Noughts and Crosses [Illustration] This game is played on slates by school-children. The accompanying diagram is drawn on the slate, and a certain figure (generally twenty) is agreed upon as game. There are two players, one takes noughts [o], the other crosses [x]. The three places drawn on the slate above the diagram are for the players each to put down marks or numbers for the games they win, the centre place being for Old Nick, or Old Tom. The object of the game is for each player to occupy three contiguous places in a row or line with either noughts or crosses, and to prevent his opponent from doing so. The diagram is of course empty when play begins. One player commences by putting his mark into either of the vacant places he prefers, the other player then places his in another, wherever he thinks he has the best opportunity to prevent his opponent getting a three, and at the same time to get a three himself; then the first player plays again, and so on alternately until all the squares are occupied, or until one of the players has a three in line. If neither player gets a three, the game is won by Old Nick, and one is scored to his name. In the diagram the result of the game is shown when won by Old Nick. Whichever player first wins a game adds Old Nick s score to his own.
If it is a tie, neither scores. The cards are then turned face up, and the spades counted and claimed; and then all the points for Cassinos and Aces. It should be remembered that the total number of points to be made in each hand, exclusive of sweeps, is eleven, and the total of the claims made must agree with that number. _=Scoring.=_ There are several methods of scoring. The old way was to play 11 points up, deducting the lower score from the higher at the end of each deal. If one side reached 11 before the adversary reached 6, it was a lurch, and counted as a double game. The common method is to count every hand a game, and settle for it in counters. TWENTY-ONE POINT CASSINO. This game is usually marked with counters, or pegged on a cribbage board.
_=STAKES.=_ The value of the counters must be agreed upon before play begins, and the method of settling should also be understood, Sweepstake Hearts and Howell’s Settling being entirely different games, and requiring totally different methods of play. _=CUTTING.=_ If seven players assemble, it is usual to make up a table in which the dealer takes no cards. If there are more than seven candidates for play, two tables must be formed. Players draw from an outspread pack for the choice of seats and cards, the lowest cut having the first choice, and the others following in their order. The player cutting the lowest card takes the first deal, which afterward passes in regular rotation to the left. In cutting, the ace is low. Any player exposing more than one card must cut again. _=TIES.
_=Cards.=_ Solo is played with a pack of thirty-two cards, which rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7. One suit is always first preference, or _=colour=_, and the suit usually selected is clubs. Any suit may be made the trump, but whatever the suit, the club Queen, _=Spadilla=_, is always the best trump; the Seven of the trump suit, _=Manilla=_, is always the second-best trump; and the spade Queen, _=Basta=_, is always the third-best trump. _=Players.=_ Solo is played by four persons, who throw round the cards for the first club turned up to deal eight cards to each player; 3-2-3 at a time. _=Objects.=_ The object of the game is to secure the privilege of naming the trump suit, and of playing, either alone or with a partner, to make five tricks, _=solo=_, or eight tricks, _=tout=_. If a partner is required, he is selected by the player asking for a certain ace, but the holder of the ace remains unknown until the ace falls, although from the first he must assist the player who has asked for it. If a player asks for an ace while holding it himself, he of course plays without a partner, unknown to the others however, until he plays the ace asked for.
He blushed, clear to the top of his bald head. A subtle, nasty operator, he said gruffly. And he s had the gall to stick it in me pretty badly, Wally. What Sime says is true. Well, this we wouldn t stand for. I didn t give a care if every gambling house in Nevada went broke. But Smythe was in the Lodge. And it finally made sense that the Lodge had sent me to bail him out. I gave old Maragon my mental apology. The Grand Master wouldn t stand still for _anybody s_ making a fool out of the Lodge.
Marbles. Mary Brown. Mary mixed a Pudding up. Merrils. Merritot. Merry-ma-tansa. Milking Pails. Mineral, Animal, and Vegetable. Minister s Cat. Mollish s Land.
* * * * * In an hour we had returned to the motel. She was as good as new, but badly shaken. I still don t know what happened, she said. I shrugged. Smoke screen, Pheola. Every time there s a run of luck on a crap table, somebody yells TK! And I suppose there s a number of TK s who aren t in the Lodge, and who figure to make a killing here and a killing there by tipping the dice. But any decent TK, even a Fowler Smythe, can spot them. There was TK in this, but not tipping dice. Smythe is a skunk. He s no Twenty-fifth, or he wouldn t have any need to go crooked.
