So if Dummy leads Jack from J 10 and others, play the King with a short suit. If partner has Queen you establish it; if not, you cannot make a trick in the suit. With short suits it is usually best to cover an honour with an honour; but with several small cards, such as K x x x, Dummy leading a singleton Queen, you should pass. With K 10 x, Dummy having J and others, play honour on honour; small card on small card, whichever Dummy leads. It is often important for the second hand to cover with what is called an _=imperfect fourchette=_. A true fourchette is the card immediately above and below the one led; such as K J over the Q, or Q 10 over the J. An imperfect fourchette is the card above the one led, and another next but one below it; such as K 10 over a Q led, or Q 9 over a J led. Covering forces the opponents to play two honours to win one trick, and will often make an intermediate card good in your partner’s hand. _=THIRD HAND PLAY.=_ In addition to the methods of _=echoing=_ on the partner’s leads of high cards in the suit first opened, third hand must be ready to adapt himself and his play to any change of suit and will require constant practice in putting himself in his partner’s place, asking himself what the object is in leading certain cards through Dummy’s hand.
There stands a lady on yonder hill, Who she is I cannot tell; I ll go and court her for her beauty, Whether she answers me yes or no. Madam, I bow vounce to thee. Sir, have I done thee any harm? Coxconian! Coxconian is not my name; tis Hers and Kers, and Willis and Cave. Stab me, ha! ha! little I fear. Over the waters there are but nine, I ll meet you a man alive. Over the waters there are but ten, I ll meet you there five thousand. Rise up, rise up, my pretty fair maid, You re only in a trance; Rise up, rise up, my pretty fair maid, And we will have a dance. --Lady C. Gurdon s _Suffolk County Folk-lore_, p. 65.
_=Rules for Leading Second Round.=_ On the second round of any suit, the player holding the best card should play it; or having several equally the best, one of them. If he is Fourth Hand, he may be able to win the trick more cheaply. If the original leader has several cards, equally the best, such as A Q J remaining after having led the King, he should continue with the lowest card that will win the trick. This should be an indication to his partner that the card led is as good as the best, and that therefore the leader must have the intermediate cards. _=Following King=_, which has been led from these combinations:-- [Illustration: 🂡 🂮 🂭 🂫 | 🂱 🂾 🂻 🂷 🃁 🃎 🃍 🃆 | 🃑 🃞 🃔 🃓 ] Leading the Jack on the second round would show both Ace and Queen remaining. Leading Queen would show Ace, but not the Jack. Leading Ace would show that the leader had not the Queen. In combinations which do not contain the best card, the lead may be varied in some cases to show the number remaining in the leader’s hand, or to indicate cards not shown by the first lead. _=Following King=_, which has been led from these combinations:-- [Illustration: 🃎 🃍 🃋 🃊 | 🃞 🃝 🃛 🃖 ] Leading the Ten on the second round would show both Queen and Jack remaining.
=_ Muggins is sometimes played by making the object to get multiples of three at the ends, instead of multiples of five. Otherwise the game is the same as All Fives. There are several _=card games=_ with dominoes, but they are little used, and hardly worth description in a work of this kind. DICE. Dice are probably the oldest gambling instruments in the world. Chatto thinks that man acquired the passion for gambling as soon as he could distinguish odd from even, or a short straw from a shorter. Simple gambling instruments were probably very early articles of manufacture, and Chatto says that it is not unlikely that after a simple dinner of mutton some enterprising gamester may have taken the small bones from between the shank and the foot, and after burning spots in them to distinguish one from the other, put them into _a_ cow’s horn and shaken them up, afterward rolling them upon the ground. From some such beginning Astragali was developed, a game which Dr. Thomas Hyde thinks was known at the time of the Deluge. Later on, other instruments were used in connection with dice, and so the earliest forms of Backgammon were developed.
Her fingers kneaded it, working some imaginary devil out through the fingertips, till the hurt was gone. * * * * * We sat close together on the edge of the bed at last, as I worked and moved my arm, one of us more in awe of what had happened than the other. It was weak--with those flabby, unused muscles, it had to be. But I could move it, to any normal position. I never done like that before, she breathed. Jest small ailin . You re a healer, all right, I said. And a prophetess, too, from what I saw at the dice table. You know what a Psi personality is? I asked her. Say, what is your name, anyway? Pheola, she said.