_=12.=_ If _=any part=_ of a playable piece is moved over an angle of the square on which it is stationed, the move must be completed in _=that=_ direction. _=13.=_ A capturing play, as well as an ordinary one, is completed whenever the hand has been withdrawn from the piece played, although one or more pieces should have been taken. _=14.=_ The Huff or Blow is to remove from the board, before one plays his own piece, any one of the adverse pieces that might or ought to have taken but the Huff or Blow never constitutes a play. _=15.=_ The player has the power to _=huff=_, _=compel the capture=_, or _=let the piece remain on the board=_, as he thinks proper. _=16.=_ When a man first reaches any of the squares on the opposite extreme line of the board, it becomes a King, and can be moved backward or forward as the limits of the board permit, though not in the same play.
=_ It is usually best to settle upon one of two suits or combinations, and to discard the others, for you cannot play for everything. Having once settled on what to play for, it is generally bad policy to change unless something better turns up. Your adversary’s discards will often be a guide as to the combinations he hopes to make, and will show you that you need not keep certain cards. For instance: If a binocle player discards or plays two heart Kings, it is unlikely that he has either of the Queens, and you may reasonably hope for 60 Queens; but it will be impossible for you to make anything out of your Kings but marriages. In Bézique, where Kings may be of the same suit in fours, you will have a slightly better chance for 80 Kings on account of your adversary’s discards, because he certainly has no more, as he would not break up three Kings. _=Declaring.=_ It is often a nice point to decide whether or not you can afford to make minor declarations while holding higher ones in your hand. In Rubicon many players will give up the trump marriage if they have the sequence, especially with a good chance of re-forming it several times with duplicate cards. The number of cards in hand will often be the best guide. In Rubicon, if you held trump sequence and double bézique, it would be better to declare the sequence first, and to lead the card you drew.
If he has not seen it, he may put it back without penalty. If he draws out of turn, he must restore the card improperly drawn, and if it belongs to his adversary, the player in error must show his own card. If both draw the wrong cards there is no remedy, and each must keep what he gets. If the loser of any trick draws and looks at two cards from the stock, his adversary may look at both cards of the following draw, and may select either for himself. If he chooses the second card, which his adversary has not seen, he need not show it. If, on account of some undetected irregularity, an even number of cards remain in the stock, the last card must not be drawn. The winner of the trick takes the last but one, and the loser takes the trump card. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ The aim of each player is to reach 1000 points before his adversary, and the one first reaching that number, and announcing it, wins the game. Points are scored for _=dix=_, _=melds=_, the _=last trick=_, and for _=cards=_, which are the counting cards in tricks won.
Fatten her up, straighten her teeth and--Talk about _religious_ rationalization! I snapped out of it. Maybe she could call the turn of dice. But I d be damned if she could call the turn of people. Let her try _me_. I sat up on the parapet, swinging to put my feet on the gravel of the root. So tonight you found the husband God s been going to give you? I asked. Yes, she said softly. And I m the one? Yes! Not that again! I growled, grabbing her thin shoulders and shaking her. Her glasses bobbled on her nose. I m _not_ your darlin Billy, and you well know it.
If the eldest hand is not satisfied, he says: _=I beg=_; and the dealer, after examining his own hand, has the option of giving him a point or _=running the cards=_. If he decides to give the point, he says: _=Take it=_, and the eldest hand immediately scores one for the _=gift=_. If the dealer will not give, he lays the trump card aside, and deals three more cards to each player, including himself; turning up another trump. Should this be a Jack of another suit, the dealer scores a point for it at once. Should it be of the same suit as that first turned up, the Jack cannot be scored, as the dealer has declined to have that suit for the trump. When the same suit is turned up a second time, the card is laid aside; three more cards are given to each player, another trump is turned, and so on until a different suit comes up for the trump. If the pack is exhausted before another suit turns up, the cards must be _=bunched=_, and the same dealer deals again. The dealer’s partner and the pone are not permitted to look at their cards until the eldest hand and the dealer have decided whether to stand or run the cards. Among strict players, if a person looks at his hand before the proper time, the adversaries score a point. The object of this rule is to prevent the possibility of any expression of satisfaction or disapproval of the turn-up trump.
_ +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | 8 | | 1 | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | 7 | | | | 2 | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | ♞ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | 6 | | | | 3 | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | 5 | | 4 | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | 1 | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | 2 | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♞ | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ ] The peculiarity of the Knight’s move is that it is not retarded by other pieces, because the Knight can jump over them, a privilege which is not given to any other piece on the board. In Diagram No. 5, for instance, the Knights have been legitimately moved, but no other piece could be moved until the Pawns had made way for it. [Illustration: _No. 5._ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | ♘ | | | ♘ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | ♙ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ♖ | | ♗ | ♕ | ♔ | ♗ | | ♖ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ ] There are one or two peculiar movements which are allowed only under certain conditions. One of these is _=Castling=_. If there are no pieces between the King and the Rook, and neither piece has been moved, the King may be moved two squares toward the Rook, and at the same time the Rook may be brought round to the other side of the King. The movement must be made with both hands, each manipulating a piece. In the position shown in Diagram No.
| | | |33.|Suppose the pipe | -- | -- | | |should fall and break.| | | |34.|We ll give him a bag | -- | -- | | |of nuts to crack. | | | |35.|Suppose the nuts were | -- | -- | | |rotten and bad. | | | |36.| -- |Set a dog to bark all | -- | | | |night. | | |37.| -- |If the dog should meet| -- | | | |a bone.
