Games for Everybody | Page 8

run to their goal.
If the bear catches any while running for the goal, they become "bears." These "bears" hide together and the game continues until all the children are "bears."

HOOP RACE.
All children love to roll hoops. For a little folks party, plan to have as many hoops as children, so each can have one.
Bind these around with tape or ribbon. The children contest one at a time. The child who succeeds in rolling his hoop around the room three times without having it turn over or stop, wins the prize.
If the room is very large once or twice around will be enough, so the children aren't tired out.

BUTTON FUN.
An amusement for small children, is to gather together as many buttons of all shapes and sizes, plain and fancy, as can be obtained.
The largest button is the father, the next size is the mother, several children arranged according to size, and a tiny one for the baby.
Plain buttons are called servants, others animals and pets. The children arrange their families in pasteboard boxes, using pasteboard cards for chairs, carriages, etc. All children like to play "house," and a whole afternoon can be whiled away making stores out of cards, to do shopping in, and boats for the button-children to play in. "School" also can be played and the boys enjoy forming rows of soldiers and parading up and down.

STEPS.
One child is chosen out. This one stands by a post or door with his back to the other players. The rest of the children stand in a row at the other end of the room or porch, as the case may be.
The one by the door counts 5, slowly or quickly, and then turns around. While he is counting and his back is turned, the others take as many steps forward as they can without being caught. If anyone is moving when the player turns around, they exchange places, and the game continues, the children advancing step by step toward the goal. When one has reached the goal and touched it, he can go back again and begin all over. The one who touches the goal the greatest number of times just by stepping, and has not been caught, wins the game.

HE CAN DO LITTLE.
All the players sit in a circle. One, knowing the catch, begins by saying: "Ahem, he can do little who cannot do this." While saying this, he taps a stick on the floor several times.
This stick passes from one to the other in turn, each one thinking that the stick must be tapped a certain number of times, but the catch is that just before saying "He can do little who cannot do this," each one ought to clear his throat as the leader did at first. Allow the game to continue around the circle two or three times before explaining the catch. A forfeit is paid by each player who does not do it correctly.

WINK.
All the girls sit in a circle, and the boys stand outside, one boy behind each girl's chair. One chair is left vacant, but a boy stands behind it, and by winking at the girls one at a time, tries to get one for his empty chair.
As soon as a girl is winked at, she tries to leave her seat, and take the vacant one, but if the boy behind her touches her before she leaves the seat, she cannot go. Each boy has to keep his eye on the one who is winking and on the girl in his chair, for if he is not watching, she may escape before he has time to touch her, and then it is his turn to do the winking and get a girl for his chair.
If the winking is done quickly it adds to the interest of the game. No boy can keep hold of a girl all the time; he must only touch her when she starts to leave her place, and then if she is beyond arm's length, he cannot call her back.

DOUBLE TAG.
The children stand in pairs, one behind the other, in the form of a circle, all facing the center.
Two of them are out, one who runs away, and the other who tries to catch him. The one who is running away may place himself in front of any couple for safety and he cannot be tagged, but the child at the end of the trio must run, and if he is caught before he can stand in front of another couple, he is the catcher and pursues the other child.

PUSS IN THE CORNER.
All the children except one stand in corners, or in any fixed stations if there are not enough corners to go around. The one who is out stands in the middle to represent "Puss." The players then beckon