DIE SHOT.
This is a very good game, and requires both skill and caution. It is played by elevating a die upon a marble, whose sides are slightly ground down, so that it will stand firmly, and firing at it from an offing, which is generally at a distance of about four feet from it. The die-keeper undertakes to pay to the shooter who knocks down the die the number which falls uppermost, receiving one marble from each player as he shoots.
EGGS IN THE BUSH.
This game is a great improvement upon odd or even. Dick asks Tom to guess the number of “eggs in the bush”—that is, the number of marbles in his closed hand. If Tom can guess the right number, he takes all; but if he is out in his reckoning, he pays Dick as many marbles as will make up or leave the exact number. Suppose Dick has six marbles in his hand; now, if Tom should guess either four or eight, he would have to forfeit two marbles to Dick, because four is two less, and eight is two more, than the exact number. The players hold the “eggs in the bush” alternately.
INCREASE POUND.
In most respects resembles [Ring taw], the variations being, that if before a marble is shot out of the ring one player’s taw is struck by another’s (excepting his partner’s), or if his taw remains within the ring, he puts a shot in the pound, continues in the game, and shoots again from the offing before any of his companions. If his taw is struck after one or more marbles have been driven out of the ring, if he has taken any shots himself, he gives them to the player who struck him, puts a taw in the ring, and shoots from the offing, as before. If, however, he has not won any marbles during the game, before his taw is struck, he is “killed” and put out of the game; he is likewise out if, after any shots have been struck out, his taw gets within the pound—if it remains on the line it is nothing. He then puts the marbles (if he has won any) into the circle, adding one to them for the taw struck, and shoots again from the offing. In case he cannot gain any shots after his taw gets “fat,” as remaining in the ring is termed, he is killed, and out for the rest of the game. When only one marble remains in the ring, the taw may continue inside it without being “fat.” Each player seldom puts more than one marble in the ring at the beginning or a game.
KNOCK OUT, OR LAG OUT.
This game is played by knocking marbles against a wall, or perpendicular board set up for the purpose; and the skill displayed in it depends upon the player’s attention to what is called in mechanics the resolution of forces: for instance, if an object be struck against the wall at A from the mark at B, it will return again to B in a straight line; if it be sent from C to A, it will, instead of returning to C, pass off aslant to D, and its course will form the angle C A D; the angle of incidence being equal to the angle of reflection.