country children play
this game (called usually "Drop the handkerchief"), is a little
different. As the one with the handkerchief walks around
and around the outside of the ring all join in singing,

"A tisket! A tasket!
A green and yellow basket!
I sent a letter to my love
And now I find I've lost it.
I've lost it! I've lost it!
And where do you think I found it?
Up in the sky, ever so high
With angels gathered 'round it."

As the words "I've lost it!" are repeated, the player outside
must drop the handkerchief, but no one must look behind
him until the verse is ended. Then the one who finds the
handkerchief behind him must try to catch the first one, who
in turn tries to slip into the empty place.

Gaps

The players form a ring: all except one, who is "It." This
one runs round the ring and touches one of the players in the
circle. They both set off running immediately in opposite
directions, the object of each being to get first to the gap
made in the circle by the player who was touched. The one
who gets to the gap first remains in the circle, while the other
becomes "It."

Twos and Threes, or Terza

A very good picnic game. All the players except two form a large ring,
standing in twos, one behind another. Of the two who are over, one is
the pursuer and the other the pursued; and the game is begun by the
pursued taking up his position (if he can do so before the pursuer
catches him) in front of one of the couples in the ring, thus making
three. Directly he does this he is safe, and the last player in the
little group at the back of him has to run. Whoever is caught becomes
the pursuer, while the one that caught him becomes the pursued until,
by standing in front of one of the couples, he transfers that office
to another.

Hide and Seek

"Hide and Seek," which is perhaps the best out-of-door
game without implements, needs no explanation. It is usual
to give the player who hides a start of as much time as it
takes the others to count a hundred in. Some boys, instead of
counting from one to a hundred, divide the sum into ten tens,
which are counted thus: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1; 1, 2, 3, 1, 2,
3, 1, 2, 3, 1; and so on. These can be rattled through so
quickly that your 100 is done and you have started out before,
in the ordinary way, seventy would have been reached.

A customary arrangement to avoid taking the hiders too
much by surprise is for the boy who stays