SQUIRREL IN THE MIDDLE.
This is a game for boys, and the player is decided by lot.
The easiest way to arrange the lot is to throw as many bits of paper, of similar size and shape, into a hat as there are players. All of these papers are blank excepting one, this has the word “player” written on it. The hat is then passed, and the boy drawing the word “player” immediately sits on the floor, the others stand in a circle around him. Whoever is behind his back, pulls his coat, or gently pulls his hair, taking him unawares. He turns to catch this boy, but while doing so another boy buffets him. As the players dance about the circle, they exclaim, “Squirrel in the middle catch him if you can.”
Finally one of the boys is caught, and he must then change places with the one he has been tormenting.