Each member of the company writes upon a slip of paper two words that rhyme. These are collected by one player and read aloud, and as they are read everybody writes them down upon new papers. Five or ten minutes being allowed, each player must write a poem introducing all the rhyming words in their original pairs. At the expiration of the given time the lines are read aloud. Suppose the words given are “man and than,” “drops and copse,” “went and intent,” etc., these are easily framed into something like this:
Once on a time a brooklet drops,
With splash and dash, through a shady copse;
One day there chanced to pass a man,
Who, deeming water better than
Cider, down by the brooklet went,
To dip some up was his intent.
Of course the result is nonsense, but it is pleasant nonsense, and may be kept up indefinitely, to the entertainment of the participants.
Where’s Your Letter Going?
All being seated, two of the company are chosen, one for postmaster, the other for carrier. The Postmaster gives the name of some city to each person, writing the names down upon paper as they are given. The carrier, blindfolded, stands in the middle of the room and the postman calls: “I have a letter to go from Philadelphia to St. Louis.”