SLATE GAMES.
There are a few simple slate games which have been in the past, and no doubt will be in the future, the means of affording innocent amusement to many a youngster. They are none of them very elaborate, are usually intended for only two players, and are best grouped together under the one general heading of Slate Games. The first to be described is the game known as
Birds, Beasts, and Fishes.—Two boys take their slates, and each one writes down the first and last letters of the name of some bird, beast, or fish, first stating from which category the name is selected, and puts a cross for each of the intermediate letters. For example, A elects to write down the name of a beast, and marks on his slate as follows—Hxxxe; B will perhaps select a fish, and mark on his slate Gxxxxxn; they then exchange slates, and each tries to guess the name of the beast or fish indicated, and fills up the blanks accordingly. It is evident that those indicated above are respectively Horse and Gudgeon.
French and English.—A slate should be divided into three divisions, the top and bottom divisions each having a small compartment marked off therein, as shown in the annexed diagram. One of the two end divisions should be allotted to the English and the other to the French, and marks put therein to represent the soldiers of the respective nations. Each player having provided himself with a well-sharpened pencil, the game is played as follows:—The players decide the order of play, and he first selected, being supposed to be English, places the point of his pencil at the spot marked in the smaller compartment of the English division of the slate, draws it quickly across the slate in the direction of the opposing army. The pencil will, of course, leave a line marking its track, and all the men of the opposite side, through which the track passes, count as dead. Each player plays alternately, and he wins who first kills all the men on the opposite side. The track of the pencil must be rapidly made, and must be either straight or curved; any track in which there is an angle does not count. Sometimes the players turn their heads or close their eyes when making the track.
Noughts and Crosses, or Tit-Tat-To.—This game, when played out of school-hours, should be wound up with the following rhyme by him who wins the game:—
Tit-Tat-To, my last go;
Three jolly butchers, all of a row.
"When played out of school?" some readers will say. Yes; this qualification is necessary, for it is to be feared and deprecated that this game, as well as that of "Birds, Beasts, and Fishes," is frequently played in school-hours, to while away the weary time that ought to be devoted to the solution of arithmetical or algebraical problems. These slate games are undoubtedly little boys' games, but many are the big boys who indulge in them surreptitiously, if not openly.
Noughts and Crosses.