Penalties are paid through deducting points from the offending player’s score or string of buttons, instead of forfeiting a ball to the table as in regular pyramid pool. The numbers on the balls are simply used for convenience in calling the number of each ball which the player intends to pocket, and do not in any way affect the score of the player. ENGLISH PYRAMID POOL. This differs from the American game in several points. There are no “call shots,” the player being entitled to every ball he pockets, whether he played for it or not. All balls in hand must be played from a D, 21 to 23 inches in diameter. There is no rule about driving two balls to the cushion on the opening shot. When all the red balls but one are pocketed, the red and white balls are used as cue balls alternately. If there are only two players, and only two balls on the table, the red and white, if either player makes a miss or goes in the pocket himself, that ends the game; but if there are more than two players another red ball is spotted, as in the American game. The baulk line is no protection, a player in hand being allowed to play on any ball on the table, even if it is behind the D.
XII. Here we go up the green grass, The green grass, the green grass; Here we go up the green grass, So early in the morning. Fair maid, pretty maid; Give your hand to me, And you shall see a blackbird, A blackbird on the tree; All sorts of colours Lying by his side, Take me, dearest [----], For to be my bride-- Will you come? No! Naughty old maid, she won t come out, She won t come out, To help us with our dancing-- Will you come? Yes! Now we ve got the bonny lass, Now we ve got the bonny lass, To help us with our dancing. --Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler). XIII. Trip trap over the grass, If you please, will you let one of your [eldest] daughters come, Come and dance with me? I will give you pots and pans, I will give you brass, I will give you anything For a pretty lass-- No! I will give you gold and silver, I will give you pearl, I will give you anything For a pretty girl. Take one, take one, the fairest you may see. The fairest one that I can see Is pretty [Nancy], come to me; You shall have a duck, my dear, And you shall have a drake, And you shall have a young man, Apprentice for your sake. If this young man should happen to die, And leave this poor woman a widow, The bells shall all ring and the birds shall all sing, And we ll clap hands together. --Halliwell s _Popular Nursery Rhymes_, cccxxxii.
=_ Any number from two to six can play; but the regular game is for four persons, two of whom are partners against the other two. The player on the dealer’s left is the _=eldest hand=_; on the dealer’s right is the _=pone=_. _=CUTTING.=_ The players draw from an outspread pack for partners, seats, and deal. The two lowest play against the two highest; the highest cut has the choice of seats and cards, and deals the first hand. Partners sit opposite each other. _=DEALING.=_ Each player has the right to shuffle the pack, the dealer last. The cards are then presented to the pone to be cut, and at least four cards must be left in each packet. Beginning on his left, the dealer gives nine cards to each player, three at a time in three separate rounds.
” “Boax” came out with a little “Pocket Guide” in 1894, followed by “The Laws of Bridge” in 1895. The Whist Club of N.Y. published the American laws of bridge in 1897, and “Badsworth” came out with the English laws in 1898. In the following year, 1899, Archibald Dunn, Jr., gave us “Bridge and How to Play It,” and John Doe published “Bridge Conventions,” A.G. Hulme-Beaman’s “Bridge for Beginners” appearing in the same year. In 1900, “Foster’s Bridge Manual” appeared in America, reprinted in England under the title of “Foster on Bridge.” In the years following, text-books on bridge came from the press by the dozen, the most notable authors being Dalton and “Hellespont” in 1901; Elwell and Robertson in 1902; Street and Lister in 1903.
The Sun was immeasurably far behind. Even the nearest stars were barely in contact. This was good Dragon country, this open, nasty, hollow kind of space. He reached farther, faster, sensing and looking for danger, ready to fling the Lady May at danger wherever he found it. Terror blazed up in his mind, so sharp, so clear, that it came through as a physical wrench. The little girl named West had found something--something immense, long, black, sharp, greedy, horrific. She flung Captain Wow at it. Underhill tried to keep his own mind clear. Watch out! he shouted telepathically at the others, trying to move the Lady May around. At one corner of the battle, he felt the lustful rage of Captain Wow as the big Persian tomcat detonated lights while he approached the streak of dust which threatened the ship and the people within.
