The Circus-hoop Game
though, is not difficult, for a wooden hoop takes the part of the clown. The game calls for one extra hoop large enough to allow the remaining hoops to pass through it (Fig. 601.) Count out to determine who shall be “It” and when that is decided let the other players take their places at a given distance—about fifty feet—from the large hoop, which is held perfectly still in position by “It.”
The object of the game is that each player, in turn, shall roll her hoop through the large one without allowing the
Fig. 601. rolling hoop to fall on its way to the other side of the large hoop. The first player to miss changes places with “It” and holds the big hoop, giving her smaller hoop to the first “It”; and the latter joins the ranks of the players, taking the last place in the row. The second to fail surrenders her hoop and in turn becomes “It.” The game proceeds in this way until only one player remains who has not been obliged, through failure, to take the part of “It.” Such a one is victorious and the winner of the game. No player is allowed to be “It” a second time in the same game. The second miss debarring her from any more trials, she drops from the line to await a new game, when she will be entitled to the same chance of winning as the others.
Racing always has its charm, and wherever there is a group of young girls, sooner or later there will be a race of some kind. There is no fixed number of players for the
Hoop Race Game
Still it is better not to have more than eight. In determining the couples who shall race together, eight slender sticks or broom-straws are used, making four pairs of straws, each pair of a different length. A player holds the straws in her hand, showing one end of each. They are placed evenly, all projecting out the same distance from the closed hand (Fig. 602). When each player has drawn a straw and found her partner, who has its mate, the two holding the longest straws roll their hoops from the given starting-point to the goal previously determined. The distance
Fig. 602. should not be more than three or four hundred feet. The two players having the next two longest straws take second turn. Third place belongs to the two holding the next longest straws, leaving those with the shortest straws last. All who fail to win the first or trial race fall out of the game, and the four victors again draw straws for places as in the first trial. The two couples race, and then comes the final test between the last two victors, the other two having dropped out. The last trial is watched eagerly by the six who are out of the game and stand as spectators on each side of the course, cheering the players as they race after their hoops. The first to reach the goal in this run is hailed as the champion.