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27 chapters
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
Each season has its own particular work for the farmer, and he does his work without direction from or consultation with his neighbors or any one else. Each season has its own particular games for the young folks, and they take to them without any suggestion from outsiders, just as young ducks take to water, without any instructions from the mother bird. The seasons in the south temperate zone are just the opposite to those in the north. Some years ago I spent the months of July and August in Ne
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
Why it happens, no one knows, not even the boys themselves, but that it does happen we all know. Tops come in when the marble game is in full blast, and gradually it drives out, till another spring, its beloved rival. Tops are of great antiquity, and the Chinese and their neighbors, the Japanese, are famous for the variety of their tops. I have seen adults in those countries enjoying the game with all the zest of American boys in springtime. It is a good idea for boys, where they have any facili
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Spring winds favor kite flying. This is another world-wide sport, and it was popular with old and young in China—the land of the kite—at the time when the Egyptians were cutting stones for the pyramids. Everybody knows, or should know, what the great Ben. Franklin did by means of a kite, though the kite through which he learned the nature of lightning was of a model that is not often seen at this time. This was the old bow kite, the kind that every beginner learns to make, and which needs no det
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
It is said that hoops are loosing their popularity, but be that as it may, I am very sure they will never go out of fashion with the young folk who delight in a good outdoor run, while at the same time they find work for the eyes and the hand. Neat iron hoops, with a crooked iron hook to propel, I find much in use, but—and it may be because I am a bit old-fashioned—I much prefer the well-made, wooden hoop with a wooden stick. Why, I've had no end of fun with a wooden barrel hoop, but I could nev
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Do not despise the earth worm. Scientists tell us that without this creature's work in preparing the soil, but little of the earth's surface would be fit for cultivation. To its voluntary efforts we owe our supplies of vegetable food, but not satisfied with this, we conscript him that he may help us to catch fish. Some boys, and men too, make hard work of getting worm bait, but in this, as in everything else, it all depends on how one goes about it. If you are going a-fishing in the morning, sec
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
The following rhyme was thought to be very funny when I was a boy: "Mother, dear, may I go in to swim? Yes, my lovely daughter; Hang your clothes on a hickory limb, But don't go near the water." I must reserve for "Swimming" a good long chapter, but let me say in all seriousness, before writing anything about boating, that every boy should learn to swim before he undertakes to manage a boat, or even to handle a raft. It is surprising at what an early age this most essential art is a
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
There is no small boat so popular or so generally useful as the American catboat. The cat can sail into the very eye of the wind, while before the wind she is a flier, and yet she is not the best sail boat for a beginner. Let me tell you why: First, the sail is heavy and so it is hard to hoist and reef. Second, in going before the wind there is constant danger of jibing with serious results. Third, the catboat has a very bad habit of rolling when sailing before the wind, and each time the boat r
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
Every animal, except man, can swim naturally on finding itself in the water for the first time, for it takes a position nearly the same as if it were on land and walking. The physical structure of man, the lord of creation, is not so favorably adapted for his making his way through the water, his head being much heavier in proportion to its size than his trunk, while he has to make an entirely new departure, in abandoning his customary erect position, and has to adopt movements of the limbs to w
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
Some girls, after they have learned the alphabet of music, and are able to play elementary scales on the piano, are eager to surprise themselves and annoy their listeners by starting in to play tunes, if indeed they are not ambitious to tackle grand opera. But the wise learner is satisfied to take one step at a time, and before going on he is sure that he can do the previous steps reasonably well. I am old enough to have boys of my own, still I hope I shall never be so old as to forget my own bo
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
When teams from different clubs, or schools, or places meet to try their skill in some game requiring skill and endurance, there is no occasion to "choose sides" for that has been done in advance. But when boys of the same school or association meet for a game, it is necessary that the leaders should be decided on in advance, as also the means by which the respective sides must be chosen. When two boys are contesting, one may pick up a pebble and ask, "Which hand is it?" If the guess is right, t
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
When children indulge in counting-out games they are quite indifferent to the fact that since the infancy of history and in every land, civilized, barbarous and savage, other children have played the same game, in much the same way, and have used rhymes that are curiously alike. Some learned men use this fact to prove the unity of all races. Mr. Beard, to whom I am indebted for much, has collected many of these rhymes. It will interest boys to compare some of them with those he already knows. So
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
The poet Pope says, "The proper study of mankind is man." If he did not mean this to include boys, then I don't quite agree with him, for I have found boys and girls, too, be it said, as a rule, far more interesting as objects of study than the average grown-up. I have always liked these stanzas from Hood's fine poem, "The Dream of Eugene Aram": "'Twas in the prime of summer time, An ev'ning calm and cool, When four and twenty happy boys Came bounding out of school; There were some that ran, And
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
Like tag, "I Spy" needs no apparatus and no great study. Any boy with keen eyes and nimble legs can play the game better than a man four times his age. Of course, "I spy" is not a game of solitaire. It needs at least two boys, but it will be more exciting if there are five or six times that number; the more the better. You know how to select who is to be "it." This done, and a goal or home selected, "it" remains at the goal and counts up to one hundred as fast as he can, and this is usually so f
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
The game of tip-cat, although very old in Ireland, where it is said to have originated, and in all the British Islands, where it is very popular, is comparatively new in this country. Up to twenty years ago "Cat," as it is generally called, was unknown to the boys of this country. Now it is played from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to the Gulf. The cat is a piece of wood from four to six inches in length, and from one to two inches in diameter in the middle. From the middle to b
