Black Man s Tig. Black Thorn. Blind Bell. Blind Bucky Davy. Blind Harie. Blind Hob. Blind Man s Buff. Blind Man s Stan. Blind Nerry Mopsy. Blind Palmie.
But before I write anything of Colonel Sykes suggestions about these, let me say a word or two about Kriegspiel country. The country for Kriegspiel should be made up, I think, of heavy blocks or boxes of wood about 3 x 3 x 1/2 feet, and curved pieces (with a rounded outline and a chord of three feet, or shaped like right-angled triangles with an incurved hypotenuse and two straight sides of 3 feet) can easily be contrived to round off corners and salient angles. These blocks can be bored to take trees, etc., exactly as the boards in Little Wars are bored, and with them a very passable model of any particular country can be built up from a contoured Ordnance map. Houses may be made very cheaply by shaping a long piece of wood into a house-like section and sawing it up. There will always be someone who will touch up and paint and stick windows on to and generally adorn and individualise such houses, which are, of course, the stabler the heavier the wood used. The rest of the country as in Little Wars. Upon such a country a Kriegspiel could be played with rules upon the lines of the following sketch rules, which are the result of a discussion between Colonel Sykes and myself, and in which most of the new ideas are to be ascribed to Colonel Sykes. We proffer them, not as a finished set of rules, but as material for anyone who chooses to work over them, in the elaboration of what we believe will be a far more exciting and edifying Kriegspiel than any that exists at the present time. The game may be played by any number of players, according to the forces engaged and the size of the country available.
Draw a bucket of water For my lady s daughter; One go rush, and the other go hush, Pretty young lady, bop under my bush. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). IX. Draw a bucket of water For the farmer s daughter; Give a gold ring and a silver watch, Pray, young lady, pop under. --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). X. Draw a bucket of water For my lady s daughter; A guinea gold ring And a silver pin, So pray, my young lady, pop under. --Haydon (Herbert Hardy). XI. Draw a bucket of water To wash my lady s garter; A guinea gold ring And a silver pin, Please, little girl, pop under.
.. what does it take to catch a psi-gifted thief?_ What do you hate and fear the most? I know a girl who gags and throws up at the mere sight of a bird. Poor kid, when she was a barefoot moppet she stepped on a fledgling robin in the grass. She hasn t gotten over the squish of it yet. Birds don t trouble me. I can look at them all day. It takes snakes to give me the green shudders. I hate them. She was getting better at them, I decided.
It belongs to the cumulative group of games, and is similar in this respect to Milking Pails, Mother, Mother, the Pot boils over, &c. There seems to be no other object in the game as now played except the pleasures of teasing and showing defiance to a mother s commands, and trying to escape the consequences of disobedience by flight, in order that the mother may chase them. The idea may be that, if she is out of breath, she cannot chastise so much. Mr. Newell (_Games_, p. 172) gives versions of a similar game. Mother Mop All the players, except one, stand two by two in front of each other, the inner ones forming an arch with their hands united--this is called the oven. The odd child is Mother Mop. She busies herself with a pretended mop, peel, &c., after the manner of old-fashioned bakers, making much ado in the valley between the rows of children.
If the fourth player proposes, the three others having passed, and no one will accept him he is bound to play solo against three such weak adversaries, and must make five tricks, either in belle or in petite. He is not allowed to play in a plain suit if he has made a simple “demand.” The only solo bids allowed are those for six, eight, or nine tricks, which outrank one another. A player cannot bid seven to over-call six; he must go to eight; and a player cannot _=bid=_ five tricks without a partner, although, as we have just seen, he may be forced to _=play=_ in that manner. When six, eight, or nine tricks are bid, the suits outrank one another for equal numbers of tricks; but as the suit called need not be the bidder’s true intention, nor the same as the card laid on the table, the proposer must be careful that his play will be as good as his bid. For instance: He intends nine tricks in spades, but proposes eight in diamonds. He cannot bid nine in diamonds, for that would be a better bid than he intends to play; but the ruse may succeed in inducing a player not to bid against him, hoping diamonds is the true suit. It is a common artifice to bid the true suit, because few will believe it to be such. If clubs are belle, and diamonds petite, and a player who “demands” is over-called by a demand in belle, or a call of six tricks, the first caller cannot advance his bid to six tricks except in the suit which he has already laid on the table; but he may accept the player over-calling him, instead of bidding against him. After a player has once accepted or passed, he cannot bid misère.
With this hand the player will win 44,724 times out of 65,780. There are about twenty hands which are generally known as jeux de règle, and every écarté player should be familiar with them. In the following examples the weakest hands are given, and the trumps are always the smallest possible. If the player has more strength in plain suits than is shown in these examples, or higher trumps, there is so much more reason for him to stand. But if he has not the strength indicated in plain suits, he should propose, even if his trumps are higher, because it must be remembered that strong trumps do not compensate for weakness in plain suits. The reason for this is that from stand hands trumps should never be led unless there are three of them; they are to be kept for ruffing, and when you have to ruff it does not matter whether you use a seven or a Queen. The King of trumps is of course led; but a player does not stand on a hand containing the King. The first suit given is always the trump, and the next suit is always the one that should be led, beginning with the best card of it if there is more than one. The figures on the right show the number of hands in which the player or the dealer will win out of the 65,780 possible distributions of the twenty-six unknown cards. These calculations are taken, by permission of Mr.
