New Ideas for Work and Play: What a Girl Can Make and Do

by Lina Beard; Adelia B. Beard

When the yarn is all unwound it is the object of each player to loosen himself from the tangle without breaking the thread.

The time must be noted and five minutes only be allowed for the disentanglement.

At the end of this time the side which has the greatest number of members free from the meshes of yarn wins the game.

The flashing of the bright tin pans, the struggles of the players to catch the ball and elude the loose thread, the comically careful movements of those who have become entangled in the yarn, all tend to make the game a very merry one, to the lookers-on as well as the participants.

Hoop Dance

Some of the games played with wooden hoops are full of fun, and the constant changing of position of the players forms a very pretty moving picture for the spectator.

The Hoop Dance.

Four boys and four girls make up the set for the “Hoop Dance,” and chance allots the partners, in this way: A stick is placed on the ground and the group, standing about twelve feet away, take turns in tossing small stones as near to it as possible. The girl and boy throwing nearest the goal take first position; the girl and boy throwing second nearest take the second position, and so on. The four couples stand quite a distance apart, at least six yards being allowed between those facing each other, as in Fig. 597. (Crosses represent boys and circles girls.) One of the players is chosen leader, and it is his duty to call out the different figures of the “Hoop Dance.” At “Attention!” all take position and stand ready, hoop in hand, to respond to the first call. The leader then prompts, “First and second couples cross over right and left.” Immediately the two boys, B and F, move to the left, as in Fig. 598, in order to give space for E to roll her hoop between A and B, and A to pass between E and F. As the leader prompts the two couples roll their hoops to the opposite sides. Then the leader calls, “Third and fourth couples right and left.” They follow the example of the first couple, the boys H and D moving to the left to give space for C to pass between G and H, and G to cross between C and D. The leader next calls, “First couples right and left back to places,” and this movement is repeated by the last couples.

Fig. 597. Fig. 598.