"Prisoner's Base" is exactly like our own "Prisoner's Base," and perhaps it may interest you to know that this game was invented by the Greeks about five hundred years before Christ. That and "Theque" are perhaps the two favorite boys' games in France. "Theque" is a kind of feeble imitation of our baseball, played in a babyish sort of way that would make an American college team faint. Indeed it is only lately that they are beginning to realize in France that boys need a certain amount of athletics to make them healthy and manly, and are trying to encourage out-door sports in all the schools. There has recently been held in Paris a grand international congress to promote the re-establishment of the old Olympic games, but exactly what these re-established Olympic games are going to be it is too early to say yet. Meanwhile lawn-tennis is getting to be as popular in France as at home, and croquet is a perpetual favorite.
The French have all sorts of pretty rounds, like the charming old "Pont d'Avignon"—when they used to dance "en rond"—which is not so popular as a round now as it used to be in the olden time; but there are many others. Instead of "Little Sally Waters," all the "babies in our block" in Paris would sing, "J'ai un joli bouquet, à qui le donnerai-je?" (I have a charming bouquet, to whom shall I give it?) or "Nous n'irons plus au bois."
Perhaps this last is the most popular of the French rounds, so that it is given in full. The idea is something like this: "We will go no more to the wood, for all the laurels are cut. But the beautiful one I present to you will go and pick them up. Enter into the dance, sing and waltz, and embrace the one that you love the best."
"Nous n'irons plus au bois,
Les lauriers sont coupés;
La belle que voilà ira les ramasser.
Entrez dans la danse;
Voyez comme on danse;
Chantez, valsez, embrassez celle que vous aimez."
Another game that is a sort of round is called "Mon beau Guillaume." All the players form a circle, while "handsome William" stands in the centre. Then he asks, "Where are you going, mes belles dames?" And the belles dames answer that they are going to take a walk. "Mes belles dames, you will wear out your slippers." "Mon beau Guillaume, you will mend them for us." "Mes belles dames, and who will pay me for it?" "The one that you catch." Then beau Guillaume closes his eyes, and the circle turns around very fast three times, when beau Guillaume must catch somebody and guess who it is.
The French play some pretty in-door games which are not known in America, a favorite of which is "Why am I on the sellete?" Sellette means literally "stool," and it is represented by a chair in the centre of the room. One person goes out, while another of the players goes around and asks each one why So-and-so is "on the sellette." When all the answers are given, the player who has gone out is called in, and takes his place on the chair. "Why am I on the sellette?" he asks, and the person who has collected the answers gives one after another, while the person in the centre tries to guess who are their authors. You can see that all the fun of this game, like that of many others, depends upon the cleverness of the players, for each one tries to make a witty hit in his answer at some characteristic or some event in the life of the person in question that is known to the speaker alone. If the person on the sellette guesses the author of the answer, the latter takes his place on the sellette.
"If I were a little piece of paper, what would you do with me?" is another game of the same sort, where the interest depends on the cleverness of the answers. "I'd make you into a bank-note." "I'd make you into a love-letter." You can see how an endless number of bright replies is possible. "I've lost my valise—what was there in it?" is another, in which any little foible or characteristic of the questioner is good-naturedly hit off. "Pigeon, vole, oiseau, vole," is a game very much like our "Simon says thumbs up." You twirl your two forefingers and put them down on your knees, saying, "Pigeon, fly, bird, fly," etc. But if you say "rabbit, fly," or any other animal that hasn't wings, and any fingers go down, their owners must give a forfeit.
And now to end with one more game, "Marriage and Divorce." All the players but one form in couples, one behind the other. The one left out stands in front of them in this way .::: and claps his hands three times, when the last two players run, one on one side and one on the other, and try to come together again and join hands behind the one standing alone before he shall have been able to catch either one of them. If he does not succeed in doing this the couple are still married, and take their place at the head of the others. If he succeeds, the one caught takes his place, and he "marries" the other, and takes his place with his bride at the head.