One would allow a move for entraining and another for detraining, requiring the troops to be massed alongside the train at the beginning and end of each journey, and the train might move at four or five times the cavalry rate. One would use open trucks and put in a specified number of men--say twelve infantry or five cavalry or half a gun per truck--and permit an engine to draw seven or eight trucks, or move at a reduced speed with more. One could also rule that four men--the same four men--remaining on a line during two moves, could tear up a rail, and eight men in three moves replace it. I will confess I have never yet tried over these more elaborate developments of Little Wars, partly because of the limited time at my disposal, and partly because they all demand a number of players who are well acquainted with the same on each side if they are not to last interminably. The Battle of Hook s Farm (one player a side) took a whole afternoon, and most of my battles have lasted the better part of a day. VI ENDING WITH A SORT OF CHALLENGE I COULD go on now and tell of battles, copiously. In the memory of the one skirmish I have given I do but taste blood. I would like to go on, to a large, thick book. It would be an agreeable task. Since I am the chief inventor and practiser (so far) of Little Wars, there has fallen to me a disproportionate share of victories.
There s no divorce in Heaven. Tough, I said. I thought _I_ was her darlin Billy. Talk about Double-think! Will you miss never having a man again? I mean, once you ve been a wife-- I added, letting it drift off. God has been good to me, she said out of the dark. He let me see my own future, that he would give me a husband again. That was a curve. Isn t that an even worse breaking of vows? I said. I mean, if in God s sight you re still married to Billy Joe? Would be, she conceded from the black, now right next to me. But He told me that the man I should seek _would be_ Billy Joe--hit s a miracle worked for me.
141, as played in the same way as above, and the writer adds there are subsequent evolutions by which each couple becomes in succession the eye of the needle. Howly A street game played by boys in a town, one of them hiding behind a wall or house-end, and crying Howly to the seekers.--Atkinson s _Cleveland Glossary_. See Hide and Seek. Huckie-buckie down the Brae Children in Lothian have a sport in which they slide down a hill, sitting on their hunkers (Jamieson). The well-known custom at Greenwich is probably the same game, and there are examples at Tumbling Hill, a few miles from Exeter, at May Pole Hill, near Gloucester, and other places. Huckle-bones Holloway (_Dict. of Provincialisms_) says that the game is called Huckle-bones in East Sussex and Dibs in West Sussex. Parish (_Dict. of Sussex Dialect_) mentions that huckle-bones, the small bone found in the joint of the knee of a sheep, are used by children for playing the game of Dibs; also Peacock s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_.
If we play over the hand, we shall find that A-B may make six, seven, nine, or ten tricks, according to their good management, and the good or bad play of their adversaries. In _=Foster’s Whist Tactics=_, Illustrative Hand No. 13, may be found the various ideas of sixteen of the best players in the American Whist League with regard to the proper management of this hand. They played it in four different ways, and with very different results in the score. This must show that the accidental distribution of the Aces, Kings, and trumps is not everything in whist, and that there must be ways and means of securing tricks which do not appear on the surface. There are four ways of taking tricks at whist: 1st. By playing high cards, the suit of which the others must follow. This A does, in the example, on the first round of the Club suit. 2nd. By playing low cards, after the higher ones have been exhausted, and the adverse trumps are out of the way.
If this is not done at once the captured one is at liberty to return to her own side. In some versions (Shropshire and London) the player who is selected for Nuts is always captured by the one sent to fetch her. Some Barnes children also say that this is the proper way to play. When boys and girls play the boys are always sent to fetch away the girls. In Sheffield (a version collected by Mr. S. O. Addy) a boy is chosen to fetch the girl away; and in the Earls Heaton version the line runs, We ll have a girl for nuts in May. (_e_) There is some analogy in the game to marriage by capture, and to the marriage customs practised at May Day festivals and gatherings. For the evidence for marriage by capture in the game there is no element of love or courtship, though there is the obtaining possession of a member of an opposing party.
