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502 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games |
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of many sorts were placed all about—on chairs, tables, steps, etc—each bearing its number. The children were given cards with pencils attached and told to write on the numbered lines what flower they thought the articles bearing the corresponding numbers were intended to suggest.
A little clock, with the hands stopped at four, was intended to suggest a "four-o'clock"; a cupful of fresh butter was, of course, readily guessed as "buttercup"; a picture of the sun, cut out of gilt paper, proved a "poser," for "daisy1' was originally called the "day's eye," as it was thought to be like the sun—a yellow globe with rays extending in all directions. When some one thought the sun was meant to describe a "morning-glory," the answer was admitted as correct, though not the one intended. A pair of slippers belonging to the hostess did not require much thought to guess were "lady's-slippers." A box of pills, marked "quinine," and some homeopathic sugar pills were supposed to represent "bitter-sweet"; and a piece of rose-coloured tissue-paper the "pink." A tin half-pint measure filled with flour, and a saucer of corn-meal were, by setting at defiance all the laws of spelling, expected to suggest a "gillyflower" (gill of flour) and a "cornflower"; and a few shelled peas dusted over with sugar were quickly understood to mean "sweet-peas."
To the winner of this game was given a book about flowers, with plates and plentiful hints of how to recognise the blooms wherever and whenever seen.
It was announced that their fortunes were to be told. They were marshalled under a spreading beech-tree, where they found their little hostess waiting for them— sitting in a chair of green rattan decorated with daisies galore, like a coach at a flower-parade. She wore a |
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