Now I daresay you’ve heard of leap-frog, and maybe you think there’s
only one way of playing it. Well, if you want to see how our boys can
invent things out of their heads because, and only because, they have
no bats or other things to play with, you should come and watch them
at their leap-frog and duty games. (In leap-frog and overbacks they
go in certain fixed orders over each others’ backs; in duty one man
stays down until another fails in the duty and takes his place). Always
inventing new kinds, too. You could write a whole book about sports
of this kind, each with its separate rules and separate name--fancy
names they are, some of them--and each with its “showman” or “duty-man”
or “namer” who decides what things are to be done. There’s ALL THE
WINKLES, a grand game for as many as you like; and HOPPING TO LONDON
and ALL THE WAY TO LONDON and RACING TO LONDON and FOUR WAYS TO LONDON
and HOT PIES and COLD PIES and HERE COMES MY SHIP FULL SAIL and BUNNY
RABBIT (rather difficult) and HOP, STEP AND JUMP and HOPPING ROUND BIG
BEN and ALL HANDS ON DECK (also called FINGER ON THE BLOCK). CUT-A-LUMP
(or CUTTER)--that’s another kind. Bill bends down in the gutter, while
the others stand up behind him in a row; the first of them is called
cut-a-lump. He goes over Bill’s back, and where his feet touch the
ground--there he makes a mark; then the next boy, without moving from
his old place, has to jump over Bill and touch the same mark; then the
next, and the next--over they go! Of course, it becomes more difficult
with each jump, as the distance gets wider. Whoever first misses the
mark must take the place of Bill, who then becomes cutter in his turn.
That’s cut-a-lump: see?
Why it’s called cut-a-lump?
Because he cuts a lump off the distance in front of Bill.
Then there’s FROG IN FIELD and FROG IN THE MIDDLE and FROG IN THE WATER
and INCH IT UP and SHRIMPS (where you have to go over a boy’s back with
your cap doubled up on your head--many duty-games have to be played
with caps) and LOBSTER (also called EGGS AND BACON, where you have to
throw down your cap while going over his head and pick it up with your
teeth without rolling off his back) and EGG IN A DUCK’S BELLY (holding
the cap between your legs) and CAT O’ NINE TAILS and SPUR THE DONK and
OVER THE MOON and FOOT IT (where you jump sideways) and CHARGE OF THE
LIGHT BRIGADE and CAT ON HOT BRICKS (about as good as any) and POSTMAN
and HOPPING ALL THE WAY TO CHURCH and MUSSENTOUCHET--
“In mussentouchet one boy flies over back and then he puts the boys
hats anywhere he likes [on their bodies] and tells them to run to
certain spot and they must not touch their hats the one whose hat
falls off is down”--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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