[B] The cut is the canal.
[C] One of them tells me that OVERS KEEPS goes like this: “Make a line, pitch up ha’pennies, if they go over, they are kept by the man whose coin is nearest to the line under. He keeps all those what are over, and spins up those what are under.”
Now I daresay you’ve heard of leap-frog, and maybe you think there’s only one way of playing it. Well, if you want to see how our boys can invent things out of their heads because, and only because, they have no bats or other things to play with, you should come and watch them at their leap-frog and duty games. (In leap-frog and overbacks they go in certain fixed orders over each others’ backs; in duty one man stays down until another fails in the duty and takes his place). Always inventing new kinds, too. You could write a whole book about sports of this kind, each with its separate rules and separate name—fancy names they are, some of them—and each with its “showman” or “duty-man” or “namer” who decides what things are to be done. There’s ALL THE WINKLES, a grand game for as many as you like; and HOPPING TO LONDON and ALL THE WAY TO LONDON and RACING TO LONDON and FOUR WAYS TO LONDON and HOT PIES and COLD PIES and HERE COMES MY SHIP FULL SAIL and BUNNY RABBIT (rather difficult) and HOP, STEP AND JUMP and HOPPING ROUND BIG BEN and ALL HANDS ON DECK (also called FINGER ON THE BLOCK). Cut-a-lump (or CUTTER)—that’s another kind. Bill bends down in the gutter, while the others stand up behind him in a row; the first of them is called cut-a-lump. He goes over Bill’s back, and where his feet touch the ground—there he makes a mark; then the next boy, without moving from his old place, has to jump over Bill and touch the same mark; then the next, and the next—over they go! Of course, it becomes more difficult with each jump, as the distance gets wider. Whoever first misses the mark must take the place of Bill, who then becomes cutter in his turn. That’s cut-a-lump: see?
Why it’s called cut-a-lump?
Because he cuts a lump off the distance in front of Bill.
Then there’s FROG IN FIELD and FROG IN THE MIDDLE and FROG IN THE WATER and INCH IT UP and SHRIMPS (where you have to go over a boy’s back with your cap doubled up on your head—many duty-games have to be played with caps) and LOBSTER (also called EGGS AND BACON, where you have to throw down your cap while going over his head and pick it up with your teeth without rolling off his back) and EGG IN A DUCK’S BELLY (holding the cap between your legs) and CAT O’ NINE TAILS and SPUR THE DONK and OVER THE MOON and FOOT IT (where you jump sideways) and CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE and CAT ON HOT BRICKS (about as good as any) and POSTMAN and HOPPING ALL THE WAY TO CHURCH and MUSSENTOUCHET—
“In mussentouchet one boy flies over back and then he puts the boys hats anywhere he likes [on their bodies] and tells them to run to certain spot and they must not touch their hats the one whose hat falls off is down”—
and NEWSPAPERS (or PAPERS) and TWO FOOT FLY and STIFF-LEGGED COPPER (also called POLICEMAN or STIFF BLOATERS or SHOWING NO IVORY, because, after jumping over, you have to stand stock still and not show either your teeth or your finger nails) and WHITEWASH and PLATES AND DISHES and FLYING THE GARTER and WRITING LETTER TO PUNCH and SENDING LETTER TO CANADA, which is played like this:
“When all the boys have gone over the boy who they call namer calls out sending a letter to Canada. Then the boy who is down has to bend down again then all the boys write the letter on his back then they put it up his coat then stamp it then they hit him with their knees on the....”
or perhaps you can understand it better from this: