OUT FOR A WALK

Follow-my-leader
This needs no explaining. It is nearly always good fun for a while, and particularly so if the leader has original ideas. ...

Roadside Whist
In the Channel Islands visitors riding about in large wagonettes pass the time by playing a game called "Roadside Whist." The people on the left seat of the carriage take the right side of the road, and those on th...

Counting Dogs
In a town there are other varieties of roadside whist for two players or sides. Counting dogs is one. In this game one takes all the streets leading from the left, the other all from the right. ...

Guessing Horses' Tails
A good game (writes E. R.) while out for a walk is "when you see a horse coming, guess what color his tail is before he can reach you, and then, whoever guesses right, the horse belongs to him." ...

Shop-windows
Except in very dull streets shop-windows can be always entertaining. It is interesting to suppose you have so much money--say five dollars--to spend, or, if you like, an unlimited sum, and choose what you would buy...

Making Sentences
It is rather exciting for each player to take a side of the road where there are shops and see which can first complete a given sentence or word from the initial letters of the shopkeepers' names, Christian or surn...

Collecting Jones's
In Mrs. Meynell's book, The Children, one little girl on her walks collected Jones's--that is, shops with the name of Jones over them. If any one else cared for this amusement there would be no need to stick to Jon...

The Love Alphabet
In this game you go through the alphabet, applying adjectives to your love. "I love my love with an A because he [or she] is so admirable"; "I love my love with a B because she is so beautiful," and so on, keeping ...

The Cat Alphabet
Another alphabet game requires adjectives to be put before the word cat. You begin with A. "An artful cat," one player may say; and the next, "An avaricious cat." Perhaps "An awful cat," "An adhesive cat," "An arro...

Spelling
In this game the players each contribute a letter toward the spelling of a word, their object being never to be the one to complete it, but to force the next player to do so. Thus (with four players) the first play...

The Grand Mogul
A favorite old game which can be played as well on a walk as indoors is "The Grand Mogul." "The Grand Mogul does not like E's," says one player; "what will you give him for dinner?" Each player answers in turn, but...

Buz
This is a counting game in which, whenever the number 7 comes, or a multiple of 7, such as 14, 21, 28, 35, or a number with 7 in it, such as 17, 27, 37, the player whose turn it is must say "Buz." Otherwise, out-of...

Rhyming Lights
In this game one player thinks of a word and gives the others a rhyme to it. Thus, she may think of "coal," and she would then say, "I've thought of a word that rhymes to pole." The others have to guess what the wo...

The Apprentice
The "Apprentice" is an old game for two or any number. One says, "I apprenticed my son to a [mentioning a tradesman or craftsman], and the first thing be sold [or made] was a [mentioning, by its initial only, somet...

Towns And Products
This is a somewhat similar game bearing on geography. Suppose there are three players. One chooses a well-known place, say Boston, and begins, "I know a place where they sell boots," or whatever it may be beginning...

Hoops
Iron hoops are the best, but it is a matter of taste whether a stick or a hook is used for them. If the stick is a stout one you get rid of the skidding noise made by the hook, and there is more satisfaction in bea...

Two In Hoop Games
Hoop games are few in number, and, with the exception of "Posting," not very exciting. With a large hoop and a small hoop two players can learn to time the pace of a hoop very exactly and then bowl the little one t...