The derivation and meaning of the name, Cinch, seems to be very much misunderstood. Many persons assume it is simply a name for the Left Pedro, but such is not the case. Cinch is a Mexican word for a strong saddle-girth, and when used as a verb it refers to the manner of adjusting the girth on a bucking broncho so that no amount of kicking will get him free. The word is used in this sense to describe one of the principal tactics of the card game, which is to “cinch” certain tricks, so that the adversary cannot possibly get either of the Pedroes free. _=CARDS.=_ Cinch is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards which rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. When the suit is trumps the 5 retains its natural position, and is known as the _=Right Pedro=_; but the 5 of the same colour as the trump suit, which is known as the _=Left Pedro=_, ranks between the 5 and 4 of the trump suit. The ace is highest in cutting and in play. Whist-players, who have taken up Cinch as a side issue, are in the habit of making the ace lowest in cutting; but such a practice is out of harmony with all other members of the Seven-up family of games. _=COUNTERS.
When he quits his original suit and leads trumps, without his partner having called, the adversaries may conclude that the suit has been established. When a player puts Ace on his partner’s Jack led, and does not lead trumps, the adversaries may count on him for only one small card of the suit led. When an adversary finesses freely, he may be credited with some strength in trumps. When a player changes his suit, the adversaries should note carefully the fall of the cards in the new suit. As already observed, the leader almost invariably opens the new suit with the best he has. Suppose a player to lead two winning cards in one suit, and then the Eight of another, which the Second Hand wins with the Ten; The four honours in the second suit must be between the Second and Fourth Hands. Having won the first or second round of the adverse suit, and having no good suit of his own, the Second or Fourth Hand may be able to infer a good suit with his partner, by the play. For instance: A player opens Clubs, showing five, his partner wins second round, and opens the Diamond suit with the Jack, on which Second Hand plays Ace, his partner dropping the 9. Having now the lead, and no good suit, it is evident that the play should be continued on the assumption that partner is all Spades and trumps. * * * * * _=THE AMERICAN GAME.
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The winner of each trick, instead of turning it down after counting the brisques, takes from it any court cards it may contain, and the Ten of trumps. He lays these cards face up on the table, but apart from those declared from his own hand, and uses them to form combinations, which may be scored in the usual way. The chief difference is that cards so taken in tricks cannot be led or played to subsequent tricks, nor can they be taken in hand at the end of the stock. Combinations may be completed either by cards in the player’s hand, or by cards won in subsequent tricks. CINQ-CENTS. This might be described as Bézique with one pack of cards. All the regulations are the same as in the modern form of Bézique, but there is an additional count, 120, for a sequence of the five highest cards in any plain suit. Bézique is called _=Binage=_, and of course there are no double combinations. Cards which have been used in one combination cannot be used in any other, even of a different class. Brisques are not scored as they are won; but after the hand is over, and ten points have been counted for the last trick, each player turns over his cards and counts up the value of the points they contain.
A dialogue ensues between the Witch and the Mother. The Mother asks-- Is this the way to the Witch s house? There s a red bull that way! I ll go this way. There s a mad cow that way! I ll go this way. There s a mad dog that way! She then insists on entering the house to look for her children. The Witch will not admit her, and says-- Your boots are too dirty. I ll take my boots off. Your stockings are too dirty. I ll take them off. Your feet are dirty. I ll cut them off.
It is an altogether elegant weapon. It was with one of these guns that the beginning of our war game was made. It was at Sandgate--in England. [Illustration: Showing a country prepared for the war game] [Illustration: Showing countries prepared for the war game] The present writer had been lunching with a friend--let me veil his identity under the initials J. K. J.--in a room littered with the irrepressible debris of a small boy s pleasures. On a table near our own stood four or five soldiers and one of these guns. Mr J. K.
Open the gates so wide, so wide, And let King George aside, aside; The night is so dark we cannot see, Thread the needle and go through. --Isle of Man (A. W. Moore). XII. How many miles to Banbury Cross? Three score and ten. Shall we get there by midnight? Yes, if you run well. Then open your gates as wide as the sky, And let King George and his men pass by. It is so dark we cannot see, so thread the needle Nancy, Thread the needle Nancy. One, two, three.
