“You have a lot of girls standing against a wall, one of them being the mother of the others. She tells them to go and see if father’s shirt’s dry (the shirt being a girl in white, standing at a distance). They go in turn to see if it is dry & each time the “ghost” in father’s shirt catches one. At last the mother alone is left, she goes and is caught; then another “shirt” is picked, and so the game goes on.”
I don’t think Aunt Eliza ever played THE WHITE SHIRT; she wouldn’t care about the name—
and MERRY MONTH OF MAY and CON-STANT-I-NO-PLE and BLACK AND BLUE and FOLLOW YOUR MOTHER TO MARKET and PUSS and MY SISTER JANE and TWO LITTLE PEOPLE WENT OUT ONE DAY (“As they went out they were heard to say”) and OLD DEVIL IN FIRE (or LIGHT MOTHER’S COPPER FIRE), which is played so:
“About one dozen girls can play. They select one who has to be the devil, she’s to stand against a wall, with a girl hid behind her. All the children have to try and light the fire, and each time the girl behind pinches them and they say “Oh, mother, the devil’s in fire.” Then the mother tries to light the fire and the devil chases them, and the one who is caught has to become devil, next time.”
It’s perfectly certain Aunt Eliza never played OLD DEVIL.
And other girls’ games are JACOB AND RACHEL (where two of them have to chase each other blindfolded) and BUSHEL BASKET and MRS. BROWN and WOODEN LEG and ROLLING PIN (two parties of girls who decide which of them has to chase the other by the red or blue colour marked on a rolling pin which is rolled between them) and PORK AND GREENS—
“One player asks a question and the next says pork and greens. If she says anything else she is out—”
and TWO’S AND THREE’S—
“A double ring is formed. Then two children are out, they chase each other & one runs in front of a child then the back one is hee—”
and BUZZ—