OLD MAID.
From a full pack of fifty-two cards take out one queen. Shuffle well the remainder, and deal them, face downwards, equally to all the players until the pack is exhausted.
All must then arrange their cards in a fan-shape, to be held in the hand, and the honour of every one is depended upon not to look at any cards but his own, because the strictest secrecy must be maintained.
The dealer begins by offering his cards to his left-hand neighbour to extract from it any card he likes. The drawer then, looking at the card he has taken, tries to match it with one of those in his hand. If able to do so, he throws the pair out into the middle of the table; but if he cannot do so, he places it among his own, and, following the example of the dealer, offers his own cards in the same way to his left-hand neighbour, that he also may take any card he likes. Thus the game goes on until all the cards are paired, excepting, of course, one card, which is the companion to the banished queen. The unfortunate individual in whose hand the solitary card is left is surely destined to be either an old maid or a bachelor. The trial may, of course, be repeated as many times as agreeable to the company.
Cards specially made for this game are sometimes used instead of Whist cards, and by some players are much preferred. These real Old Maid's cards are composed of white thin cardboard, an inch wide and from three to four inches long, with the end intended for the top of the card made to form a point.
Upon every card at the pointed end a number is written in very legible characters. A couple of cards must be 1, another couple 2, another couple 3, and so on, until as many couples as it is thought will be required have been figured. On a last single card the words The Old Maid must be distinctly written, and before beginning to play the whole must be well shuffled.
SPADE AND GARDENER.
Most young people who have had any experience at all of cards and card playing are well acquainted with the amusing (though, perhaps, not highly intellectual) game of Happy Families.