INDEX OF INDOOR GAMES
Acting Proverbs
Acting Rhymes
Adventurers
All Fours
Alphabet Game
Animal, Vegetable or Mineral
Ants and the Grasshopper
Balancing Spoon
Band Box (Charade)
Beggar My Neighbor
Bingo
Birds, Beasts and Fishes
Bird Catcher 26,
Birds Fly
Blackboard Relay
Blind Man's Buff
Blind Man's Wand
Bob Major
Bridge of Knives
Buff Says Buff
Buzz
Card Games
Cat and Mouse
Cat and Rat
Cat's Cradle
Charades
Checkers
Changing Seats
Chinese Shadows
Coach and Four
Cock Fighting
Consequences
Circle Ball
Crambo
Coin Trick
Cross Questions and Crooked Answers
Crows' Race
Cushion Dance
Dancing Egg
Dancing Pea
Dead Ball
Diamond Ring
Dodge
Dominoes
Draw a Pail of Water
Drop the Handkerchief
Duck Under the Water
Dumb Crambo
Dwarf
Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Eraser Game
Eraser Relay
Family Coach
Farmyard
Feather
Find an Object While Blindfolded
Fives and Threes
Flag Race
Flowers
Flying
Forbidden Letter
Force of a Water Drop
Fox and Chickens
Fox and Geese
Fox Chase
French Roll
Frog in the Middle
Gallery of Statutes
Game of Cat
Game of Conversation
Garden Gate
Giant
Grand Mufti
Green Gravel
Hand Shadows
Hands Up
Hide the Thimble
Honey Pots
Hot Boiled Beans and Bacon
How to Light a Candle Without Touching It
How, When and Where
Huckle, Buckle, Beanstalk
Huntsman
Hunt the Ring
Hunt the Slipper
I Apprenticed My Son
I Love My Love With an A
I Point
I Say Stoop
I Sell My Bat, I Sell My Ball
I Suspect You
It
Jolly Miller
Judge and Jury
Jumping the Rope
Last Man
Little Lady
Living Pictures
Living Shadows
Lodgings to Let
Lost and Found
Lubin Loo
Magic Music
Magic Thread
Magic Whistle
Magic Writing
Malaga Raisins
Man and Object
Man With His Head the Wrong Way
Mother, Mother, the Pot Boils Over
My Master Bids You Do as I Do
Mysterious Ball
Noughts and Crosses
Oats and Beans and Barley
Obstinate Cork
Old Maid
Old Soldier
Oranges and Lemons
Our Old Grannie Doesn't Like Tea
Paper and Pencil Games
Personations
Pigeon House Game
Poison
Pope Joan
Postman
Postman's Knock
Preliminary Ball
Proverbs
Puss in the Corner
Questions and Answers
Racing and Counting Scores
Red Cap and Blue Cap
Revolving Pins
Riddles
Riding the Bicycle
Rule of Contrary
Running Maze
Ruth and Jacob
Sally Water
Schoolmaster
School Room Basket Ball
School Room Tag
Sea King
Seat Tag
Sentinel Drop
Serpentine Maze
Shadows
Shouting Proverbs
Simon Says
Six and Five Make Nine
Slap Jack
Slow Poke
Snap
Snip, Snap, Snorum
Speculation
Spelling Game
Stool of Repentance
Squirrel and Nut
Suggestive Breathing Work
Swimming Needles
Tag Me or Heads Up
Tag the Wall Relay
Teacher
Teacher and Class
Think of a Number
Third Man
Thought Reading
Tit, Tat, Toe
To Balance a Coffee Cup
To Guess Two Ends of a Line of Dominoes
To Tell the Age of Any Person
Trades
Travelers' Alphabet
Tricks and Puzzles
Twirl the Trencher
Vanishing Dime
What's My Thought Like?
Wonderment
INTRODUCTION
"Let the child imbibe in the full spirit of play. There is nothing like it to keep him on the path of health, right thinking and mind development."
That is the guiding purpose of the author. The reader will find in this book a collection of old and present day games. The student of Play has long realized that there are no new games, that all our games of today are built on the old timers.
The purpose of My Book of Indoor Games is to furnish amusement, entertainment and to be the means of sociability. So very often the question comes up-"What shall we do?" In many cases this book serves only as a reminder, the games and parlor tricks are well known but cannot be recalled at the critical moment. A combination, such as this, of the best of the old-fashioned games and a carefully compiled list of the games of today will furnish much help to the young in their search of entertainment and amusement.
But the book will be equally useful to grownups. The author has seen staid, respectable people play "Lubin Loo" with as much zest and spirit as the youngest group of children. All of us have played "Going to Jerusalem." The spirit must be there; there is nothing so contagious as the spirit of play.
TWIRL THE TRENCHER
This is a game which almost any number of children can play.
The players seat themselves in a circle, and each takes the name of some town, or flower, or whatever has been previously agreed upon. One of the party stands in the middle of the circle, with a small wooden trencher, or waiter, places it upon its edge, and spins it, calling out as he does so the name which one of the players has taken. The person named must jump up and seize the trencher before it ceases spinning, but if he is not very quick the trencher will fall to the ground, and he must then pay a forfeit. It is then his turn to twirl the trencher.
A very similar game to this is "My Lady's Toilet." The only difference is that each player must take the name of some article of a lady's dress, such as shawl, earring, brooch, bonnet, etc.
* * * * *
MUSICAL CHAIRS OR GOING TO JERUSALEM
This game must be played in a room where there is a piano.
Arrange some chairs, back to back, in the center of the room, allowing one chair less than the number of players. Some one begins to play a tune, and at once the players start to walk or run round the chairs, to the sound of the music.
When the music stops, each player must try to find a seat, and as there is one chair short, some one will fail to do so, and is called "put." He must carry a chair away with him, and the game goes on again until there is only one person left in, with no chair to sit upon. This person has won the game.
* * * * *
