RAINY-DAY GAMES

Remarks On Acting
The drawback to all charades and dressing up at a party is that they make away with so much valuable time of the players who are out of the room, and unsettle those who are left in. It should be the first duty of e...

Bean-bags
One of these is the old fashioned game of bean-bag. One rainy morning can be spent in making the outfit. The girls can be occupied in making the cloth bags, from six to ten inches square, partly filled with beans: ...

Ring-toss
Ring-toss is another game in which skill can be acquired only through practice and it is very good for rainy-days. It is really indoor quoits, and is a favorite game for shipboard. Any one with a little patience an...

Ring-the-nail
A variation of this can be played with common large nails and brass curtain rings. Eight nails are driven into a board in a circle, leaving about an inch sticking up. In the centre, one is driven, standing about th...

Soap-bubbles
A soap-bubble race is easy to arrange and very good fun. An old shawl or blanket is laid on a table or the floor, goals are made at each end of it with piles of books, leaving an opening between, and each person is...

Jack-stones
A game which is good, quiet fun for a rainy day is Jack-stones. Although not played much nowadays it is very interesting and is to indoors what "mumble-the-peg" is to outdoors. It is played usually with small piece...

Tying Knots
Another occupation for rainy days that will interest several children (as well as one) is puzzling out the construction of some of the simplest sailor's knots. This is a useful and a very desirable accomplishment. ...

Illustrating
A competitive game which is easy to manage is hit-or-miss illustrating. Any old magazine (the more the better) will furnish the material. Figures, furniture, landscape, machines--anything and everything--is cut out...

Shuffle-board
A game which is often played on shipboard can be modified for an indoor, rainy day game very easily. This is shuffle-board, all the outfit for which you can easily make yourself. If you can have a long table that s...

Balancing Tricks
There are a number of balancing tricks which are easy and ingenious. The secret of most such tricks is in keeping the centre of gravity low, and when this idea is once mastered you can invent tricks to suit yoursel...

The Dancing Egg
Another good trick that needs a little practice is to make an egg dance. Boil an egg hard, keeping it in an upright position (between cups set in the water or in some other way). Then turn a plate bottom side up an...

The Dancing Pea
A pea can be made to dance on a column of air as you sometimes see a rubber ball rising and falling in a fountain of water. Take a piece of a clay pipe about three inches long, and make one end into a little rounde...

The Glass-maker
Another trick to play with pins is the glass-making pin. Cut an ordinary rubber band in two, and stick a bent pin through the middle of this. Now hold an end of the elastic in each hand and whirl it rapidly around,...