Hands and knees races, backward races (run with your back to the goal), races with burdens on your back, or balancing a pole across your hand or on the tip of your finger—there is no limit to the ones you can invent.
But the best ones, after all, are the plain old trials of speed. There is no more fun than a good running race, and a walking race is next to it. Bicycle races are apt to be dangerous and a course that is very wide should always be selected.
Quoits
Quoits is a game not played as much as it should be by American boys. It is easy to arrange, for although there is an outfit sold in the toy shops, a home-made one is just as good. It consists of a collection of horseshoes and a stake driven in the ground—certainly not a difficult apparatus to assemble. The stake should not project more than an inch above the ground and the players, according to the grown-up rules, should stand about fifteen yards away from the stake (which is usually called "the hub"). But for boys the distance from the hub can be determined by your skill. You may increase it as you improve with practice. Every player has a certain number of quoits (horseshoes) and standing at a fixed distance from the hub he tries to pitch them so that they will go as near as possible to the hub. Some very good players can cast a quoit so that it falls about the hub. This is called a "ringer" and counts ten, but it is a rare shot. Every one pitches his quoits and then all go to the hub and reckon up the score. The one whose quoits lie nearest to the hub counts one point for each quoit, but each quoit entitled to count must be nearer the hub than any of the opponents' quoits. This continues until the score is complete. People usually play for eleven. This game can be played with flat stones instead of horseshoes and with any rules that you choose to make.
Duck on a Rock
Duck on a Rock is a variation of Quoits which is excellent fun. One of the players, chosen by counting out, puts a stone (called in this game the "duck") about as big as his fist, on the top of a smooth rock and stands near it. All the other players have similar "ducks" and try to dislodge the one on the rock by throwing their stones, or ducks at it. As soon as each has thrown his duck he tries to watch his chance to run up to it and carry it back before the player standing by the rock can touch him. When some one knocks off the duck from the rock the "it" (the player by the rock) must put it back before he can tag any of the players. This is therefore, of course, the great time for a rush of all the players to recover their ducks and get back to their own territory before the "it" can tag them. If any player is touched by the "it" while attempting to rescue his duck he must become "it" and put his duck on the rock.
Bowling
Bowling is the best of sports but this usually needs too much apparatus for the average boy to have. Nine pins, however, can be arranged in a rough sort of a way, by setting up sticks and bowling at them with round apples. Your own ingenuity will devise ways to use the materials you find about you.
Hop-Scotch
Hop-scotch is a great favorite which scarcely needs a description, although there are various ways of marking the boards. The game is played by any number of persons, each of whom kicks a small stone from one part to another of the diagram by hopping about on one foot. The diagram is drawn on a smooth piece of ground with a pointed stick or on a pavement with a bit of chalk. The most usual figure is given here.