KNOCK-’EM-DOWN,
A similar game to [Aunt Sally], but a simpler one, is made by scooping a hole in the ground, and placing in it an upright stick; on the top of it is placed a stone, or similar substance. The player then retires to a distance, and flings at the stone with cudgels or balls, the latter being preferable. If the stone falls into the hole, the player only counts one towards the game; but if it falls outside the hole, he counts two. This is a capital game for the seaside, and can be played upon the sands. This game is almost similar to [Baton].
PEA-SHOOTERS.
The pea-shooter is a tube of metal, through which a pea may be propelled with great force by a puff of air from the mouth. The ordinary tin pea-shooters sold in the shops are comparatively worthless. We should advise the reader to procure a straight piece of brass tube from two to four feet long, and get a brazier to tin one end of it, so that the brass may not corrode when placed in the mouth. With such a tube peas, pellets of clay, and other projectiles may be shot with great precision to a considerable distance. The game of puff and dart is played with a long brass tube, and a small dart having a needle point. The dart is blown through the tube at a target, on which there are divisions bearing different numbers.
QUOITS.
The game of Quoits is very excellent. It seems to have derived its name from the ancient discus, and with us in the present day is a circular plate of iron perforated in the middle, not always of one size, but larger or smaller to suit the strength or convenience of the several candidates.
To play at Quoits an iron pin called a hob is driven into the ground within a few inches of the top, and at the distance of eighteen or twenty yards, as may be agreed upon, a second pin of iron is also fixed. The players are generally divided into parties, and the players pitch the quoits from hob to hob; those who pitch the nearest reckoning towards the game. But the determination is discriminately made; for instance, if a quoit belonging to A lies nearest to the hob, and a quoit belonging to B the second, A can claim but one towards the game, though all his other quoits be nearer to the hob than all the other quoits of B, because one quoit of B being the second nearest to the hob, cuts out, as it is called, all behind it. If no such quoit had interfered, then A would have reckoned all his as one each. Having all cast their quoits, the players walk to the opposite side, and determine the state of the play. Then taking their stand there, throw their quoits back again, and continue to do so alternately, till the end of the game. A quoit that falls with its flat side upward does not count.