One boy acts as keeper of the tin, the other players also stand outside the ring. One of these kicks the tin out of the ring, the others then all run to hide or squat out of sight. The keeper has to replace the tin before looking for the boys. If, after that, he can spy a boy, that boy must come out and stand by the ring. When another boy is spied, he endeavours to reach the ring before the keeper does so, and kick out the tin. If he is successful, any one of the boys who is standing by, having been previously spied, is released from the keeper, and again hides. The object of the keeper is to successfully spy all the boys. When this is accomplished the last boy becomes the keeper.--Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy).
If he fails, he neither wins nor loses; because he is playing against a foul hand. If the bidder has more than his right number of cards he must pay if he loses; but wins nothing if he succeeds. If he has less than his right number of cards, he is simply supposed to have lost the trick for which he has no card to play. _=PLAYING OUT OF TURN.=_ If any adversary of the bidder leads or plays out of turn, he forfeits three counters to the bidder, independently of the result of the hand, and receives nothing if the bid is defeated. If the bidder leads out of turn, the card must be taken back, unless all have followed the erroneous lead, in which case the trick is good. There is no penalty if he plays out of turn. _=REVOKES.=_ When a revoke is detected and claimed, the hands are immediately abandoned, and the individual player in fault must pay all the counters depending on the result. If he is the bidder, he pays each adversary; if he is opposed to the bidder, he pays for himself and for each of his partners.
=_ In case of any irregularity in the deal, the same dealer must deal again. The laws governing misdeals are the same as at whist or bridge. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ The play is for tricks alone, but whether the players try to win them or to lose them depends on the declaration. In Grands it is to win; in Nullos, it is to lose. _=BIDDING.=_ 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.
Miss Baker (_Northamptonshire Glossary_), in describing Merell or Morris, says:-- On the inclosing of open fields this game was transferred to a board, and continues a fireside recreation of the agricultural labourer. It is often called by the name of Mill or Shepherd s Mill. She says the mode of playing now observed is this. Each of the players has nine pieces, or men, differing in colour, or material, from his adversary, for distinction s sake; which they lay down on the spots alternately, one by one, each endeavouring to prevent his opponent from placing three of his pieces in a line, as whichever does so is entitled to take off any one of his antagonist s men where he pleases, without breaking a row of three, which must not be done whilst there is another man on the board. After all the pieces are placed on the board, they are moved alternately backwards and forwards along the lines; and as often as either of the players succeeds in accomplishing a row of three, he claims one of his antagonist s men, which is placed in the pound (the centre), and he who takes the most pieces wins the game. It is played on a board whereon are marked three squares, one being denominated the pound. It is sometimes played with pegs, bits of paper, or wood, or stone. It is called Peg Morris by Clare, the Northamptonshire poet. The ancient game of Nine Men s Morris is yet played by the boys of Dorset. The boys of a cottage, near Dorchester, had a while ago carved a Marrel pound on a block of stone by the house.
How much of what you ve been feeding me is just window dressing? She shrugged, but stayed silent. _Have_ you been married? I insisted. Yes, Billy Joe. _And_ divorced? Oh, darlin Billy, she sighed. I jest shouldn t never a _done_ that. But I did, she added. Talk English, I snapped. This chitterlin s and corn pone are just more window dressing, right? Her face was solemn behind the glasses. When you are a smart girl, and you know the future, too, they hate you and try to hurt you, she said. They don t seem to mind it so much if it comes from a piece of white trash that never could be no account.
” Thus a spade Solo with two would be reckoned; “with two, one for game, one for out of hand; four times seven, or twenty-eight.” Note that seven is tourné value for spades. _=THE SKAT CARDS.=_ The successful bidder determined, the skat cards are pushed towards him, and the manner in which he uses them limits the game he is allowed to play. While the player must win or lose a game worth as many as bid, he may attempt to win as many more as he pleases. If he has got the play on a bid of ten, that does not prevent him from playing a club Solo, with schneider announced. But if he has bid or refused eleven, and plays a tourné in diamonds, he must make schneider or play with or without two Matadores in order to bring his multipliers up to three. It both these fail him he loses 15, the next higher game than his bid possible in a diamond tourné. As Frage is no longer played on account of its small value, if the player takes both the skat cards into his hand at the same time, without showing them, his game must be a Gucki Grand, unless he has previously announced that it is a Gucki Nullo. His game announced, he lays out any two cards he pleases for his skat, so as to play with ten only.
The game is seven-point whist. The importance of playing to the score will be evident if you consider your play in each of the following instances, your score being given first: Score 6 to 6; you have 5 tricks in front of you. Score 6 to 6; you have 4 tricks in front of you. Score 6 to 5; you have 4 tricks in front of you. Score 5 to 4; you have 5 tricks in front of you. _=INFERENCES.=_ The great strength of the expert lies in his ability to draw correct inferences from the fall of the cards, and to adapt his play to the circumstances. Inferences from the various systems of leads and returns are too obvious to require further notice; but attention may be called to some that are often overlooked, even by advanced players: If a suit led is won by Third Hand with King or Ace; and the original leader wins the second round with King or Ace, the adversaries must have the Queen. If the Third Hand plays Ace first round, he has neither King nor Queen. If he plays Queen on a Ten led, he has no more.