Candy ready to pull may be bought at a candy store, or molasses may be boiled at home until it is ready to pull, when the hands are greased and the pulling begins. As suggested for a pop-corn party, the kitchen or dining-room is the best place in which to give a party of this kind. It may be decorated to look well, and the children doubtless would enjoy their play here more than in the parlor.
A BABY SHOW
This may be of dolls or real babies. You can borrow the babies for the occasion. A committee decides which is the handsomest baby, which the best-natured, etc. Rattiers, toys, etc., are given the babies, or you can have your parents and other lady friends take the part of babies. Put a bib on them when they go to supper.
MISS CHILDREN
The little players sit or stand round the room in a circle. The leader assigns to each some musical instrument, as harp, flute, violincello, trombone, etc., and also selects one for himself. Some well-known tune is then given out, say "Yankee Doodle," and the players all begin to play accordingly, each doing his best to imitate, both in sound and action, the instrument which has been assigned to him, the effect being generally extremely harmonious. The leader commences with his own instrument, but without any warning suddenly ceases, and begins instead to perform on the instrument assigned to one of the players. Such player is bound to notice the change, and forthwith to take the instrument just abandoned by the leader, incurring a forfeit if he fails to do so.
THE COOK WHO DOESN'T LIKE PEAS
The fun of this game depends on a fair proportion of the players not being acquainted with it. The leader begins, addressing the first player, "I have a cook who doesn't like peas (p's); what will you give her for dinner?" The person addressed, if acquainted with the secret, avoids the letter p in his answer, and, for example, says, "I will give her some walnuts." The question is then asked of the second person, who, if unacquainted with the trick, is likely enough to offer some delicacy which contains the letter p; e.g., potatoes, asparagus, pork, apple-pie, pickled cabbage, peanuts, etc., etc. When this occurs, the offender is called upon to pay a forfeit, but the precise nature of his offense is not explained to him. He is simply told, in answer to his expostulations, that "the cook doesn't like p's." When a sufficient number of forfeits has been extracted, the secret is revealed, and those who have not already guessed it, are teased by being told (over and over again) that the cook did not like p's, and if they would persist in giving them to her, they must, of course, take the consequences.
MAGIC MUSIC—ANY NUMBER OF PLAYERS
One player is sent from the room. The others decide upon something for him to do, but he is not told what it is, though he is helped by a noise of some kind on metal, or on a musical instrument. When he is near an object with which he is to perform some feat, the noise is loud. If he touches the wrong object, the music is soft. Any one of the musical instruments commonly used by children may be employed in this game.