Fun for the Household: A Book of Games

by Emma J. Gray

Every boy, to properly celebrate Independence Day, should be well stocked with torpedoes, large and small, fire-crackers, cannon, and gunpowder. He should know that the starry flag flutters from his home, and that the red, white, and blue is a part of his attire.

Early in the day a battalion of patriotic boys should march and countermarch up and down the principal streets, while all the while martial music is heard, and the shrill bugle call answers the exultant drum beat. A banner should lead such a procession, and the Star-spangled Banner should triumphantly wave throughout the entire line.

Jolly fun may be had in the after part of the day, by setting an old barn on fire.

Very often the boys’ fathers or uncles own a barn that they would rather have out of the way than not, and the Fourth of July is the most appropriate time in the entire year for a conflagration. When a barn is to be fired, be sure that it is carefully prepared beforehand, with a coating of tar and long wisps of tarred paper, and the boys cannot be too cautious not to get on fire themselves.

Should boys not be successful in finding a barn to burn up, perhaps they could find a dead tree on a friend’s vacant lot. A tree would make a perfect tower of flame, and could be seen for miles around. It, too, will blaze all the fiercer if you apply a coating of pitch. Those engaged in this sport should wear their oldest clothing, in order not to make themselves a nuisance to their mothers and sisters or thoughtlessly waste their fathers’ money.

Perhaps some of the boys would like a receipt for a powerful noise. It is simple enough—nothing but chlorate of potash and sulphur mixed; you should put several pieces of paper around it, though, and hammer it down as heavy as you can.

HALLOWE’EN GAMES AND TRICKS.

The Nut Trick.

The shell must be prepared before the performance. Remove the kernel by boring a hole, or opening the nut at one end. Take out the contents by the aid of a lady’s hat-pin, and instead of the kernel, slip in a short piece of scarlet-colored baby-width ribbon. Then putty or wax the opening over, and color the putty or wax with a dye, crayon, or paint, the exact shade of the nut. The nut being thus prepared, you may now lay it on the table before your friends, and present a bunch of many-colored ribbons of the same width and length to them. Ask that some one select any piece he chooses; you must have a don’t-care air, as though it didn’t make any difference to you which piece was chosen. While, on the contrary, you care so much, that should a wrong selection be made you must at once tell an interesting story, which will help your friends to forget that the ribbon has already been selected, and you should make use of this opportunity to offer the ribbons over again. This time the selection will likely be correct. It would be wise to have the majority of pieces of ribbon the color of the piece in the nut, as that color would catch the eye first and stand a better chance of being taken.

The right ribbon now being chosen, make a great point of looking at it; hold it up at arm’s length, so that all the audience may see it. Then ask the party who made the selection to put it back in the bunch with the others and mix them all up to please himself. When he has finished, face the bunch of ribbons, and loudly repeat, three times over, “Ribbon, go into the nut.” Then ask your friend to go forward and take the little hammer which he will find on the table and crack the nut open. When the nut is opened, sure enough inside is a scarlet ribbon.