A taw line is drawn and from this the ducks are thrown at the drake, each trying to knock him off his perch.
When a player has failed, he must recover his own duck, and in doing so he runs the risk of being tagged by the boy guarding the drake. The drake guardian cannot touch the other until he has put his hand on his duck.
The best way is for the ducks to make a rush for their weapons at once when most of them are sure to escape, whereas one has but little chance. Whenever a boy is tagged he must assume the place of guardian.
If the drake is knocked off, all the boys make a rush for their ducks.
The drake cannot tag till he has placed the stone in position.
STONE THROW
This game may be played with from six to twenty players. When the game is played outdoors, a large stone is placed on a boulder, and a player stands to guard it. A line is drawn twenty or thirty feet from the boulder. Here each of the other players stands in turn and throws a stone at the stone on the boulder, which he tries to knock off the rock. If he does not succeed he goes and stands by the place where some stone has fallen, and waits until some one does succeed. If he prefers, he may pick up his stone and try to run back to the goal before the guard of the stone can tag him. If he reaches it in safety he has a chance to throw again. When some one succeeds in knocking off the stone all who have thrown may pick up stones and run back to the goal line, while the guard replaces the stone on the rock and tries to tag any one who has his stone in his hand, and who has not crossed the goal line. Whoever is tagged becomes guard.
CHAPTER XV
AND NOW FOR BALL—SOME OF THE MANY GOOD GAMES THAT CAN BE PLAYED WITH A BALL, BAT, OR RACKET
Ball in some form is played all the world over. Before Columbus came across, the Indians of the St. Lawrence valley played a ball game with rackets, which the French adopted and named Lacrosse. No game requires more dexterity of foot, hand, and eye.
Certain games seem to be favored in certain lands; Cricket in England, hand ball in Ireland, and baseball in the United States. But, then, as we adopt and absorb peoples of all nationalities so we take all the good things they have to offer in the way of games and, modifying them to suit our own tastes, we make them American.