Games for the Fireside.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 982, 24 December 1890, Page 8 (Supplement)

Games for the Fireside.

PASTIMES WITH THE PENCIL

Bv Mrs A. G. Lewis,

The following suggestion may help young people to pass a social evening pleasantly ; Pictures from History require little or no artistic skill on the part of the players Each person is furnished with a sheet of notepaper and a pencil. All are requested to make a sketch of some historical scene,

like the Landing of the Pilgrims, the exile of Robinson Crusoe, or the ‘Boston Teaparty.” Each player chooses his own subject and keeps the drawing away from the sight of the other artists. The period of history may be limited to any nation or century. The idea of the game is to endeavour to draw, in very crude fashion, a sketch that shall represent the event chosen. Yet it ought to be sufficiently vague to prevent the other playeis from guessing it too readily. In order to give the game a merry turn Robinson Crusoe, for instance, may be represented with a beak nose and a face that resembles the bird that ‘ crew so,’ lying exhausted upon the ground, with feet turned sky ward. The area of the ‘ desert land’ is shown by a few straggling lines. Two or three small trees, a mud hut, and a lean dog may be added to the landscape. ‘ The beasts that roam over the plain My form with indifference see’ may be indicated by a huge elephant in the act of roaming over the prostrate ‘monarch of all I survey,’ his (the elephant’s) immense fore-foot lifted just ready to crush the lone exile’s head.

The drawing should be made on the upper half of the page. When finished the sketches are folded from the top out of sight.and dropped into a hat or box and well mixed. Then each player selects at random one of the papers, guesses what the sketch is intended to represent, and writes the guess near the bottom of the page, affixing his name thereto. Folding the paper from the bottom edge over which he has written, he passes it along to tho player on his left, who, in turn, guesses, writes it down and passes it on to his left-hand neighbour. When all the guesses have been registered, the papers are examined. Each artist muse tell what his sketch is intended to represent. Then the names and what each one has guessed must be read. The player who has made the largest number of correct guesses wins the game. Players well skilled in drawing may test the excellence of their work by this game, and award to the artist, whose picture gains the largest number of correct guesses, the winning prize. ‘ Rhyming Buff’ is a very amusing game, and is played similarly to ‘ Pictures from History.’

The players begin near the top of a fresh sheet of paper by writing at the extreme right of the page a word—say flight thus : flight. The papers are all dropped into a box and

well shaken. Then each draws one at random. The player who has the word flight writes underneath it a word that rhymes with it, for instance,

- bite. The paper is now folded down from the top to barely cover what has been written, then handed along to the next player, who writes underneath the word bite, coxcombd. The papers arei again dropped into the box, well shaken and again drawn. The required rhyme for coxcombs is a difficulty, but the player ventures i ox roams. Then the papers are again folded over what had been written, and so on, until the page.is filled. The folded slips are now dropped into the box again. Each player takes out one, unfolds a line, which is, of course, at the bottom of the page, and writes (taking the words which have been mentioned, but are really the last to be unfolded) the line for which ‘ox roams’ furnishes the last words— Yoked to an apple cart the fat ox roams. This line is folded out of sight by turning the paper up from the bottom of the page. The word coxcombs appears. The player writes Still pensive maidens choose for mates coxcombs.

The paper is again folded to cover the lim just written, and the next word, bite i! disclosed. Tho writer ventures ’ ’Tis hard with toothless gums this crust to bite The next player unfolds the word fliehi and writes B

Try, fluffy fledgeling, try thy .wings for High] The folding and waiting goes on unti the lines are all filled. It is well to jot the lines by relative pronouns, convfc tions and propositions, since thus the reads more smoothly, and the incongruit of successive lines becomes more strife ing. The lines thus far read as follows

Try, fluffy fledgling, try thy wings for flight, iis hard with toothless gums a crust to bite, Since pensive maidens choose for mates c<r combs. Yoked to an apple cart the wild ox roams. Local hits and jokes which the partie all understand may make the poems ver racy and pertinent. Alliteration is an alphabet game. Beside furnishing a deal of amusement it is notici ably helpful to students of language t enlarging the vocabulary and fixing well i the mind the proper definition of terms, is especially helpful to those learning foreign language. The contest in this game is to write tl longest story using the same letter for tl beginning of every word. For instanc taking the letter as a story may run on i definitely thus: So sleepy, soft-hearted, silly, seneelei Simon Sal, somnolently stupid, seeii strange, sad sights successively. Sluml sought supremacy. Still successfully Sin struggled, seeking something satisfactori suggestive. Suddenly somebody et< stealthily, and so on. The player who writes the longest sto: all other considerations being favoural wins the game. Letters much in use, such as a, b, c, si etc., in fact all letters except j, k, q, w, x and z, point per word. Witi k, q, etc., each word counts ten. ! letter z furnishes but three verbs,zigzagg zoned and zealed. H begins no verb, s must he counted out. A misspelled word or an ungrammatici arranged sentence loses the player i points. Each player must read his own paper, slip in pronunciation or articulation mai a loss of three points. An umpire who has charge of the d tionary settles all disputed points. Not may refer to the dictionary or any list words during the writing. The writer a fails to properly define any word used mi also give up five counts. Composite drawing is an easy game little people. The players draw near the top of t paper the head of a person, animal, t fowl, or reptile; then fold the paper fti the top to barely cover the drawing. 1 papers are handed along to the player the left. Tho next draws the body o person, animal, fish, fowl, or reptile, tl folds his work just out of sight. Pasai the papers again, number three dra legs (two or four). The fourth boo hoofs, or claws, as may be. The unfoldi reveals some funny figures. In verbal patchwork a list of wo selected at random is given. The play ■ are requested to write a story in wli ; all the words given are used. The short and best story wins. the following list the story itl run something after this fashion: Tadpi : artistic, immediately, interesting, esotrei intervention, study, Germany, 'attend horse cars abominable. An abomina tadpole travelled to Germany in a horse c He attracted the attention of many inter* ing tourists. In spite of theinterventioi : friends tho moon would shine. Imi ! diately he caught the artistic craze, i began to paint and study esoterics..