V. Darby and Joan were dressed in black, Sword and buckle behind their back. Foot for foot, and knee for knee, Turn about Darby s company. --Halliwell s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 121. (_b_) The children form pairs, one pair following the other, with their arms linked behind. While the first four lines are repeated by all, they skip forward, and then skip back again. At the end of the last line they turn themselves about without loosing hands. (_c_) Miss Burne includes this among obscure and archaic games, and Halliwell-Phillips mentions it as a marching game. The three first versions have something of the nature of an incantation, while the fourth and fifth versions may probably belong to another game altogether.
_=Combinations.=_ The beginner’s greatest difficulty is in counting hands which contain all three varieties of counts; pairs, sequences, and fifteens. But if he is familiar with the values of the various combinations taken separately, he will have no difficulty in computing them when they are found together. Some regular order should be observed in going over the hands, so that nothing shall be forgotten. The majority of players begin with the fifteens, as they are more liable to be overlooked, and then reckon the value of the runs and pairs together. Take the following examples:-- No. 1. [Illustration: 🃕 🂵 🂥 🃖 🃇] No. 2. [Illustration: 🂦 🃇 🂨 🃈 🃘] No.
For instance: A, B, C, and D play. D blinds five counters, and deals. A passes, and B opens for five reds. C passes out, while D and A both meet the bet of five reds, but neither will raise it. This does not call B, who has the privilege of raising the bet if he pleases. Suppose he raises, and D and A both meet it. On this second round, C having passed out, it is D’s turn to say whether or not he will raise. On the next round it will be A’s turn, and after that it will be B’s second turn, and so on. Should any player meet the bet but refuse to raise, although it is his turn, he still cannot call. If he does not avail himself of his privilege of raising, he must _=pass the word=_ to the player on his right; that is, transfer the privilege to him.
(_b_) In the Yorkshire version a ring is formed with one child in the middle as the Oary Man. Whatever he, or she, does, all in the ring must mimic, going round and singing at the same time. Any one found late in changing the action or idle in obeying the caperings of the central child becomes the Oary Man in place of the child taking that part. Both girls and boys play. In the Redhill version, Holy Gabriel kneels in the middle of the circle. He acts as leader, and always had the fiddle as his instrument, though he now usually plays the pianoforte as his first instrument. The other children choose any instrument they like. Holy Gabriel pretends to play the fiddle, and all the other children play their own instruments until Holy Gabriel changes his to one of theirs, when that one must immediately begin to play the fiddle, and continue until Holy Gabriel takes another instrument or returns to the fiddle. This is done in vigorous pantomime. In the Luton variant the children sit in a semicircle, the Drummer faces them.
=_ If either player is able to reach 30 by successive declarations, beginning with the point, all of which are admitted by his adversary to be good, he adds 60 to his score, making it 90 instead of 30, and this is irrespective of what his adversary may have in minor or inferior combinations. The important thing to remember in repic is that declarations always count in regular order, carte blanche taking precedence of everything; then the point, sequences, and quatorze or trio. Suppose elder hand to hold the following cards:-- ♡ K Q J 10 9; ♣ A K Q; ♢ A Q 9; ♠ Q. If the quinte to the King is admitted good for the point, it must be good for the sequence also. That is 20. The four Queens must be good, as the adversary cannot have any quatorze. This makes the total 34, and 60 added for repic, 94 altogether, to which he will add one for leading the first card, if it is above a Nine. Suppose the elder hand had the following cards:-- ♡ A K Q J 8; ♣ A K; ♢ A K; ♠ A K 10. If his point is good, that and his four Aces and Kings will make him 33 altogether; but his sequence is not good, because the dealer holds five diamonds to the Queen, which comes in order before the score for quatorze, and so saves the repic. Suppose that with the foregoing cards the elder hand was told that even his point was not good.
pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIGORISH *** Produced by Greg Weeks, Bruce Albrecht, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net VIGORISH By WALTER BUPP Illustrated by Petrizzo [Transcriber s Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction June 1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] _If it takes a thief to catch a thief ...
=_ The player to the left of the dealer makes the first bid. He may offer to play grand or nullo or he may pass. The moment either grand or nullo is named, the bidding ends. If the first player passes, the next to the left must declare himself. If all pass without a bid, the hand is played as a nullo. Any player bidding out of turn loses 20 points, and is barred from bidding on that deal. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ If the game is grand, the player to the _right_ of the bidder leads any card he pleases. If the game is nullo, the player to the _left_ of the bidder leads. If no bid is made, the player to the left of the dealer leads.
S. May), are almost identical, except the termination. This seems to be the most general tune for the game. The Lancashire tune is the same as the London version. Miss Burne says of the Madeley version: I never knew Green Gravel and Wallflowers played together as in this way elsewhere (I had not got this variant when I wrote _Shropshire Folk-lore_), except at Much Wenlock, where they reverse the two verses, and only sing _one line_ (the last) of Green Gravel. But I feel sure they must have been _meant_ to go together (see my note in _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 510), and I can explain them, I think. The ring of girls are dancing on the green grass plot in the middle of an old-fashioned sixteenth-century walled garden: each gets the news of her lover s death, and turns her face to the wall, the old token of hopeless sorrow. Then they apostrophise the wallflowers in the border surrounding the grass plot against the old high wall; and here another variant explains the lament (second line)-- Wallflowers, wallflowers, growing up so high, _We shall all be maidens_ [and so], we shall all die; Except the youngest (who will meet with another lover), whether as an instance of the proverbial luck of the youngest born, or as a piece of juvenile giddiness and inconstancy, I cannot say; but considering the value set on true love and hopeless constancy in the ballad-lore, and the special garland which distinguished the funerals of bereaved but constant maidens, and the solemnity of betrothal in old days, the latter seems probable, especially considering the for shame. The incidents of _washing_ a corpse in milk and _dressing_ it in silk occur in Burd Ellen, Jamieson s _Ballads_, p.
Carte blanche cannot be scored at all unless held before a card is played; that is, it must be dealt to the player originally. All combinations announced and scored must be left face upward on the table, but the cards still form part of the player’s hand, and may be led or played at any time, although they must not again be taken in hand until the stock is exhausted. The first marriage announced and scored, no matter by which player, makes the _=trump suit=_ for that deal; but a player with a marriage on the table is not obliged to announce it if he does not wish to make that suit the trump. _=Irregularities in Play.=_ If a player leads out of turn, and his adversary plays to the lead, whether intentionally or otherwise, the trick stands good. If the adversary calls attention to the error, the card led out of turn may be taken back without penalty. If, after playing to the first trick, one player is found to have more than his right number of cards, the English rules say that the game is to be immediately abandoned, and the adversary of the player in error is to add 1300 points to his score at the time the error is discovered, together with all the points already scored by the player in error; but the latter amount must not exceed 900. The same penalties are enforced if one player has too many cards and the other too few; but in the latter case the hand is played out, the player not in fault scoring all he can. If both players have more than their right number of cards, the deal is void. If either has less than his proper number, his adversary having the right number, the deal stands good, and there is no penalty except that the player with the right number of cards wins and scores for the last trick.
Two packs are generally used. _=Players.=_ A table is complete with four players, and if there are more than four candidates for play the selection must be made by cutting. All the rules for formation of tables, cutting, ties, etc., are the same as at bridge. The lowest cut takes the deal. Partners sit opposite each other. _=Dealing.=_ The dealer presents the pack to be cut, and then gives thirteen cards to each player, one at a time. No trump is turned.