ALPHABETICAL ANSWERS.
Prepare cards with one letter of the alphabet on each, omitting V, X, Z. Of course if the company is large, several will have the same letter.
The cards are pinned on the guests, and it is announced that no one must answer any question presented to him except by a sentence commencing with the letter on his card, the answer being given before the questioner could count ten.
No two players can question a person at the same time, and no one can give the same answer twice.
If a player begins his reply with a wrong letter or does not answer in time, his letter is taken from him by his questioner, who adds it to his and he then has the privilege of answering with either of his letters. The player who is without a card is supplied with one again but after the third trial he is out of the game.
PITCH BASKET.
Select a number of small fruit baskets, all the same size, and have a box of checkers handy. Suppose you have five, on the bottom of one mark 20, on another 15, on two, 5; and on the other, 0. Place the baskets in a row on the floor so their numbers cannot be seen.
Choose sides, giving the red checkers to the leader of one side and the black checkers to the other. One side lines up about 10 ft. away from the baskets, the leader giving each player a checker; if there are any left he keeps them and has the privilege of throwing them. Each one in turn throws his checker into any basket, trusting to luck that they fall into a basket with a number on it.
When all have played the leader turns up each basket to see its number and counts the number of checkers thrown into it. If there were two in basket No. 20, it would count 40; if 3 in one basket No. 5, it would be 15; if four in the other basket No. 5, 20; and if there were 3 in basket 0, it would count nothing. Thus the score for that side is 75. The players on the other side line up and play as the others did. The order of the baskets must be changed by someone not of that side, so no one knows which is which. Their score is added up.