THE PLAYMATES.
CHARACTERS; OR, WHO AM I?
Somebody once said, "There is no royal road to knowledge." We will admit the fact as a general proposition, but now and then affairs can be so arranged that a bit of information can be fixed in the mind, and a fair amount of fun be had through the same means.
The following game is admirably adapted to a party of school-fellows who have been reading and studying from the same books. It could be made to answer all the purposes of the review of certain branches, and it is not at all impossible that teachers of good judgment could be found who would approve of giving a little time to it during school-hours.
One of the party is sent out of the room; some well-known hero, or equally well-known character from a book, like Dickens's novels or Shakspeare's plays, is selected, and when the absentee returns to the assembly, he or she is greeted as the person fixed upon, and he must reply in such a manner as to bring out more information as to the character he has unconsciously assumed.
Suppose the game has commenced, and when the player enters the room he is thus accosted:
"Your military ardor must have been very great, and you had a very adventurous spirit, when you left your home in England, and set out with a determination of fighting the Turks."
"Yes, I was always very fond of adventures."
"Well, you had plenty of them; and when you were taken prisoner, and sold to the Bashaw, your mistress, to whom he presented you, felt so much sympathy and affection for you that you were sent to her brother, but he not being so well pleased with you, treated you cruelly."