In this game one of the players is chosen master. It is usually the one who first suggests the game by saying. “Let’s play stump master.” He then leads the line of players, going through various “stumps,” or, as we should call them now, “stunts,” such as climbing fences and trees, turning somersaults, crawling through narrow places, or whatever will be difficult for the rest to copy. The game is capable of all sorts of variations.
SUCKERS
This can scarcely be called a game, but the use of the sucker is so familiar to most boys that a description of it is surely not out of place in this chapter. A piece of sole leather is used, three or four inches square. It is cut into a circle and the edges carefully pared thin. A hole is made in the centre and a piece of string or top twine is knotted and run through the hole. The sucker is then soaked in water until it is soft and pliable. The object of the sucker is to lift stones or bricks with it. This, too, is of especial interest in New England towns, where there are brick sidewalks. The sucker is pressed firmly on a brick by means of the foot, and it will be found to adhere to it with sufficient force to lift it clear of the ground.
TETHER BALL
The same as tether tennis, which see.
TETHER TENNIS
This game has been developed out of lawn tennis. A wooden pole extending 10 feet above the surface is placed in a vertical position and firmly imbedded in the ground. The pole must be 7½ inches in circumference at the ground and may taper to the top. Six feet above the ground a black band 2 inches wide is painted around the pole. The court is a smooth piece of sod or clay similar to a tennis court, but a piece of ground 20 feet square is sufficient.
At the base of the pole a circle is described with a 3-foot radius. A line 20 feet long bisects this circle, and 6 feet from the pole on each side are two crosses, which are known as service crosses.
An ordinary tennis ball is used which has been fitted with a tight-fitting linen cover. The ball is fastened to the pole by means of a piece of heavy braided line. Ordinary heavy fish line will do. The ball should hang 7½ feet from the top of the pole or 2½ feet from the ground. Regulation tennis rackets are used.
The game consists in endeavouring to wind the ball and string around the pole above the black mark in a direction previously determined. The opponent meanwhile tries to prevent this and to wind the ball in the opposite direction by striking it as one would volley in tennis.