Gomme. Marbles Brand considers that marbles had their origin in bowls, and received their name from the substance of which the bowls were formerly made. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 384) says, Marbles have been used as a substitute for bowls. I believe originally nuts, round stones, or any other small things that could easily be bowled along were used as marbles. Rogers notices Marbles in his _Pleasures of Memory_, l. 137:-- On yon gray stone that fronts the chancel-door, Worn smooth by busy feet, now seen no more, Each eve we shot the marble through the ring. Different kinds of marbles are alleys, barios, poppo, stonies. Marrididdles are marbles made by oneself by rolling and baking common clay. By boys these are treated as spurious and are always rejected.
C. W., a daring ornament of her sex. I vanish. I vanish, but I will return. Here, then, is the story of the battle of Hook s Farm. The affair of Hook s Farm was one of those brisk little things that did so much to build up my early reputation. I did remarkably well, though perhaps it is not my function to say so. The enemy was slightly stronger, both in cavalry and infantry, than myself [Footnote: A slight but pardonable error on the part of the gallant gentleman. The forces were exactly equal.
He gave Underhill a reassuring squeeze of the shoulder and left the room. The nurse took a napkin off a goblet of chilled fruit juice. * * * * * Underhill tried to smile at her. There seemed to be something wrong with the girl. He wished she would go away. First she had started to be friendly and now she was distant again. It s a nuisance being telepathic, he thought. You keep trying to reach even when you are not making contact. Suddenly she swung around on him. You pinlighters! You and your damn cats! Just as she stamped out, he burst into her mind.
Shinnoping is also used for the game in operation. Jowling, or Jowls, is given in Robinson s _Whitby Glossary_, as a game played much the same as Hockey. Baddin is the name given to it in Holland s _Cheshire Glossary_. Another name is Doddart (Brockett, _North Country Words_). (_c_) An old custom in vogue in bygone days was Rotherham Fair, or what was called Whipping Toms, which took place in the Newarkes every Shrove Tuesday. So soon as the pancake bell rang men and boys assembled with sticks having a knob or hook at the end. A wooden ball was thrown down, and two parties engaged in striving which could get the ball by striking it with their sticks to one end of the Newarke first--those who did so were the victors. This game was called Shinney, or Hockey. About one o clock the Whipping Toms appeared on the scene of action. These were three men clad in blue smock frocks, with very long waggon whips, who were accompanied by three men with small bells.
Patterson (_Antrim and Down Glossary_) gives the rhyme as-- Nievy, navy, nick nack, Which han will ye tak , The right or the wrang? I ll beguile ye if I can. Chambers (_Popular Rhymes_, p. 117) gives the rhyme the same as that given by Mr. Patterson. In _Notes and Queries_, 6th Series, vii. 235, a North Yorkshire version is given as-- Nievie, nievie, nack, Whether hand wilta tak, Under or aboon, For a singal half-crown? Nievie, nievie, nick, nack, Whilk han will thou tak? Tak the richt or tak the wrang, I ll beguile thee if I can. Jamieson (_Supp., sub voce_) adds: The first part of the word seems to be from neive, the fist being employed in the game. A writer in _Notes and Queries_, iii. 180, says: The neive, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed.
What she had said about _expecting_ to find me on the roof sounded like precognition. And she sniffled and sniffled. Maybe it was one more of those tied-in hysterical Psi weaknesses. What are you doing out here? I asked her. Resting, she said wearily. I just hit town today. And tired already? I was broke, she said. Worked in a hotel laundry till dinner time to get eatin money. Hot work. But I swiped a nice dress to wear when I went looking for you, Billy Joe.
If the second player does not follow suit, the leader wins. The winner of one trick leads for the next, and so on until all twelve tricks are played. Every time a card is played which is better than a Nine, the leader counts one for it, adding the number to the total value of his score as already announced. If the second player wins the trick with any card better than a Nine he also counts one; but if the trick is won by the player who led, there is no extra count for winning it. The winner of the _=last trick=_ counts one for it, in addition to his count for winning it with a card better than a Nine. If the leader wins it, he gets the one extra. If each player wins six tricks, there is no further scoring; but if either player wins the _=odd trick=_ he adds to his score ten points for _=cards=_, in addition to all other scores. If either player wins all twelve tricks, which would be the case in the example hand just given as an illustration, he adds to his score forty points for the _=capot=_; but this forty points includes the scores for the last trick and for the odd trick. A card once laid on the table cannot be taken back, unless the player has renounced in error. There is no _=revoke=_ in Piquet, and if a player has one of the suit led he must play it.
The caller should never play single honours second hand, unless he has only one small card of the suit, or the honour is the Ace. With A Q x, second or third hand, the Q must be finessed if the caller has counted on both A and Q for tricks. If he can probably win without the finesse, he should play Ace. If he has tricks enough to win without either A or Q, he should play neither of them. A solo player should be very sure of his call before finessing for over-tricks. _=Adversaries’ Play.=_ The player to the left of the caller should not lead trumps; but if the solo player has had a lead, and has not led trumps himself, the player on his right should take the first opportunity to lead them through him. The player to the left of the caller should not lead from suits headed only by the King; nor from those containing major or minor tenaces. The best leads are from suits headed by Q J or 10, even if short. With such high-card combinations as can be used to force the command in one round, such as K Q, or K Q J, the regular whist leads should be used.
