sometimes run miles and miles in pursuit of a human hare. All who feel curious to read an account of a game of hare and hounds, as practised at Rugby School, will find it set down for them in the most satisfactory manner in that capital account of an English boy's life, "Tom Brown's School Days." BASTE THE BEAR.-The boys who are to play at this game begin by twisting their handkerchiefs into the form of whips, with a knot at the end -a thing which most boys can do uncommonly well. A boy is then fixed upon to act" Bear." He crouches down, holding a cord in his hands, while another boy, who represents his master, seizes the opposite end. The boys try to hit the bear with their pocket handkerchiefs, while the master's aim is to touch one of them, without letting go tne rope, or overbalancing the bear, who, from his squatting position, is easily overturned by a jerk of the rope. The first boy touched takes the bear's place, while the late bear becomes bear leader, and the leader joins the assailants. This is a capital game, requiring the three qualities we like to see developed by all English boys-temper, ability, and endurance. Care must be taken, however, that the handkerchiefs are not knotted too tightly, and that the assailants are forbearing with the bear, whose position would otherwise become unbearable.

MR. GORILLA.-A novelty may be introduced into this game by changing the character of bear into that of the "Gorilla." The boy who

personifies this great ape must have a handkerchief, like the rest. He makes it up into a ball, and hopping on one leg, tries to fling it at one of his assailants, who, if he is struck, becomes "Gorilla." The hunted animal may not put his second foot to the ground, without being obliged first to hop home, to a base in the corner of the ground. If he neglects this rule, he is flogged home by the other players.

HIDE AND SEEK.-This is merely a simplified form of the game of "I spy," which has already been described. One party of boys must hide (or sometimes only a single boy), and the others try to find out the place of concealment. There is no home, and no touching in this old form of the game, and we recommend "I spy" as a much more exciting and amusing sport altogether.

HOP-SCOTCH.--Two, three, or four players can play at this game. If there are more, they should divide, and make up separate matches, or it becomes tedious. If there are three, each one must play for himself, or "fight for his own hand," like Henry Wynd, the saddler, in the Douglas wars in Scotland, who did not know on which side he was engaged. If there are four, they may play separately, or two on a side, the second player taking up the game where the first left off.

9

12

11

&

7

10

A diagram, like the one given in the margin, is first drawn upon the ground, and a flat piece of tile or a pebble is chosen. The first player takes the pebble, and standing at the spot marked "home," hops into the base, and kicks the tile home. He then pitches it into 2 and kicks it, first into 1, and then home. He must now pitch it into 3, and then kick it into 2, into 1, and home. Then always commencing at home, he pitches the tile into 4, kicks it into 3, 2, 1, and home. Then into 5, 6, and 7 successively, and so on, through each of the preceding bases home. If he kicks the stone into a wrong base, or puts his second foot on the ground, or the stone rests upon a line of the diagram, or flies out at the side, the player is out, and his adversary takes an innings, proceeding in the same way, until he meets with some mishap, and the first player resumes at the point where he himself broke down. Where there are two players on each side, the second begins the game at the base where his comrade lost his innings. No. 7 is called the resting base, or among French players (whose diagram, however, differs somewhat from the English model) reposoir, for the player hopping through the other bases has the privilege, when he arrives here, of resting, by putting down one foot in 5 and the other in 6. No. 8 is a great point in the game. The base being very narrow, is sometimes called "skinny," from that circumstance, and it is no easy feat to "pitch into skinny" in the proper way-that is to say, to deliver the stone in such a manner from home, that it lodges at once in No. 8. The last base 12, is called plum-pudding, and the player who gets first through

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the other bases to this, and can with one kick send the stone across all the other bases home, is considered the winner. The game may be rendered more difficult for skilled players by narrowing the limits of the formidable

"skinny" base to any extent, and may be thus made useful in teaching accuracy of eye and hand in judging distances, as well as furnishing good exercise for the legs. In some schools the exercise of hop-scotch is tabooed, as being vulgar, but we confess we can't tell the reason why; and we have a weakness for the sport, as one which we have been very merry over, in the happy times when we could eat unripe apples without fearing the consequences, and did not know what a headache was like.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH-This is a very merry old game, and one of the simplest kind. Two captains are named, who choose their men alternately, until all the players are divided into two equal parties. A line is chalked or scratched on the ground, and all the players take hold of a stout rope stretched across this line. The object of each party is, by dint of judicious pulling, to draw their adversaries over the line. This is not a mere matter of strength. It depends in a great measure upon the skill of the leaders, who show their skill by letting their respective followers know, by a secret sign, when they are suddenly to slacken the rope, and when to give a long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull all together. The losing party are designated Frenchmen, of course, while the winners consider they have earned a title to be considered true Englishmen. The sport was exceedingly popular in our young days, when the belief held by most Britons concerning their neighbours on the other side of the channel, was still embodied in the beautiful lines (not by Tennyson) which ran thus:

"Two skinny Frenchmen, and one Portuguee,

One jolly Englishman thrash 'em all three!"

And all schoolboys used to believe it, too.

HOP, STEP, AND JUMP.-This game is merely a trial of skill, to decide who among the players can advance farthest in a hop, a step, and a jump. The secret consists in getting through your hop, step, and jump, without pausing at all between, as the impetus given by the hop will help you in the step, and that again will send you well forward in your jump.