=_ The aces and Tens of each suit are of no value unless it is necessary to count them to decide a tie, or to save a rubicon. They are never scored during the play of the hand. _=Declarations.=_ The combinations which may be announced and scored during the play of the hand are divided into three classes: A, Marriages and Sequences; B, Béziques; and C, Fours. Only one combination can be scored at a time, and it must be announced and laid on the table immediately after the player holding it has won a trick, and before he draws his card from the talon. If he draws without announcing, it is equivalent to saying he has no declaration to make. Having drawn his card, even if he has not looked at it, he cannot score any declaration until he wins another trick. The various combinations and their values are as follows: CLASS A. King and Queen in any plain suit, _=Marriage=_ 20 King and Queen of trumps, _=Royal Marriage=_ 40 Five highest cards in a plain suit, _=Sequence=_ 150 Five highest cards in trumps, _=Royal Sequence=_ 250 CLASS B. Spade Queen and Diamond Jack, _=Single Bézique=_ 40 Two spade Queens and diamond Jacks, _=Double Bézique=_ 500 Three spade Queens and diamond Jacks, _=Triple Bézique=_ 1500 Four spade Queens and diamond Jacks, _=Quadruple Bézique=_ 4500 CLASS C.
After the dealer has declared, each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, must pass, make a higher declaration, double the last declaration, or redouble a declaration which has been doubled, subject to the provisions of Law 54. 44. A declaration of a greater number of tricks in a suit of lower value, which equals the last declaration in value of points, is a higher declaration; _e.g._, a declaration of “three spades” is higher than “one club.” 45. A player in his turn may overbid the previous adverse declaration any number of times, and may also overbid his partner, but he cannot overbid his own declaration which has been passed by the three others. 46. The player who makes the final declaration[9] must play the combined hands, his partner becoming dummy, unless the suit or no trump finally declared was bid by the partner before it was called by the final declarer, in which case the partner, no matter what bids have intervened, must play the combined hands. 47.
[Illustration: SPREADING THE PACK.] When _=two=_ or _=three=_ play, the lowest cut has the choice of seats, and takes the first deal. When _=four=_ play, they cut for partners; the two highest pairing against the two lowest. The lowest has the choice of seats, and deals the first hand. When _=five=_ or _=seven=_ play, they have the choice of seats in their order, the lowest first, and the lowest cut deals. When _=six=_ play, the three lowest are partners against the three highest, the lowest cut having the choice of seats, and the first deal. _=TIES.=_ Players cutting cards of equal value cut again; but the new cut decides nothing but the tie. _=PLAYER’S POSITIONS.=_ The _=eldest hand=_, or age, sits on the left of the dealer, and the _=pone=_ sits on the dealer’s right.
Should three players have their proper number of cards, the fourth, less, the missing card or cards, if found, belong to him, and he, unless dummy, is answerable for any established revoke or revokes he may have made just as if the missing card or cards had been continuously in his hand. When a card is missing, any player may search the other pack, the quitted tricks, or elsewhere for it. If before, during or at the conclusion of play, one player hold more than the proper number of cards, and another less, the deal is void. 41. A player may not cut, shuffle, or deal for his partner if either adversary object. THE DECLARATION. 42. The dealer, having examined his hand, must declare to win at least one odd trick,[8] either with a specified suit, or at no trump. 43. After the dealer has declared, each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, must pass, make a higher declaration, double the last declaration, or redouble a declaration which has been doubled, subject to the provisions of Law 54.
178-181. The most constant formulæ of this game-rhyme are shown by this analysis to be Nos. 1, 6, 7, 13, 15, 18, 23, and the variants, though important, are not sufficient to detract from the significance of the normal version. It is evidently a funeral game. The green gravel and the green grass indicate the locality of the scene; green, as applied to gravel, may mean freshly disturbed, just as green grave means a freshly made grave. The tenant of the new grave is the well-loved lady of a disconsolate lover, and probably the incidents of washing and dressing the corpse, and putting an inscription on the place where it is laid, are indicated by Nos. 13 and 15. The dirge, or singing to the dead, is indicated by Nos. 18, 23, and 26, and the beauty of the first line is in complete accord with the mournful music. That No.
This defense wore out. As mankind learned about the Dragons, so too, apparently, the Dragons learned about mankind. Somehow they flattened their own bulk and came in on extremely flat trajectories very quickly. Intense light was needed, light of sunlike intensity. This could be provided only by light bombs. Pinlighting came into existence. Pinlighting consisted of the detonation of ultra-vivid miniature photonuclear bombs, which converted a few ounces of a magnesium isotope into pure visible radiance. The odds kept coming down in mankind s favor, yet ships were being lost. It became so bad that people didn t even want to find the ships because the rescuers knew what they would see. It was sad to bring back to Earth three hundred bodies ready for burial and two hundred or three hundred lunatics, damaged beyond repair, to be wakened, and fed, and cleaned, and put to sleep, wakened and fed again until their lives were ended.