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
Ball in some form is played all the world over. Before Columbus came across, the Indians of the St. Lawrence valley played a ball game with rackets, which the French adopted and named Lacrosse. No game requires more dexterity of foot, hand, and eye. Certain games seem to be favored in certain lands; Cricket in England, hand ball in Ireland, and baseball in the United States. But, then, as we adopt and absorb peoples of all nationalities so we take all the good things they have to offer in the wa
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
The best baseball field is level and smooth. It is best, if it can be had, to start with the right kind of a layout. The catcher, or back stop, as he is called by professionals, is usually in front of the observation stand, or a board wall or other obstruction. This is usually ninety feet from the home plate. If you fasten a cord one hundred and twenty-seven feet four inches long straight out in the field, the place for second base is found. This done, take a rope or line one hundred and eighty
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
The mere act of kicking a football is a good exercise in itself, but very few who do so, particularly among boys, know anything about the game. In England and her colonies there are innumerable football clubs in every town and village, but in this country the game is largely confined to colleges, and even in these not all the students play; indeed, so many are the physical requirements and so strenuous is the work that only those with extraordinary strength and activity are selected in the makin
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
During a good deal of world-travelling I cannot recall ever having seen a game of Mumbly Peg played outside of the United States and Canada. I have placed it among the autumn games, but we all know that, except in winter when the conditions are unfavorable, it can be played at any time, where two boys and a jackknife can be assembled, with reasonably soft, smooth ground on which to play. This game has so many variations locally and even among individual players that I shall not attempt a detaile
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
Camping out is not in itself a game, but it would be hard to imagine a more delightful way for the boy or the man who has still something of the boy in him to spend a vacation. Of course, boys in the country have more opportunities to learn about camping than boys living in the city. One thing is that they are more familiar with tools, but city boys are perhaps more eager for the life, as it is so primitive and in such striking contrast to their usual way of living. Before going into camp there
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CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
To begin with, I am not going to tell you how to ride a bicycle. The only way to learn that is to get a wheel, and if it bucks you off, mount again and keep on trying until you master the machine. I have heard folks say that the bicycle is going out of fashion. That is sheer nonsense! What have boys, or sturdy young men, or sturdy old ones for that matter, to do with fashion? The bike is here, and it has come to stay, and to go on revolving as long as folks live on a revolving world. Bike partie
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CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
In Scotland, where the game comes from, golf has been pronounced "goff" for more than five hundred years. Now that our President and other great men have taken to golf, everybody reads about the popular game, but very few know anything about it but the name. To such, the following facts may be of use. The game is interesting, and its rules can be soon learned, but like everything else we do for pleasure or profit, it takes a good deal of practice before one can pose as an expert. Boys take to go
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
Outdoor sports in winter are necessarily restricted to the thing that can be done in the snow or on the ice. But what glorious, health- giving, strength-making things they are! It is from the land of the stern winter that the world's greatest men have come. Usually the frost comes before the snow, and with what joy the boys and the girls hear the news, brought by a rosy, eager comrade: "The ice is strong enough to bear." Of course, our first experience on the ice was when we tried our first slid
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CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII
Long before the strong, light, machine-made sled was put on the market or even thought of, the American boy was his own sled-maker, and if this sled was not so sightly, it certainly got there as effectively as does its modern rival. The best of the old-time sleds were made by cutting down a small oak, beech, or maple tree that had a promising curve at the root. This was dressed, then sawed down the middle, so as to make the two runners. Through each runner six holes were bored from the top, each
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CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
I do not think the advice I have given, as to the games appropriate for each season would be at all complete, if I did not give some advice that will be useful for all seasons and every day in the year. To the boy the enjoyment of the sport is the first thing to be considered, but it is not the only thing. Our lives are often affected for good or ill by very little things. Injuries have been received by boys in sport that marred all their after lives. It is natural for the young to delight in ex
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CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXV
The American Indians, like the uncivilized of all lands, had their own peculiar battle cry or war-whoop, which it is impossible to reproduce by letters. During our Civil War the Confederates gave a thrilling imitation of it in their famous "Rebel Yell," which every old soldier recalls with more or less admiration. The ancient Greeks joined in battle with shouts of "Eleleu!" The Welsh cry was "Ubub!" from whence comes our word hubbub, meaning a confusion. The Irish war shout was nearly like that
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CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVI
For this trick you must use a silk handkerchief. Twisting it, rope- fashion, and grasping it by the middle with both hands. You must request one of the spectators to tie the two ends together. He does so, but you tell him he has not tied them half tight enough, and you yourself pull them still tighter. A second and a third knot are made in the same manner, the handkerchief being drawn tighter by yourself after each knot is made. Finally, take the handkerchief, and covering the knots with the loo
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CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVII
Lay a looking glass upon an even table; take a fresh egg, and shake it for some time, so that the yolk may be broken and mixed up with the white. You may then balance it on its point, and make it stand on the glass. This it would be impossible to do if the egg was in its natural state. Pare some large apples that are rather of a yellow tint; cut several pieces out of them, in the shape of a candle-end, round, of course, at the bottom, and square at the top; in fact, as much as possible like a ca
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