because the fifth point thence is covered.
Of the four honours, A K Q J of trumps, if each player holds two, neither can count. But if one player has only one honour, or none, the other counts 2 points for two honours, if he holds them; 3 points for three; and 4 points for four. The honours count towards game as in whist. The penalty for a revoke is three tricks, and it takes precedence of other scores; tricks count next, honours last. Five points is game. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ It is considered best for a player not finding four reasonably sure tricks in his hand to exchange; for there is a certain advantage to be gained by knowing thirteen cards which cannot be in the adversary’s hand. Before changing, the player should fix in his memory the exact cards of each suit in the hand which he is about to discard. By combining his knowledge of them with his own cards, he may often be able to direct his play to advantage. Beyond this there is little skill in the game.
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.
This must now be put down on the score-sheet. A-B’s honours not counting, as Y-Z went out by cards, the game is a double; A-B not having reached 7 points. The score and markers now stand:-- A-B | 0 | | | | | | | Score: | | | | | | | | Y-Z | 2 | | | | | | | [Illustration: A-B’S, NOTHING. Y-Z’S, 1 GAME, 6 POINTS.] Let us suppose A-B to announce grand on their deal, and to make four by cards, which, multiplied by 8, gives them 32 points; that is, three games, and 2 points to their credit on the marker. The first of these games is a double, Y-Z having 6 points up. The two others are quadruples, put down on the score-sheet thus:-- A-B | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | | | | Score: | | | | | | | | Y-Z | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | | [Illustration: A-B’S, 3 GAMES, 2 POINTS. Y-Z’S, 1 GAME, 0 POINTS.] In the next hand let us suppose clubs to be cayenne. Y deals, and plays in colour, spades.
Madeley, Middleton Miss Burne. Tong Miss R. Harley. { Elworthy s _Dialect_, _Somerset and SOMERSETSHIRE { Dorset Notes and Queries_, Holloway s { _Dictionary_. Bath Miss Large. STAFFORDSHIRE-- Hanbury Miss E. Hollis. Cheadle Miss Burne. Tean, North Staffordshire { Miss Keary, Miss Burne, Mrs. T.
If any one, excepting Dummy, plays two cards to a trick and does not discover it, he is responsible for any revokes that he may make in consequence of not having the card in his hand. _=OBJECT OF THE GAME.=_ As in all members of the whist family, the object in Bridge is to win tricks, the highest card played of the suit led winning, and trumps, if any, winning against all other suits. At the end of each hand the side that has won any tricks in excess of the book, scores them, after multiplying their number by the unit of value settled upon by the doubling, if any took place. As soon as either side reaches or passes 30, they win the game; but the hand must be played out, and all tricks taken must be counted. The total is written on the score-sheet; the score of the losers standing to their credit until the final accounting at the end of the rubber. _=RUBBERS.=_ Three games, of 30 points each, constitute a rubber; but if the first two are won by the same players, the third is not played. The side winning the majority of the games adds 100 (rubber) points to its score. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.
The players following the one who renounces to the suit led do not play to the trick at all; but wait for him to lead for the next trick. Should any player fail to follow suit on the next trick, or on any subsequent trick, he gathers the cards already played, takes them into his hand and leads for the next trick. The play is continued in this manner until some player gets rid of all his cards, and so wins the game. Enflé is usually played for a pool, to which each player contributes an equal amount before play begins. The game requires considerable skill and memory to play it well, it being very important to remember the cards taken in hand by certain players, and those which are in the tricks turned down. THE LAWS OF HEARTS. 1. Formation of table. Those first in the room have the preference. If more than the necessary number assemble, the choice shall be determined by cutting, those cutting the lowest cards having the right to play.
=_ She will make you tired. Jack. A bearer of bad news. _=R.=_ Worse than you expected. Ten. An unexpected journey. Nine. That expected money will not come to hand. Eight.
Four persons may play, each for himself, or two against two as partners, sitting opposite each other. All the cards are dealt, twelve to each player, four at a time, and the last is turned up for the trump. _=Melds=_ are not made until the player holding them has played to the first trick. The eldest hand leads and then melds; the second player plays and then melds, and so on. The card played to the first trick may still be reckoned in the melds. _=Playing.=_ The general rules of play are the same as in the three-handed game; players being obliged to follow suit and to win the trick if able to do so. The fourth player must win his partner’s trick if he can, and any player who cannot follow suit to a trick that is already trumped must under-trump if he is unable to over-trump. _=Scoring.=_ There are three ways to score: In the first, each player must individually win a trick in order to score his melds.