or the mutual participation of the children and their
elders. A more beautiful idea for a club could scarcely be devised. It
is also a tragic fact that, lacking such an occasion, many parents
have little opportunity to enjoy their children, or, alas! even to
know them.

[Sidenote: Games in country life]

Another illustration may indicate even more strongly the benefits from
such social gatherings of adults and children. In a small town where
the young boys and girls spent more evenings than seemed wise in
places of public amusement, a teacher of physical training not long
ago opened a class for them expressly to meet this situation. The
programme included games, dancing, and formal exercise, and a special
effort was made to teach things of this sort that might be used for
gatherings at home. The class fulfilled its object so well that the
parents themselves became interested, began to attend the sessions and
participate in the games, until they were an integral part of all that
went on,--a wholesome and delightful association for all concerned,
and one that practically ended the tendencies it was designed to
overcome.

Mr. Myron T. Scudder, in his practical and stimulating pamphlet on
games for country children (_Country Play; A Field Day and Play Picnic
for Country Children_. Pub. by _Charities_, N.Y.), points out a very
real factor in the failure of American country life to hold its young
people when he cites the lack of stimulation, organization, and
guidance for the play activities of the young. It is a mistaken idea
that country children and youths have through the spaciousness of
environment alone all that they need of play. Organization and
guidance are often needed more than for the city children whose
instincts for social combination are more acute.

* * * * *

ORIGINS.--One may not close even a brief sketch of games and their
uses without reference to the topic of origins. This has been studied
chiefly from two different viewpoints, that of ethnology, in which the
work of Mr. Stewart Culin is preeminent, and that of folklore, in
which in English Mrs. Gomme and Mr. Newell have done the most
extensive work. Both of these modes of study lead to the conclusion
that the great mass of games originated in the childhood of the race
as serious religious or divinitory rites. Indeed, many are so used
among primitive peoples to-day. Very few games are of modern
invention, though the de