The only exception to this rule is in Bridge, in which there are no misdeals, and Cribbage, which has a fixed penalty. _=Bidding.=_ In all games in which there is any bidding for the privilege of playing or of making the trump, or any betting on the value of the hands, the privilege must be extended to each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left. Any bid or any bet once made can neither be taken back nor amended. If any bid is made out of turn in any partnership game, it must be assumed that undue information is conveyed, and the player in error, or his partner, must lose his bid. In round games there is no penalty. _=Exposed Cards.=_ No player can exact a penalty for his own error, so that if an adversary of the dealer exposes one of his own cards he cannot claim a misdeal, but the dealer’s side may. There should be no penalty for a player’s having exposed a card unless he can derive some benefit from the exposure, such as from his partner’s having seen it. If there is no partner, there should be no penalty, because the player injures himself only.
The player who passes the card turns up the next one on the stock. If he does not want it, he places it on the table between himself and his adversary, and if his adversary does not want it either, he turns it down and passes it to the pile of deadwood, turning up the top card of the stock again. In this manner it will be seen that each player has to decide on two cards in succession; the one drawn but not used by his adversary, and the one he draws himself. This is continued until the stock is exhausted, which ends the game. _=Discarding.=_ If a player uses any card drawn from the stock in this manner, it is obvious that he has too many cards, and in order to reduce his hand and show-downs to ten cards, he must discard something, unless he can show down everything remaining in his hand, in which case he would have eleven cards down, and win the game. In discarding, the card thrown out is placed at the disposal of the adversary, as if it were the card drawn from the stock, and if the adversary does not want it, he passes it and draws another. It should be observed that the player drawing the card from the stock always has the first refusal of it. This is sometimes very important, as both players often need the same card. In the foregoing example, the player’s best discard would be his ♢ K, which is too far removed from the others in the suit to make a run possible, and there is no mate to it with which to start a triplet.
She frowned at me, sniffling again. Do I _really_ see it? she asked. Is that right? I ll make it right, I said. Come on, I told her. If we re going to stay up all night, we need fuel. How long since you ve tackled a twenty-ounce sirloin? * * * * * The Lodge has unmentioned influence. No, Psi powers aren t a secret government. But what high official can afford to be at odds with us? They know where the Lodge stands. A little while on the visor as the east pinked up got me what I wanted. Because of the three-hour time difference, the Washington brass got me _carte blanche_ before banking hours at the Tahoe bank that supplied the Sky Hi Club with its cash.
If six belong to the table, there will be no further cutting out; as those who are out for one rubber re-enter for the next, taking the places of those who have played two consecutive rubbers. If five belong to the table, the three who remained in for the second rubber must cut to allow the fifth player to re-enter. At the end of the third rubber, the two cut that have not yet been out; and at the end of the fourth rubber, the one who has played every rubber goes out without cutting. After this, it is usual to spread the cards, and to form the table anew. In all the foregoing instances, partners and deal must be cut for, after the cut has decided which are to play. _=MARKING.=_ There are various methods of using the counters. At the beginning of the game they may be placed at the left hand, and transferred to the right as the points accrue. Another method is to stack the four circular counters one upon the other at the beginning of the game, and to count a point by placing one of them beside the others; two points by placing another upon the first; three points by placing a third beyond these two, and four points by placing them all in line. [Illustration: Nothing.
Miss Baker (_Northamptonshire Glossary_) says, The May garland is suspended by ropes from the school-house to an opposite tree, and the Mayers amuse themselves by throwing balls over it. A native of Fotheringay, Mr. C. W. Peach, says Miss Baker, has supplied me with the reminiscences of his own youth. He says the May garland was hung in the centre of the street, on a rope stretched from house to house. Then was made the trial of skill in tossing balls (small white leather ones) through the framework of the garland, to effect which was a triumph. See Cuck Ball, Keppy Ball, Monday. Ball and Bonnets [Illustration: Fig. 1.
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_=HEART SOLO=_ is a game for three players, in which the pack is reduced to twenty-four cards by deleting the Eight of hearts, and all the diamonds but the Seven. Diamonds are always colour, and there are only three trumps in that suit; Spadilla, Manilla, and Basta. The only play is for the Solo, and if no one will make a bid, the hands are played in colour, and the winner of the last trick loses the value of a Solo. AUTHORS. This game was originally played with cards bearing the names of various authors, and other famous personages, arranged in groups, but the game is much simpler when played with an ordinary pack of fifty-two cards. Any number of persons can play. The cards are shuffled and spread, and the person drawing the lowest card deals the first hand. The ace is low. Each player then deposits a counter in the pool, and the cards are distributed one at a time until the pack is exhausted. If some players have a card more than others it makes no difference.