The children range themselves in a circle, holding a rope to help keep the circle of a uniform size. One of them, the prisoner, goes inside the ring; another, the jailer, stands outside. They begin to sing, and at the words, “We’ll open the window east, and we’ll open the window west,” the players on first one side, then the opposite, lift the rope high enough for the prisoner to pass under; but the jailer outside is watching. The prisoner may take his choice, but must run out at one side or the other before the song stops, and must try to run once entirely around the ring before being overtaken by the jailer. Those holding the rope must neither help nor hinder the runners after the start is made, and the openings must be at about equal distances from the jailer. If the prisoner can run clear around the outside of the ring without being overtaken, he takes his place with the rest, between the two whose “open window” set him free; the former jailer becomes prisoner, the former prisoner’s right-hand neighbor becomes jailer, and the game proceeds as at first. But, if the prisoner is touched ever so lightly by the one in chase, he is sent back to the centre, where he must remain; the jailer joins the ring anywhere he chooses; his right-hand neighbor becomes the new jailer and his left-hand one a new prisoner with privilege of escape; and so the game continues. Each time only the new prisoner may run out. Whenever a third of the players are in the centre at one time, it ends the game.
After the enjoyment of the games and swings an old-fashioned molasses candy-pull may complete the festivities, and, as the Juniors vie with one another in pulling and deftly handling these most fascinating “ropes” of all as they gradually assume a light golden color, the social is sure to be voted a success.
The Good Giant
A Fantasy in Two Acts and Two Scenes
By Vincent Van Marter Beede
People of the Play
Kit Loring, a boy of twelve.
Joscelin Stacey, a boy of ten.
Maysie Loring, a girl of eleven.
Gillian Stacey, a girl of twelve.
The Good Giant Greatbig.
The Three Happy Little Giants.
The Giant’s Baby.
Jack the Giant-Lover.
The Sand Man.
The Kind Bear.
The Obliging Ogre.
The Dear Dragon.
The Honest Robber.
The Motherly Giantess.
The Friendly Witch.
Time: This Very Minute.
Scene: Act I.—The Wood.
Scene: Act II.—The Castle of Giant Greatbig.