The endless variations of leap-frog should not be forgotten in devising outdoor games: and tournaments of long or broad jumping and high jumping are good. Stilts and the games to be arranged with them are also another great resource. And the seasons bring, as regularly as flowers and snow, the round of tops, and kites and marbles. Of these last a very summary account is given here as most boys and regions have their own rules.
Marbles
The first thing to learn in "Marbles" is the way that the marble should be held. Of course one can have very good games by bowling the marble, as if it were a ball, or holding it between the thumb-nail and the second joint of the first finger and shooting it with the thumb from there; but these ways are wrong. The correct way is to hold it between the tip of the forefinger and the first joint of the thumb. Marbles are divided into "taws," or well-made strong marbles with which you shoot, and "clays," or the ordinary cheap colored marbles at which you aim and with which you pay your losses.
Ring Taw
Two or three boys with marbles could never have difficulty in hitting on a game to play with them, but the best regular game for several players is "Ring Taw." A chalk ring is made on as level a piece of ground as there is, and each player puts a clay on it at regular distances from each other. A line from which to shoot during the first round is then drawn two yards or so from the ring, and the game begins by the player who has won the right of leading off (a real advantage) knuckling down on the line and shooting at one of the marbles in the ring. If a player knocks a marble out of the ring, that marble is his and he has the right to shoot again from the place where his taw comes to a stand; but if in knocking a marble out of the ring his taw remains in it (or if his taw remains in it under any condition whatever), he has to put all the marbles he has won into the ring, in addition to one for a fine, and take up his taw and play no more till the next game. There is one exception to this rule: If only one marble is left in the ring, and if, in knocking it out, a player's taw remains in the ring, he does not suffer, because the game is then over. The other two rules are these: If a player succeeds in hitting the taw of another the owner of that taw not only must leave the game but hand over any marbles he has won. (In no case are taws parted with.) Also, if it happens that only two players are left, and one of these has his taw hit, that ends the game, for the player who hit it not only has the marble of the taw's owner but all the marbles left in the ring too.
"Ring Taw" can be played by as few as two players; but in this case they must each put several marbles in the ring.
To decide which player is to begin, it is customary for them all to aim at the ring from the knuckling-down line, and whichever one places his taw nearest to the middle of the ring has the right to lead.
Other Games
Other garden games for boys will be found in the Picnic section. We might mention also "Steps" ([p. 4]), "Tug of War" ([p. 38]), and "Potato Races" ([p. 40]).