This is a good game and it will make you laugh to see the pussies leap up in the air, sail along a short distance, and land on a numbered square of the game-board.
The board ([Fig. 42]) should be ten or twelve inches square. Cut it from a flat, even box lid or any other pasteboard you happen to have. Draw straight lines from top to bottom about one inch apart, then more straight lines from side to side one inch apart. This will divide the board into squares like a checker-board. Each of these squares must be numbered and you can draw or paste them in. [Fig. 42] shows how the game-board should look.
To play the game, lay the board down on a flat surface, a stone will do if you are out-of-doors, or even the ground; and a table, if in the house. In front of the board draw a short line for the starting-post. The line should be ten or more inches from the board according to the distance you can make the pussies jump. Any number of players may join in the game and each player should have his own jumping pussy.
Fig.43 - Place your finger on the Pussy-Willow and make it jump.
[Fig. 43] shows how to place the pussy under the tip of your right forefinger, with the large, blunt end standing a little out beyond the finger-tip. When ready to shoot, press down suddenly on the pussy and, as your finger slides off the small end, away jumps pussy and lands on a square of the game-board. Each player plays in turn, always, of course, placing the pussy on the starting-line when shooting. The player whose pussy lands on the highest number wins the game. Jumping pussy-willow can also be played by dividing the players into two even sides; then the side which has the highest score, after the numbers won by them have been added up, is the winner.
Pussy-Willow Bouquet
A nice, big bunch of pussy-willows makes an attractive bouquet, and a very welcome one early in the spring. "The pussies are out!" we hear some one say, and then the boys and girls vie with one another in their effort to be the first to find and bring home branches of the little catkins as proof that spring has come and they were the first to see her.