In case an adversary of the dealer plays alone, he must distinctly announce it when he orders up the trump. The usual expression is: “_=I order it alone=_.” His partner then lays his cards face downward on the table and takes no further part in the play of that hand. If he exposes any card of the abandoned hand, the adversaries can call upon him to take up the hand and play it, leaving the exposed card on the table as liable to be called. This of course prevents the lone hand. If the dealer’s partner wishes to play alone, instead of assisting, he says: “_=I play this alone=_,” and the dealer lays down his cards, leaving the trump on the pack. _=PLAYING ALONE.=_ No player but the one that takes up, orders up, or makes the trump can play a lone hand. If the dealer takes up the trump card of his own accord, he can play alone. If any player orders up or assists, that player can play alone.
A whiff of garlic told me that Simonetti had reached the table. He d been watching on the TV monitor, of course. He knelt down beside us. A doctor, quick, I said. She s been pinked with nerve poison. She s gone, then, he said huskily. Who done it? Fowler Smythe, I said bitterly. A snake within the Lodge. You might try to stop him. But your partner, Rose, is the real crook.
In Hants the children stand _vis-à-vis_, as in a country dance. One of the number is sent out of earshot, and the others decide with the Captain as to the name of the bird each wishes to personate. The Captain then calls to the child who is out, Tom Fool, Tom Fool, come home from school, and pick me out a blackbird, cuckoo, or other bird. If Tom Fool is wrong in his guessing after three trials, he is condemned to run the gauntlet, being pelted with gloves or handkerchiefs not too mercifully.--Bitterne, Hants (Miss Byford). In Sussex there is the same action with the following words, but there is no chasing or hitting-- Of all the birds in the air, Of all the fishes in the sea, You can pick me out [ ] If the children fail to do so, they say-- Poor fool, been to school, Learn more in a week; Been there seven years And hasn t learnt a bit. --Hurstmonceux, Sussex (Miss Chase). The same game is played indoors in Cornwall, the reply being-- Fool, fool, go back to school And learn your letters better. --Cornwall (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 99-80).
After the hand is over, all these cards are counted over again in reckoning the point for Game, the Five of trumps counting 5. Sixty-one points is game. _=IRREGULARITIES IN PLAY.=_ The most serious error in Seven-up is the _=revoke=_. If a player does not follow suit when able, it is a revoke unless he trumps the trick. A player holding two small trumps and the Ten of a plain suit, may trump both the ace and King of that suit instead of giving up his Ten. But if on the third round the Queen is led, and he cannot trump it, he must play his Ten if he has no other card of the suit. The only points affected by the revoke are Jack and Game. _=If the Jack is not in play=_, there is only one point that can be affected by the revoke, the score for Game; and the revoke penalty is one point, which the adversary may add to his own score, or deduct from the score of the revoking player. The adversary may also score the point for Game if he makes it; but it cannot be scored by the revoking player; who may mark only High or Low if he holds either or both of those points.
=_ There is little to add to the rules already given for Whist. The principles that should guide in the making of the trump have been given in connection with the more important game of Bridge; and the suggestions for playing nullo will be fully discussed in the games in which it is a prominent characteristic: Solo Whist, and Boston. Grand is practically Whist after the trumps are exhausted. For the Laws of Cayenne see Whist Family Laws. SOLO WHIST, OR WHIST DE GAND. _=CARDS.=_ Solo Whist is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing. Two packs are generally used, the one being shuffled while the other is dealt. _=MARKERS=_ are not used in Solo Whist, every hand being a complete game in itself, which is immediately settled for in counters representing money. At the beginning of the game each player should be provided with an equal number of these counters.
