CHAPTER X

GAMES FOR TWO OR THREE TO PLAY

On stormy days the children of a family are likely to be alone--unless they are so fortunate as to have a little visitor in the house, or a friend who lives near wraps up and comes to play with them. A child who is alone can read, or find in the other chapters of this book some absorbing occupation; for a party of children there are always plenty of games, but it is sometimes difficult to think of a game that two or three will enjoy. The following are a few suggestions for such an emergency:

_Picture Puzzles_

=Materials Required:= As many pieces of cardboard about 6 by 8 inches as there are children, As many pairs of scissors as there are children, One or more tubes of paste, Several old magazines.

There is such a fascination about cutting and pasting that a game like this is one of the best you can choose for a dull day. Each child has an old magazine, a piece of cardboard and a pair of scissors, while tubes of paste lie conveniently near. When the children are seated around a table the game begins. It is played in this way: Each player cuts from his magazine a picture (which must be smaller than his card), pastes it upon his piece of cardboard, and when it is dry and firm cuts it in pieces with six straight cuts of the scissors, so as to make a puzzle. He then mixes the pieces and passes them to his neighbour on the right. At a given signal each child tries to put the puzzle which he has received together as quickly as possible. The one who finishes first calls out that he is through, and he is of course the winner.

As a sequel the children will enjoy colouring the puzzles. If they are pretty and neatly made they may be given to a child's hospital, to amuse some other little children in the long days of convalescence.

_How to Play the Daisy Game_

This is a good guessing game for two or more children to play, and if you will follow the directions given in chapter IX. you will find that it can be made quite easily. None of the players should have seen the key, or answers to the conundrum, but if you find that they have seen it, you can write on the slips of paper, instead of the conundrums, the names of flowers with the letters mixed for example, sapyn, for pansy. Each child in turn pulls a petal from the daisy and tries to guess the name of the flower, which is the answer to the conundrum written on the under side of the petal. Five minutes is the time allowed, and if the player has not guessed the flower in that time he must pass the petal to the child on his left, who also has five minutes in which to guess it. If he guesses correctly the petal belongs to him, and at the end of the game the player having the most petals has won.

_Horses in the Stable_

=Materials Required:= A pasteboard shoe box, Some marbles, Pen and ink, Scissors.

Although this game is played with marbles, girls as well as boys will enjoy it, and it is so easily prepared that it can be played at short notice. Take a long pasteboard box--a shoe box is about the right size. Remove the cover and turn it upside down. Now, starting at the lower edge, draw five doorways, like those shown in Fig. 103. The one in the centre should be an inch across and an inch and a half high, the two on each side of it an inch and a half wide and two inches high, and the outer ones each two inches wide and two and a half inches high. Cut out these doorways with a sharp, strong pair of scissors and mark over the middle one in pen and ink the number 25. The two on either side of it have marked above them 10, and the other two each have 5. Stand the box, or stable, thus prepared, against the wall and place a mark four feet from it. Each player has three marbles, and in turn tries to roll or shoot them from the mark through the little doors into the box. If he succeeds in putting one through the smallest door he makes twenty-five; if through either of the other doors his score is increased by the number marked above it. There should be a time limit for the game--half an hour, for example. The score of each player, which is kept on a sheet of paper, is added at the end of that time and the one having the most points has won the game.

_Plants and Flowers_

=Materials Required:= As many pencils and sheets of paper as players, A large sheet of cardboard, Some seed catalogues, Pen and ink, A tube of paste, Scissors.

Although a number of children can play this game, two or three will enjoy it quite as well. Any boy or girl can make it. You will need first of all a number of seed catalogues. Cut from these eighteen or twenty pictures of flowers and plants, taking care not to leave the names on them. Write in pencil, on the back of each, a number (any one from 1 to 18) and the name--this is for your own guidance later on. Now make a list of the flowers and plants, each with its number before it. This is the key, to be put away till after the game is played. Take a large sheet of cardboard, about twenty by twenty-four inches, and paste upon it the flowers and plants in the order of their numbers, marking the number of each clearly in pen and ink underneath it. If you like you can colour the pictures--this will make the game more attractive, of course, and as you can use it many times it is worth while. A loop of string, by which to hang it, should be run through the top of the card at the centre. When you are ready to play the game hang the cardboard sheet where all can see it; give each player a pencil and a piece of paper, on the left side of which numbers from 1 to 18 have been marked. Each child tries in the time allowed--about twenty minutes--to guess the names of the flowers and plants on the sheet or cardboard, and write each opposite its number on his piece of paper. The correct names are then read from the key and the players check off their guesses. The one who has guessed the greatest number correctly is of course the winner.

_A Ball-and-Fan Race_

=Materials Required:= 2 Japanese paper balls, 2 palmleaf fans.

Two children will find this race an interesting one for a rainy day. The best place in which to play it is a large room with very little furniture in it--a playroom for example. Each player stands at a corner of the room diagonally opposite the other, three feet out from the corner, and each has a Japanese paper ball in front of him and a large fan in his hand. They must face different ways and both count together "One, two, three, and away!" As they finish counting, the children begin to fan their balls around the room, close to the wall. There will be some lively skirmishing when they meet, as they are likely to do when half way around the room. Then each tries to send his opponent's ball back and his own forward. When each finally gets his ball back to the corner where he started, he must try to send it as quickly as possible to the middle of the room, where a chair is placed. The ball must be fanned through the legs of this chair and to the goal of his opponent. The player who first accomplishes this is the winner.

