y times you can throw the ball
up to the ceiling and catch it in the loop of wire as it falls.

[Illustration: SPANISH CUP]

Balancing

All kinds of balancing games are excellent when you are alone and
tired of toys. There is no way to acquire proficiency in these but by
practice, but practice is fascinating work. Try balancing at first a
long pole (an old broom-stick handle will do) on the palm of your
hand, then on your finger, then on your chin and forehead. The longer
the pole, the easier to balance it. Remember one golden rule. _Keep
your eyes on the top of the pole._

Then try balancing a whole broom, or a chair. The practice of
balancing is excellent for training yourself in quickness of eye and
muscle.

Of course bricks and soldiers and ninepins, as well as balls (see p.
139), are more interesting when more than one person plays; but one
can pass the time very well with them.

Bruce's Heart

Where toys become tedious, games have to be made up; and in making up
games no outside help is needed. At the same time, some games which E.
H. describes may perhaps supply a hint or two. "One little girl," she
writes, "used to find endless joy in pretending to be Douglas bearing
the heart of Bruce to the Holy Land. A long stick in the right hand
represented his spear; a stone in the left hand was the casket
containing Bruce's heart. If the grown-ups stopped to talk with some
one they met, or if there was any other excuse for running on ahead,
the little girl would rush forward waving her stick and encouraging
her men (represented by a big dog), and, after hurling her stone as
far forward as possible, and exclaiming, 'Lead on, brave heart,' she
would cast her spear in the same direction in a last effort against
the Moors, and then pretend to fall dead to the ground." This little
girl had found the story of Bruce in _Tales of a Grandfather_, by Sir
Walter Scott. Almost every book will yield people and events to play
at.

The Hotel Camps

Another little girl whom E. H. knew "once spent a short time in a
hotel, and while there divided the other people into camps according
to the floor on which they had rooms. The designs in the windows on
the various floors represented the badges or heraldic signs of each
camp. For instance, one window (they were of colored glass) had a
border with eagles, another had gryphons, another lions, and so on. If
she met some one of another floor coming in or going out of the hotel,