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WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE GET TOGETHER 167
are thought up in advance, are performed rapidly and are paid by all. Anyone who is visibly embarrassed in paying a forfeit or in playing any game should, of course, be released at once. Prizes generally stimulate unpleasant motives and jealousies among children. Favors for all are better. Elaborate decorations are unnecessary and are usually unnoticed.
Stunt Games
On such an occasion some young man may carelessly take from his pocket a small box of friction matches with his right hand, remove a match with the same hand, light it on the box with the same hand, blow it out and replace it in the box without using his left hand. Then the practiced operator may ask somebody else to try to do it, and the fun will begin.
Or a young lady may stick a hatpin into the floor and then hand three nuts to her neighbor, asking him to pitch them at the pin. The distance of the nuts from the pin will be carefully measured, and after several have tried, the one who succeeds in placing a nut nearest the pin will be the winner.
Again, a large-necked bottle is placed on the floor and each player is given five peanuts. The feat is to stand at arm's length from the bottle and, if possible, drop the five peanuts into it. Anyone will be lucky if he can succeed in putting in three of them.
Take five pennies or dimes in the palm of your right hand and manipulate the hand so as to get a penny on the end of each finger and the thumb; then, when all the ends are full, return them to the palm without dropping one.
Again, take five quarters and slip them between the fingers of one hand until they all lie on the back of the hand without using the other hand.
Somebody sits at the head of the room holding a large, deep dish heaped with peanuts. Each person, in turn, slips a hand, with the palm down, into the dish and scoops up as many nuts as possible on the back of the hand, the one holding the dish helping to add to the mass in every possible manner. The one who succeeds in walking across the room and back |
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