Hen. Old buzzard, old buzzard, what are you doing?
Buz. Picking up sticks.
Hen. What do you want the sticks for?
Buz. To build a fire.
Hen. What are you building a fire for?
Buz. To broil a chicken.
Hen. Where are you going to get the chicken?
Buz. Out of your flock!
The buzzard, who keeps a crouching attitude with face downcast during this dialogue, suddenly rises on the last words and chases the players, who scatter precipitately. When a player is captured, the buzzard brings him back, lays him down, and dresses him for dinner, while the rest of the players group around. The buzzard asks of the captured chicken, "Will you be picked or scraped?" and goes through the motions of picking feathers or scaling fish, as the chicken decides. The buzzard then asks, "Will you be pickled or salted?" "Will you be roasted or stewed?" each time administering to the recumbent chicken the appropriate manipulations. At the end he drags the victim to a corner, and the game goes on with the remainder of the players.
OLD MAN TAG
10 to 60 players.
Schoolroom.
The players are in groups of two rows each, which play together. These two rows face away from each other. Thus the first and second row will turn respectively to the right and left, with their feet in the aisles, toward which they then face. This will leave a free aisle between them, in which the "old man" may run about. The third and fourth rows play together, facing away from each other, and leaving a free aisle for their old man or tagger. This will bring the second and third rows with their feet in the same aisle.
Old Man Tag
For each group one player is selected to be old man or tagger. The teacher gives a signal, whereupon all of the players stand. The object of the game is for the old man to tag any player who is standing. The players may avoid this by sitting whenever the old man approaches them. Should he succeed in tagging any player, that player must remain seated until the end of the game, but any player who sits to escape tagging must rise again as soon as the old man has moved away from his vicinity. The player is considered to have won who longest avoids the old man.
Children are very fond of this game in many grades, and it may be made very lively, the old man dodging rapidly up and down his aisle, and the other players bobbing quickly up and down from their seats.