_Fun with Popcorn_

=Materials Required:= An open fire, A corn popper, Several ears of popcorn, A prize, if desired.

If the open fire burns brightly in your playroom, no matter how gray and bleak the day may be outside, you and your brothers and sisters can keep warm and cheerful over this delightful game. You may provide a prize for the winner, if you like, but the only things that are absolutely necessary are the fire, some popcorn and a popper. When the players are seated in a semicircle around the fire they may all help in shelling the corn. After this is done, divide the popcorn evenly between them, so that each shall have a small quantity. The player on the left side of the fireplace now takes the corn popper and pops his corn. When it is done, the kernels that are fully popped are counted, also the unpopped ones, and a record is made of each. The next player pops his corn and counts the result, and so on until all have finished. The child having the largest number of fully popped kernels is the winner, and may receive a prize. Afterward the winner and the defeated players will equally enjoy eating the fluffy popcorn, or if the cook is particularly amiable they may be allowed to flock to the kitchen and make popcorn balls.

_Express_

=Materials Required:= 12 or 15 articles, large and small, light and heavy.

This is a lively game that needs little preparation. All you will have to provide is a number of articles, toys, pieces of china (not valuable ones), a glass of water, some very small things and one or more large ones, something heavy like a dumb-bell or flatiron and something light--a palmleaf fan, for example. When you have them all collected, on a table or stand on one side of the room where the game is to be played, place another table or stand across the room. Then you must have a clock or a watch, and that is all--except the players. Each child in turn takes one thing at a time, from the stand where the various articles are piled, and carries it to the table at the opposite side of the room. It is done as quickly as possible, for the object is to move everything from one place to the other in the least possible time. Each player is timed and his record kept on a piece of paper. If a player drops anything he must carry it back to the starting point and make another trip with it. The next player begins at the table to which the first one took the baggage and carries it, in the same way, back to the first table. So it goes on until everyone has played expressman. The player who succeeds in transferring the baggage in the shortest time is, of course, the winner.

_A Hurdle Race_

=Materials Required:= A box of tiddledywinks, A sheet of white cardboard, A box of watercolour paints, A pencil, Scissors, A ball of white string, Some pins.

The next time you are kept indoors by the weather, you and a brother or sister may enjoy a hurdle race. It is played with tiddledywink chips and pasteboard hurdles on a large table or on the floor. You can make the hurdles yourself. They should be cut from cardboard, eight inches wide and four inches high. Paint some of them with wooden bars and others green--like high hedges. In making the hurdles, cut the cardboard so that a strip two inches deep by an inch across will extend below each lower corner (see Fig. 104). One of these is bent sharply forward at the place marked by the dotted lines, the other is turned back, forming stands to keep the hurdles upright.

The racecourse will have to be laid out on a covered table or carpeted floor, as the tiddledywinks can only be used on a soft, cushiony surface. You can make the boundaries with white string, held in place here and there with pins. An oval course, though more difficult to mark is rather more exciting than a straight one, but either will do. Have the course eight inches wide and as long as you please. The hurdles may be placed where-ever you choose, but be sure to have plenty of them.

When you are ready to begin, each player takes a large tiddledywink chip and a small one of the same colour--but different from his opponent's--and at a signal given by a third person, who acts as umpire, the race begins. Snap the tiddledywink chip just as you do in playing the game, only taking great care not to send it out of the course, for if it goes outside the lines you must set it back three inches. The umpire follows the race, of course, and settles all disputed questions.

_Pictures from Fairy Tales_

=Materials Required:= A number of old magazines, Twice as many sheets of cardboard or heavy brown paper, 10 by 12 inches, as there are children, As many pairs of scissors as there are children, A tube of paste for each child.

Two or three children who know and love the old fairy tales can spend a delightful hour playing this game. Each one should have several old magazines and a sheet of cardboard, as well as scissors and a tube of paste. The leader, who may be one of the children or an older person, explains the game as follows: Each child is expected to make a picture on his sheet of cardboard to illustrate some fairy tale. It is not necessary to draw it; he can cut from the magazines people and properties and scenery and paste them upon the card. He must be sure not to tell anyone the story he has chosen. At the end of half an hour the pictures should be finished. A bell is rung for everyone to stop work and the pictures are placed where all can see them. The leader now holds one up before the children and asks them what story they suppose it illustrates, and what particular part of the story. The child who answers first wins the picture. The other pictures are held up, one at a time, and the children try to see who can guess them first. If they are ready for another round of the game after this one is finished, they may find it amusing to vary it by making pictures from "Mother Goose."

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Transcriber's notes: | | | | P.177. 'aesily' perhaps a typo for 'easily', changed. | | Obvious punctuation errors repaired. | | | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

End of Project Gutenberg's The Child's Rainy Day Book, by Mary White