I m come to court Janet jo, Janet jo, Janet jo, I m come to court Janet jo, Janet, my jo. Goodwife sings--What ll ye gie for Janet jo, Janet jo, Janet jo? What ll ye gie for Janet jo, Janet, my jo? Wooer--I ll gie ye a peck o siller, A peck o siller, peck o siller, I ll gie ye a peck o siller, For Janet, my jo. Goodwife says--Gae awa , ye auld carle! Then sings--Ye se never get Janet jo, Janet jo, Janet jo, Ye se never get Janet jo, Janet, my jo. The wooer hereupon retires, singing a verse expressive of mortification, but soon re-enters with a reassured air, singing-- I ll gie ye a peck o gowd, A peck o gowd, a peck o gowd, I ll gie ye a peck o gowd, For Janet, my jo. The matron gives him a rebuff as before, and he again retires discomfited, and again enters, singing an offer of twa pecks o gowd, which, however, is also refused. At his next entry he offers three pecks o gowd, at which the good wife brightens up and sings-- Come ben beside Janet jo, Janet jo, Janet jo, Ye re welcome to Janet jo, Janet, my jo. The suitor then advances gaily to his sweetheart, and the affair ends in a scramble for kisses.--_Popular Rhymes_, pp. 141, 142. On the other hand, it must not be overlooked that this game-drama and the game of Janet Jo have no connection beyond the name of the heroine and the wooing incident; so that the borrowing, if borrowing there be, might have been by Scotland, who improved the commonplace Jenny Jones into the pretty sweetness of her Scottish namesake.
In setting up the men the inner table is always placed _=toward the light=_, whether it be a window or the gas. Each player must always have the majority of his men, five and three, on the side nearer him; and the minority, five and two, on the side farther from him. The side of the _=inner table=_ which is nearer the player will always be his _=home table=_. In all the illustrations in this work you are supposed to be playing with the black side next you, and with your inner or home table on your _=left=_ hand. The raised portion or hinge of the board, which divides the inner from the outer tables, is known as the _bar_, and the points, or flèches, in each player’s home table are numbered from 1 to 6, reckoning from the outer edge toward the bar. These six points are spoken of as the Ace, Deuce, Trey, Four, Five and Six points respectively, and they correspond to the six faces on a single die. The points in the outer tables have no numbers, but the one next the bar on each side is called the _=bar point=_. In giving the moves of the men in a game, the names of the six points in the home tables are disregarded, and each player, Black and White, numbers the board from 1 to 24, starting from the square on which he has only two men. The notation for the black moves would be as shown in the margin; that for white being exactly opposite, of course. [Illustration: +---+---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛂ | | | | | ⛀ || | ⛀ | | | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | | | | ⛀ || | ⛀ | | | | ⛂ | | | | | | | ⛀ || | ⛀ | | | | ⛂ | | | | | | | ⛀ || | | | | | ⛂ | | | | | | | ⛀ || | | | | | ⛂ | | 1 2 3 4 5 6 || 7 8 9 10 11 12 | |24 23 22 21 20 19 ||18 17 16 15 14 13 | | | | | | | ⛂ || | | | | | ⛀ | | | | | | | ⛂ || | | | | | ⛀ | | | | | | | ⛂ || | ⛂ | | | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | | | | ⛂ || | ⛂ | | | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | | | | ⛂ || | ⛂ | | | | ⛀ | +---+---+---+---+---+---++---+---+---+---+---+---+ ] The men on each side are always moved in the direction of their notation numbers.
An egg-shell wunna hold a shirt. Wash by the river-side. Suppose the clothes should float away? Get a boat and fetch them back. Suppose the boat should overthrow? Serve you right for going after them! --Berrington, Oswestry, Chirbury (Burne s _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 515). IV. Mother, will you buy me a milking-can, A milking-can, a milking-can? Mother, will you buy me a milking-can, To me, I, O, OM? Where s the money to buy it with, To buy it with, to buy it with, Where s the money to buy it with, To me, I, O, OM? [Then the following verses--] Sell my father s feather bed. Where will your father sleep? My father can sleep in the boys bed. Where will the boys sleep? The boys can sleep in the pig-sty. Where will the pigs sleep? The pigs can sleep in the wash-tub.