In _=Boston=_, _=Cayenne=_, and _=Solo Whist=_, the misdealer must deal again. DEALING. 13. When the pack has been properly cut and reunited, the dealer must distribute the cards, one at a time, to each player in regular rotation, beginning at his left. The last, which is the trump card, must be turned up before the dealer. At the end of the hand, or when the deal is lost, the deal passes to the player next to the dealer on his left, and so on to each in turn. In _=Solo Whist=_, the cards are distributed three at a time until only four remain in the pack. These are dealt one at a time, and the last turned up for trump. In _=Boston=_ and in _=Cayenne=_, the cards are dealt four at a time for two rounds, and then five at a time. No trump is turned.
Grandmother, grandmother grey, May I go out to play? No, no, no, it is a very wet day. Grandmother, grandmother grey, May I go out to play? Yes, yes, yes, if you don t frighten the geese away. Children, I call you. I can t hear you. Where are your manners? In my shoe. Who do you care for? Not for you. --Earls Heaton, Yorks. (H. Hardy). VIII.
(_b_) One boy lies down and personates Booman. Other boys form a ring round him, joining hands and alternately raising and lowering them, to imitate bell-pulling, while the girls who play sit down and weep. The boys sing the first verse. The girls seek for daisies or any wild flowers, and join in the singing of the second verse, while the boys raise the prostrate Booman and carry him about. When singing the third verse the boys act digging a grave, and the dead boy is lowered. The girls strew flowers over the body. When finished another boy becomes Booman. (_c_) This game is clearly dramatic, to imitate a funeral. Mr. Doe writes, I have seen somewhere [in Norfolk] a tomb with a crest on it--a leek--and the name Beaumont, but it does not seem necessary to thus account for the game.
W. Gregor). See Cock s-headling. Cockle-bread Young wenches have a wanton sport, which they call moulding of Cocklebread; viz. they gett upon a Table-board, and then gather-up their knees and their coates with their hands as high as they can, and then they wabble to and fro with their Buttocks as if the[y] were kneading of Dowgh, and say these words, viz.:-- My Dame is sick and gonne to bed, And I le go mowld my cockle-bread. In Oxfordshire the maids, when they have put themselves into the fit posture, say thus:-- My granny is sick, and now is dead, And wee l goe mould some cockle-bread. Up with my heels, and down with my head, And this is the way to mould cocklebread. --Aubrey s _Remains_, pp. 43, 44.
At the last verse the girl jumps up and breaks through the ring by force; another girl takes her place in the ring, and the game begins again. The Sussex version of Mary Brown (Chas. Wise) is played by the children standing in line and advancing and retiring towards the lying or kneeling child. The Barnes version of Rise, Daughter is also played in this way. The daughter lays down, and at the end of the game joins the line, and another lays down. In the Hurstmonceux version, when the last verse is sung, the girl in the middle rises and picks a boy out of the ring; he goes in the middle with her, and they kiss. The version given by Halliwell is played in the same way as the Barnes version. (_c_) Halliwell (_Game Rhymes_, p. 219) gives a version of a Swedish ballad or ring dance-song, entitled Fair Gundela, he considers this may be a prototype of the English game, or that they may both be indebted to a more primitive original. The Swedish game rather gives the idea of a maiden who has sought supernatural assistance from a wise woman, or witch, to ask after the fate of those dear to her, and the English versions may also be dramatic renderings of a ballad of this character.
The dealer continues to turn up cards one by one, announcing their total pip value each time, until he reaches or passes 31. Court cards and Tens count 10 each, the ace and all others for their face value. Having reached or passed 31 for black, the _=red=_ is dealt for in the same manner, and whichever colour most closely approaches 31, wins. Suppose 35 was dealt for black, and 38 for red; black would win. The number dealt must never exceed 40. The colour of the first card dealt in each coup is noted, and if the same colour wins the coup, the banker pays all bets placed on the space marked _=Couleur=_. If the opposite colour wins, he pays all bets in the triangle marked _=Inverse=_. All bets are paid in even money, there being no odds at this game. Although black is the first colour dealt for, both it and inverse are ignored in the announcement of the result, red and colour being the only ones mentioned, win or lose. If the same number is reached for both colours, it is called a _=refait=_, and is announced by the word, “Après,” which means that all bets are a stand-off for that coup.
The trump card is left face upward on the table, and is usually placed under the remainder of the pack, which is slightly spread, face down, for the players to draw from. The general rules for irregularities in the deal are the same as in Binocle. A misdeal does not lose the deal. _=Objects of the Game.=_ The object of the game, as its name implies, is to count sixty-six. If a player can get sixty-six before his adversary, he counts one point toward game. If he gets sixty-six before his opponent gets thirty-three, which is called _=schneider=_, he counts two. If he gets sixty-six before his adversary wins a trick, which is called _=schwartz=_, he counts three. The player first making seven points in this manner wins the game. A player may reach sixty-six by winning tricks containing certain counting cards; by holding and announcing marriages, which are the King and Queen of any suit; and by winning the last trick.
| +---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+ | | . | | . | | . | | . | +---+-.-+---+-.
Two are chosen, the one as Namer and the other as Foolie. Foolie withdraws, if not out of sight, at least out of range of hearing. The Namer then gives a name secretly to each player. When this is done, he calls on Foolie--Foolie, Foolie, come to your schoolie. Foolie pays no attention to this call. It is again repeated, but with the same results. This goes on for several times. At last the Namer calls out-- Foolie, Foolie, come to your schoolie; Your bannocks are burnin an ready for turnin . Foolie always obeys this call, comes and stations himself beside the Namer. A little chaffing generally goes on against Foolie.
TEXT BOOKS. Calcul de Probabilité, by Bertrand. Philosophy of Whist, by Dr. Pole. Winning Whist, by Emory Boardman. Chance and Luck, by R.A. Proctor. Complete Poker Player, by John Blackbridge. Bohn’s Handbook of Games.