We played “Blind Man’s Buff,” “Hide and Seek,” “Puss-in-the-Corner,” and several juvenile forfeit games, all entered into with zest and thoroughly enjoyed, the East Room proving an ideal play-ground, and the players, free and unrestrained as if on a Texas prairie, romping, scampering, shouting, laughing, in all the exuberance of childish merry-making. Mr. Van Buren and Miss Cora joined in, rather led the games, and added greatly to their success. Several amusing incidents varied their usual routine. In “Hide and Seek” the switch, after numerous hot and cold signals, was discovered in a boy’s jacket pocket, where a mischievous girl had slipped it, and in “Puss-in-the-Corner,” Willie M——, provoked with Jennie T—— for eluding his grasp, called out: “You are no pussy, but a slippery old cat.”
Washington gossips accused Mrs. Donelson of heading a conspiracy to make a match between the Vice-President and Miss Cora, but as she married a Mr. Barton some years later, and as he never gave his children a step-mother, those gossips evidently erred then as they occasionally do to-day. The failure to catch them together beneath the mistletoe bough suspended from the central East Room chandelier was probably the only disappointment of the evening, all hoping that such a conjunction might have auspicious results. Mr. Van Buren, having incurred a penalty in a forfeit game, was sentenced to stand on one leg and say:
“Here I stand all ragged and dirty,
If you don’t come kiss me I’ll run like a turkey!”
and no kiss being volunteered, he strutted like a game gobbler across the room, amid peals of laughter. With one exception, the penalties incurred by the children were bravely paid. Little Mary ——, known to have a sweet voice, when sentenced to sing “A Paper of Pins,” hung her head shyly, whispering: “I’d rather dance than sing,” then when led out to dance she burst out crying, sobbing: “I don’t want to sing or dance. Please let me alone,” and Miss Cora, taking her on her lap, said: “All right, Mary, I’ll pay your forfeit,” and sang very sweetly:
“Oh! I will give you a paper of pins,
For that is the way that love begins,
If you will marry—marry, marry me!”
Martin Van Buren