” is placed after a move, it means “check.” If it is a mate, or a drawn game, or the player resigns, the word follows the move. When the King castles with the King’s Rook, which is the shorter move for the Rook, it is indicated by the sign O-O. When the King is castled with the Queen’s Rook, which is the longer move for the Rook, the sign O-O-O is used. A cross, x, placed after the piece moved shows that it captured something, and the letters following the cross do not give the square to which the piece is moved, but show the piece that is captured. K B x Q P, for instance, would mean that the adversary’s Queen’s Pawn was to be taken from the board, and the King’s Bishop was to occupy the square upon which the captured Queen’s Pawn had stood. Beginners usually have some difficulty in following the moves of the Knights, because it frequently happens that the same square can be reached by either of them. The Bishops cannot be confused in this way, because they never change the colour of the square they stand upon. In some sets of chessmen the Knights are distinguished by putting a small crown on the King’s Knight, but this is never done in the regulation Staunton model. The beginner will find it very convenient, when following out the play of published games, to screw off the bottom of one white and one black Knight, and to exchange the bases.
Such are the following:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂭 🂧 🂤 🂢 | 🂾 🂽 🂺 🂴 🃁 🃋 🃉 🃄 🃃 | 🂮 🂭 🂧 🂤 🃑 🃙 🃘 🃔 🃓 | 🃎 🃋 🃊 🃄 ] The rule in all such cases is to follow with the card of uniformity, the original fourth-best. If the combinations are those from which the fourth-best had been led originally, and the leader has neither the best, nor both second and third best to go on with, he should continue with the lowest card in his hand, unless he had six or more in suit; in which case he may go on with the remaining fourth-best. _=AVOID CHANGING SUITS.=_ A player having once begun with a suit, either for the purpose of establishing it, or of taking tricks in it, should not change it until he is forced to do so. Running off to untried suits is one of the beginner’s worst faults. There are five good reasons for changing suits, and unless one of them can be applied, the suit should be continued: 1st. In order to lead trumps to defend it. 2nd. In order to avoid forcing partner. 3rd.
), _Strand { Magazine_, vol. ii. NORFOLK { Forby s _Vocabulary_, Spurden s { _Vocabulary_, Mr. J. Doe. Sporle, Swaffham Miss Matthews. { Baker s _Glossary_, _Northants Notes NORTHAMPTONSHIRE { and Queries_, _Revue Celtique_, vol. { iv., Rev. W.
Action is about at its peak then, and if the cross-roader had been tipping dice again, as they suspected, they would have had time to notice which table wasn t making its vigorish. Plain enough where they were having trouble. Fowler Smythe was scowling through his glasses behind a table with Barney, the dealer I d hit with the Blackout. Their faces were sweating in the dry desert air. The table was being taken. Now watch it, Pheola, I said, as we squeezed into the crowd, opposite the dealers. Almost anything can happen. I want to know the instant you get a feeling. You understand? She nodded and wiped at her drippy nose with a clean handkerchief. I d gotten her a dozen.
The survivor of the first two must either say, “Yes,” to the offers made by Hinterhand, or pass. The final survivor then announces his game. It is usual for the last one to pass to signify that he is done by pushing the skat cards toward the survivor, indicating that they are his, and that he is the player. If a player is offered a game equal to his own he may still say, “Yes;” but if he is offered a better game, and still says, “Yes,” he runs the risk of being compelled to play. The old German way of bidding, adopted at the Skat Congresses in Altenburg, Leipzig and Dresden, was to bid in suits; a bid of club Solo outranking one of spade Solo, no matter what it was worth. This has long been obsolete, the objection to it being that a player might get the play on a game of much inferior value. A player with a spade Solo, six Matadores, and schneider announced could offer only a spade Solo, without mentioning its value, and although his game was worth 99, he could be outbid by an offer of Nullo, which was then worth only 20. This is contrary to the spirit of the game, which requires that the person offering the game of the greatest value shall be the player. The rank of the bids in the old German game was as follows, beginning with the lowest:-- Frage, in the order of the suits. Tourné, in the order of the suits.
If a player has five cards face up, covering five cards face down, he cannot shift one of the exposed cards to the empty sixth place, and uncover another card. All covering cards must be got rid of in the course of play. _=PENALTIES=_ for revokes, cards led out of turn, etc., are the same as at Whist. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ As in Whist, the object is to win tricks, all above six counting one point toward game. Five, seven, or ten points may be made the game, at the option of the players, but ten is the usual number. Honours are not counted except by agreement. _=STAKES.=_ It is usual to play for so much a point or a game.