“One boy bends down and then you pretend to write on his back then you bang for the Stamp and then put it under his coat and push him first leap over his back and say Sending a Letter to Canada.”
Perhaps you think these are all the duty-games they play, but there are a good many more, such as FLIES ROUND THE JAM-POT and HOT COCKLES AND HOT MUSTARD (rather like BUNNY RABBIT) and SHOOTING THE MOON (played with caps and spittle) and YANK HIM OVER and UPSETTING THE APPLE-CART and WEAK HORSES (played against a lamp-post where you pile yourselves as high as possible) and STEPPING-STONES (difficult) and GLORY and FISHING FOR OYSTERS and TICKLERS and COUNTRY (or NORTH, SOUTH, EAST AND WEST) and BUMPER (or BUMPUMS) and SMASHING YOUR GRANDMA’S WINDOWS and BACKY-O and ROMAN CANDLES (or THUMBS UP: very difficult) and CHINESE ORDERS and CHINESE YUM-YUM and KING JOHN SAYS SO and DEAD SOLDIERS and SALMON FISHING and MISCHIEF and PULLING LEGS and FOLLOW MY LEADER (yes; duty) and PIGGY BACKS and WHEELBARROWS and JOCKY WHACK and SWIMMING IN BLUE WATER. Swimming in blue water is played like this:
“One boy stoops down in bending attitude, and another boy lays on his back crossways, and does the action of swimming, if the boy who is swimming falls off he has to be down”—
and CARRYING THE OLD WOMAN’S WASHING and MESSENGERS (or MESSAGES) and ELEPHANTS’ TRUNKS AND TAILS and SKINNING A RABBIT and MOGGIES[D] ON THE WALL and SOPPY SOLDIER and TAILOR.
And if you’re not yet tired of duty-games, I will tell you one or two more. There’s PICKING LEAVES and SCISSORS and THROUGH THE MOON and PULLING BONES OUT OF FISHES and PORTER COLLECTING TICKETS (or TICKET PUNCHING) and HOP THERE AND BACK AGAIN and UP SIDES DOWN MIDDLE and NELSON and HIDING HATS IN THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT and POLLY TELL ME THE TIME (duty) and BUCK, BUCK, HOW MANY FINGERS HAVE I GOT UP and SOLOMON SILENT READING. Solomon silent reading—queer name, isn’t it? This is how the game goes:
“First of all a boy bends down and each boy flies over and the Duty man being last shouts out a game while flying over such as Solomon silent reading. A boy must bend down, then the Duty man thinks of a word and writes it on the boy’s back with his finger, then the one who is bending down gets up and tells the Duty man what he wrote, then all the other boys stoop down one at a time and the Duty man repeats the writing [on their backs] and the last one to get it wrong has to give down”—
and BULL-DOG RACE and EATING FISH AND POTATOES and UPSETTING MOTHER’S GRAVY and HANDS OFF and CAP TELLING and WHO WILL TAKE THE PIG (or the UGLY BEAR) TO MARKET and ARM’S LENGTH and LAUGH AND CRY and BRASS BAND and CANNON BALLS and FOOT IT and DEAF AND DUMB MOSES (also called DUTY FOUR, where you have to pretend to be deaf and dumb) and FIRE ENGINES (or FIREMAN: duty) and STICK IN THE MUD (or STICKUMS) and BRITISH WORKMAN and SUGAR CANES and CARRYING CROCODILES’ FOOD. You play CROCODILES’ FOOD like this:
“All the boys leap over one’s back and then run to end of street and then you all come back with your hands and feet on the ground and your chest above the ground and then you place your hat on your chest and walk along and the boy who falls over has to go down”
in other words, the cap (the crocodiles’ food) has to lie on your stomach, which is sometimes called chest, while you move forwards with your back to the earth supporting yourself on hands and feet, as you can see perfectly well from this other description:
“Have to run to top of street then the boy who is down shouts out carrying crocodiles food, then the other boys have to come back with their hats on their chests and their hands behind and running along on their backs”