To have the hand played out, in which case the surplus or missing card or cards are not taken into account. If either of the adversaries also has more or less than his correct number, there must be a new deal. If any player has a surplus card by reason of an omission to play to a trick, his adversaries can exercise the foregoing privilege only after he has played to the trick following the one in which such omission occurred. In _=Boston=_, if at any time it is discovered that a player opposed to the bidder has _=less=_ than his proper number of cards, whether through the fault of the dealer, or through having played more than one card to a trick, he and his partners must each pay the bidder for his bid and all over-tricks. If the bidder has _=less=_ than his proper number of cards, he is put in for one trick at least, and his adversaries may demand the hand to be played out to put him in for over-tricks. In Misère Partout, any player having _=less=_ than his proper number of cards forfeits five red counters to each of the other players, and the hands are abandoned. If any player has _=more=_ than the proper number of cards, it is a misdeal, and the misdealer deals again, after forfeiting one red counter to the pool. In _=Solo Whist=_, the deal stands good. Should the player with the incorrect number of cards be the caller or his partner, the hand must be played out. Should the caller make good his proposition, he neither receives nor pays on that hand.
Any player declining to show his hand, even though he admits that it is not good, must pay an amount equal to the ante to each of the players at the table; or, if jack pots are played, he must put up for all of them in the next jack pot. When the hands are called, there is no penalty for mis-calling a hand; the cards, like the counters, speak for themselves. _=35. Rank of the Hands.=_ The best poker hand is a _=Royal Flush=_; A K Q J 10 of the same suit, which beats a _=Straight Flush=_; any sequence of five cards of the same suit. _=Four of a Kind=_; such as four 10’s and an odd card. _=Full Hand=_; three of a kind and a pair, such as three 8’s and a pair of Q’s, which beats a _=Flush=_; five cards of the same suit, but not in sequence. _=Straight=_; five cards in sequence, but of various suits. In straights, the Ace cannot be used to form such combinations as Q K A 2 3; but it may be used as the bottom of 5 4 3 2, or the top of 10 J Q K. Straights beat _=Three of a Kind=_; such as three K’s and two odd cards.
His adversary then has the right either to play his hand, or to exchange it for the one on his right; but the dealer must play the hand dealt to him. THIRTEEN AND THE ODD. This is Humbug Whist without the discard. The dealer gives thirteen cards to his adversary and to himself, one at a time, and turns up the next for the trump. The trump card belongs to neither player. The winner of the odd trick scores a point. Five points is game. MORT. WHIST À TROIS; OR FRENCH DUMMY. _=MORT=_ means simply the dead hand; and is the equivalent of the English word Dummy; the partner being known as _=Vivant=_, or the living hand.
The bidder must play the game he names. He cannot bid Frog and play Chico, or bid Chico and play Grand. The settling up of the scores at the end, if the payments are not made at once in counters, is the same as in Skat. CRIBBAGE. Cribbage is not only one of the oldest of the games upon the cards, but enjoys the distinction of being quite unlike any other game, both in the manner of playing it, and in the system of reckoning the points. It is also peculiar from the fact that it is one of the very few really good games which require no effort of the memory; judgment and finesse being the qualities chiefly requisite for success. There are two principal varieties of the game; _=Five=_ and _=Six-card=_ Cribbage; and these again are divided according to the number of players. The old writers agree in speaking of the five-card game as the more scientific; but the modern verdict is in favour of the six-card game, which is certainly the more common and popular. The skill in Five-card Cribbage is limited to laying out for the crib and securing the “go”; but in Six-card Cribbage, while the scientific principles applicable to the crib remain the same as in the five-card game, there is abundant room for the display of skill all through, the hand being as important as the crib, and the play sometimes more important than either. The six-card game will be first described.