"Yes," said Hals, grandly; "I don't think even the king, or my father could have amused themselves better. They know how to be happy in Shropshire." Then Bess interrupted Hals and called out sharply, "Amuse mama." [Sidenote: OLD SHROPSHIRE GAMES] "Do," I said; "and begin by telling me all about the games, and repeat to me all the rhymes that you can remember." "Yes, we must," said Bess, moved to pity, "for poor mama, she didn't even go to Aunty Constance's garden, although she was asked, or see Aunty Constance's new flower with a long name that I am sure I can only misremember." There was a pause. Then Hals stood on the gravel path some five yards away, and said modestly, "I'll do my best, but I am afraid all the games won't come back to me. The first time you play at games, they are almost as hard as sums." "Oh no," interrupted Bess, contemptuously. "Games can never be as bad as sums, for you can kick about and swing your feet in games. But in sums it's always 'keep quiet;' and then," added Bess sadly, with a note of pathos in her voice, "sums will always keep on changing, unless they are done by a governess." Then a hush fell upon us all, for Hals said he must try and think of the games pat, and we were silent. I saw Hals' lips move, and a pretty vision rose before me of a little figure clad in green velvet, with fair flaxen curls clustering round his brow and resting on his lace collar. After a few minutes the little boy stepped a little nearer, and in a treble key, began to explain the character of the old games and to recite some of the old verses that once delighted lad and lass of the far West country. "First we played Kiss in the Ring. We ran about," he explained, "and the boys dropped handkerchiefs on the shoulders of the girls they liked, and they said in turn-- "'I wrote a letter to my love And on the way I lost it; Some one has picked it up, Not you, not you, not you.' That they said," said Hals, "when the boys didn't like a girl. I didn't play," he remarked grandly, "because I didn't like being kissed by strange girls; so I played with the others at Cat and Mouse, which is better, for the kissing is understood." "And after that?" I asked. "Oh, after that we played Bingo." "Bobby Bingo," corrected Bess, severely. "You should call things by their proper name, Hals." "It was a game about a dog, and we came up, and all said together," continued Hals unmoved-- "'A farmer's dog lay on the floor, And Bingo was his name O. B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, And Bingo was his name O.' I cannot exactly say how that was played," said Hals, puzzled, "but we danced and we sang, and one girl stood straight up in the middle, as if she had a punishment lesson to say. And when I'm grown up, I will get my father to buy me a dog, and I will call him Bingo."