BY FRANK BELLEW.
This is an entirely new game, invented and designed especially for Harper's Young People, and we hope our readers will enjoy playing it. The game can be played by two or more persons; and if convenient, they should have a marker, or umpire, whose decision is in all cases final.
In the first place, each player should provide himself with a small strip of India rubber of about one or two inches in length; those elastic bands which are sold at every stationery store are the thing's to use; one of these cut in two will make an excellent pair of Kangaroos. Now if you twist one of these pieces of rubber up like a cord, and roll it into a kind of ball, and then place it on the table, it will immediately give a spring (that is to say, it will nine times out of ten), and sometimes a second spring, and then it will begin to squirm and roll over, until finally it stops. This piece of rubber is called the Kangaroo. The players can make their Kangaroos of any length they like, so that they be of the same thickness. Indeed, they may be of any size or form the players see fit, provided they all agree on the matter.
The way the game is played is this. You roll up your Kangaroo, and when you are ready, you place it on the black spot in the centre of the Pen, and as you let go you cry "Tip!" Then your Kangaroo jumps. If he does not jump out of the Pen, you lose 5. If he jumps into any of the spaces marked with numbers, you score the number marked in that space. If he hops on the line between two spaces, you count both numbers; but if he hops on the line of the Pen and a number, you only count half the number. If he hops or squirms into two or three numbers, you score for each one he touches. If he gets in Grasshopper, you score 20; if into Bullfrog, you score 30; and if into Kangaroo, 40. But if he gets into or only touches Dumpling, you lose 50. If he jumps off the board, it counts nothing.
As soon as you put your Kangaroo down, and cry "Tip!" your adversary commences marking crosses on a piece of paper or a slate—like this, X X X X X X X X—as fast as he can until you cry "Dead!" when he must stop; each of these crosses counts him 1. You, of course, watch your Kangaroo to see if he is likely to take another jump and give you a fresh count, and you only cry "Dead!" when you think he has no more life in him. If he jumps after you have cried "Dead!" you can count nothing for whatever he has made by the extra jump.
The umpire keeps the score of both players, and after each has thrown ten times, the score is added up, and whoever has the highest number wins the game.
Some attention must be paid to the making of the Kangaroo. The rubber must be slightly warm, so that it will hold together just enough to make two or three springs, if possible; but it must not be too warm, or it will stick together and not jump at all.