Minor combinations cannot be scored if the adversary has upon the table cards which form a major combination of the same or greater value in the same class; that is, in class A. For instance: If your adversary has two Queens on the table, you cannot announce any pair below Jacks. His Queens need not have been announced as a pair; they may be parts of a marriage and a penchant. But if you have on the table a pair as good as his, you can score minor pairs. For instance: He has two Kings on the table, and you have two Aces. Your Aces cancel his Kings, and you can score any minor pair; but he can not. If you have a minor triplet to declare, such as three Eights, no major pair of his will bar it, because your triplet counts more than his pair. No minor combination on his side will bar you; it must be one of court cards, and it must be better than any that you have laid on the table yourself. _=The Last Six Tricks.=_ After the stock is exhausted, the second player must follow suit if able, and must win the trick if he can.
There seems to be a growing tendency in America to adopt the English rule of cutting out the spade suit at 2 a trick, and making it always a royal spade, worth 9. The dealer is allowed to pass without making a bid, the lowest call being one club. If all pass, the deal goes to the left. BRIDGE. There are two principal varieties of this game; straight bridge, in which the dealer or his partner must make the trump, their opponents having nothing to say about it except to double the value of the tricks. The dealer’s partner is always the dummy, and either side may score toward game by making the odd trick or more. Auction bridge, in which the privilege of making the trump is bid for, the highest bidder playing the hand with his partner as dummy, regardless of the position of the deal, and his side being the only one that can score toward game, the adversaries scoring nothing but penalties in the honour column if they defeat the contract. As this is the more popular form of bridge at the present time, it will be given first. Since the adoption of the higher value for the spade suit under the name of royal spades, and the change in the value of the suits, the game gradually came to be known as royal auction, but as that change is now universal, the name has slipped back to its original title. AUCTION BRIDGE, OR AUCTION.
Nothing but experience will teach a player what combinations of cards are “probably” good for tricks; but K x x, or Q J 10 x or K Q, may be counted on. There should be some intelligible system of proposing, so that the players may understand each other. The eldest hand should not propose except on strong trumps, and this should be a warning to other players not to accept him on trump strength alone. Four trumps with two or three honours may be called strong; or five trumps, even without an honour. Five trumps with two or more honours is great strength. Any player other than the eldest hand should propose on general strength and the player accepting him should do so on trump strength. Some such distinction should be clearly understood, in order that there may be no such contretemps as two players proposing and accepting on trumps alone and finding themselves without a trick in the plain suits after the trumps are drawn. If the eldest hand is strong in trumps, but has not four sure tricks, he should pass, which will give him an excellent opportunity to accept a player proposing on general strength in the plain suits. If the proposal should be accepted before it comes to his turn, the eldest hand should be in a good position to defeat it. If any player, other than the eldest hand, has sufficient trump strength to justify a proposal, he will usually find that he can risk a solo; or by passing, defeat any proposal and acceptance that may be made.
The original leader will then have to get in himself, because his partner cannot help him; but if the dealer gave up the Ace on the first trick, it would not matter which partner got into the lead, they would return to the suit first opened. _=Ducking.=_ This is a method of play by which the dealer hopes to make his own suit even when the hand that is longer in it has no re-entry card. Suppose Dummy holds six clubs to the Ace King, and not another trick in his hand. The dealer has two small clubs only to lead. If the two winning clubs are led right out, it is impossible to catch the Q J 10, no matter how those cards lie, therefore the dealer leads a club, but makes no attempt to win the first round. No matter what is played by the adversaries he _=ducks=_ the first round, keeping his Ace and King. Next time the dealer gets in, he leads another club, and now he is able to win the second and third rounds of the suit, and will probably catch all the adverse cards and establish it. The dealer’s play always requires careful planning of the whole hand in advance. _=THE NULLO.
II. Here stands a young lady [lass] who wants a sweetheart, Wants a sweetheart, wants a sweetheart, And don t know where to find one, find one, find one. Choose the prettiest that you loves best. Now you re married I wish you joy, First a girl and then a boy, Seven years after son and daughter, Pray you come to kiss together. --Longcot, Berkshire (Miss I. Barclay). (_b_) A ring is formed by the players joining hands, one child standing in the centre. The ring dance round singing the first four lines. At the fourth line the child in the centre chooses one from the ring, who goes into the centre with her. The marriage formula or chorus is then sung, the two kiss, and the one who was first in the centre joins the ring, the second one choosing another in her turn.
They frequently lay them very loosely on, that they may have the pleasure of pelting.--Jamieson. Cat s Cradle One child holds a piece of string joined at the ends on his upheld palms, a single turn being taken over each, and by inserting the middle finger of each hand under the opposite turn, crosses the string from finger to finger in a peculiar form. Another child then takes off the string on his fingers in a rather different way, and it then assumes a second form. A repetition of this man[oe]uvre produces a third form, and so on. Each of these forms has a particular name, from a fancied resemblance to the object--barn-doors, bowling-green, hour-glass, pound, net, fiddle, fish-pond, diamonds, and others.--_Notes and Queries_, vol. xi. p. 421.
Munshets. Musical Chairs. NACKS. Namers and Guessers. Neighbour. Neivie-nick-nack. Nettles. New Squat. Nine Holes. Nine Men s Morris.