KING OF THE CASTLE.-The accompanying engraving will explain what this game is like. One

of the players posts himself on "ground of vantage," and the rest try to pull him down from his elevated position. Sometimes the players divide into two parties, one for attack, and the other for defence, and a good deal of fun, not unmingled with tearing of jackets, is generally the result. In this sport, which is rather a rough one, boys should be particularly careful to "fight fairly," and to keep their tempers, though they may lose the

game.

PUSS IN THE CORNER.-Some hundreds of years ago, there was an old traveller, named Pontoppidan, and he wrote a book all about Norway; and he had parcelled out his book into chapters, and intended to devote one chapter to describing the snakes in Norway; and when he got there, he found there were not any snakes in the country at all. So he headed a chapter, "Of Snakes in Norway," and wrote underneath, "There are

no snakes in Norway," and so went on to the next chapter. Now we shall do

the same thing regarding Puss in the Corner. It is a girl's game. So we write "THIS IS NO GAME FOR BOYS," and that's why we will say nothing more about it.

TIP CAT.-The cat is a piece of wood a few inches in length, with the two ends cut gradually away, like the wood at the point of a lead pencil. The

player who is to use the cat arms himself with a stick, and kneels down within a small circle drawn on the ground. The other players stand at a little distance to watch for the cat. The first player lays the cat on the ground, and strikes it gently at one end with his stick, which causes it to spring up in the air. Then, before it touches the ground again, he must hit it with the stick, as hard as he can. The player who picks up the cat pitches it towards the circle, and it becomes the business of the first to keep watch with his stick, and knock it away; for, if the cat lodges within the

circle, the first player is out, and the second takes his place. The game is not unlike that of "Strike up and lay down," played with a cudgel and a ball, and which we shall have to describe presently.

BALL PLAY.-Balls are among the most ancient implements of pastime with which we are acquainted. Old Homer mentions ball-play as the favuorite pastime of the virgins of Corcyra. In the Odyssey, as rendered into English by Pope, we are told how

"O'er the green mead the sporting virgins play,
Their shining veils unbound-along the skies,
Tost and retost, the ball incessant flies."

In Anglo-Saxon England it was an old, a very old pastime; and we are told in a life of St. Cuthbert, that he, the Saint, "pleyde atte balle with the children. that his fellowes were." In the thirteenth century the London schoolboys were in the habit of having a grand match at ball-play on Shrove Tuesday; and cricket-the grandest of all ball games-has ever remained one of the peculiar national sports of England. In France as in England, during the Middle Ages, kings did not disdain to compete with their courtiers, and with each other, for prizes at tennis matches; and some of our young readers will, doubtless, remember how certain tennis balls were sent over from France to England, as a present to Henry V., to show the scorn with which the French people viewed the claims Henry had set up to the French throne; and we have a proof that Henry VII. played at tennis in the fact that the following entry occurs in a register of his expenses: "Item-for the king's loss at tennis, twelvepence; for the loss of balls, threepence." The number of games played in old times, and most of which have survived to our own day, is very great; among many others, we find stow-ball, goff, camp-ball, hand-ball, tennis, hurling, foot-ball, stool-ball, balloon-ball, pall-mall, club-ball, ring-ball, and trap-ball. In this department of our work, we can, of course, only notice the simple games. The difficult and advanced phases of ball-practice will be elucidated for our young volunteers in the manuals devoted to the more abstruse pastimes. The first and simplest game of this kind is

CATCH-BALL.-The players stand at stated distances, and the balf is tossed from one to the other. If there are many players, it is sometimes made a rule that those who fail to catch the ball when it is thrown to them shall stand out until only two are left; and the one of these who holds out

ongest without making a slip wins the game. Sometimes, instead of throwing the ball in regular rotation from one player to another, it is tossed at random by the holder

to any one he chooses to select from among those around him. This is an improvement on the usual way of playing, as it induces a quickness of eye and hand, and a readiness in catching, exceedingly useful to the ball-player when he tries his hand at "fagging-out" in the cricket-field. In catching a hand-ball, the hands should be advanced, and the ball clutched in the hollow of the palms, while the hands are drawn suddenly back. This materially deadens the blow, and breaks the force with which the ball comes against the hands. The game shown in the engraving, namely, "catch-ball on horseback," is another variety, and has the advantage of making the player depend on his hands and arms alone in his operations, as the legs are

HOME

BASE 1

FEEDER

BASE &

employed in maintaining his balance. The penalty for missing the ball is, that the rider has to take the place of his steed, and do duty until a mistake on his new rider's part restores him to his first position. ROUNDERS. A very exciting game this; but it must be properly played, and the rules strictly observed. The players divide into two sides: about eight on each side is the best number. One side has first innings, and must assemble in the circle called "home," while the players on the out side are distributed over the ground to watch for the ball, or "fag out," with the exception of one, who acts as feeder, and whose position is indicated in the diagram. The first player on the inside takes up a little hand bat, and the feeder pitches the ball towards him, as in "Strike up and lay down." The batsman strikes at the ball. If he misses it, or tips it behind the home, or if it is caught off his bat by any of the scouts, he is out, and the next player takes his place, If he succeeds in hitting the ball, he at once flings down his bat, and runs off towards base No. 1, while the outsiders try to pick up the ball, and hit him with it, before he can get to the shelter of the base. If he can manage it, he may run to the second, or even

BASE 2

A ROUNDER

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