"DUCK."
"Duck" is a game that should be played by a number exceeding three, but not more than six or eight. Each of the players being provided with a large pebble or stone about twice the size of a cricket-ball, called a "duck," one of them, by chance or choice, places his duck on a large smooth-topped stone fixed in the ground. An offing being marked at eight or ten yards' distance from the stone, the other players cast their ducks at it in turn, endeavoring to knock the duck off its place.
Each player, as soon as he has cast his duck, watches for an opportunity of carrying it back to the offing, so as to cast again. If the player whose duck is on the stone can touch another after he has taken up his stone, and before he reaches the offing, provided his own duck remain on the large stone, then the player so touched is out, and changes places with the player at the stone. It sometimes happens that three or four of the players' ducks lie so close together that the player whose duck is on the stone can stand in a situation to be within reach of all of them; in this case they can not, without running the risk of being touched, pick up until one of those who are at the offing is lucky enough to strike the duck off the large stone; then, before its owner can replace it, which he must do before he can touch a player, they all take up their ducks and run to the offing, where, of course, they are safe.
Another way of playing this game is to mount three or four brickbats one on top of the other, and to try to dislodge the upper one by throwing the duck at it before the keeper of the castle can touch the thrower. The player so touched becomes keeper.
CELEBRATING THE FOURTH OF JULY IN THE WOODS.