MR. RABBIT STARTS SOME NEW AMUSEMENTS
It was still dark in the Hollow Tree when the Deep Woods People woke up next morning, but they knew what was the matter now, and could tell by the clock and the fire that it was day outside, even before Mr. 'Possum ran up to his room and looked out the window and came back shivering, because he said the snow was blowing and drifting and some had drifted in around his windows and made his room as cold as all outdoors. He said he was willing to stay by the fire while this spell lasted, and take such exercise as he needed by moving his chair around to the table when he wanted to eat.
Mr. 'Coon said that Mr. 'Possum might exercise himself on a little wood for the cook-stove in Mr. Crow's kitchen if he wanted any breakfast, and that if this spell kept up long enough, they wouldn't have anything left but exercise to keep them alive.
So Mr. 'Possum went down-stairs after an armful of stove-wood, and he stayed a good while, though they didn't notice it at the time. Then they all helped with the breakfast, and after breakfast they pushed back all the things and played Blind Man's Buff, for Mr. Rabbit said that even if moving his chair from the fire to the table and back again was enough exercise for Mr. 'Possum, it wasn't enough for him, and the others said so, too.
SO THEN MR. RABBIT SAID THEY MUST CHOOSE WHO WOULD BE "IT"
So then Mr. Rabbit said they must choose who would be It first, and they all stood in a row and Mr. Rabbit said:
"Hi, ho, hickory dee
One for you and one for me;
One for the ones you try to find,
And one for the one that wears the blind,"
which was a rigmarole Mr. Rabbit had made up himself to use in games where somebody had to be "It," and Mr. Rabbit said it around and around the circle on the different ones—one word for each one—until he came to the word blind and that was Mr. 'Possum, who had to put on the handkerchief and do more exercising than any of them, until he caught Mr. Turtle, who had to be "It" quite often, because he couldn't get out of the way as well as the others.