The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1860-11-08
Children,s Games.


Of childhood" The dust Of years may
have accumulated around the closet
Bales and boxes, briefs and tite-deeds,
huge ledgers and bags Of money may be
piled up around the door, and so effect
ually hide the closet that its existence
shall be forgotten. Yet, on some sunny
afternoon, when least expected, tiny
key scarcely noticed, may find its way
into the lock; the long-closed doors be
flung open, scattering boxes, bales,
deeds and money in all directions, and
for time the man shall revel amid the
boarded joys of the past, so long forgot.
ten, and never heed the stern realities
Of the present The key may be insig-
nificaut and almost beneath notice.
scrap of ballad, a peculiar expression,
a simple nursery rhyme, childish game
yet it is potent in opening the long
closed door aud revealing the long hid
treasure.
Many Of our readers, when children,
have, no doubt, sat as solemn as little
Judges, whilst an infuriated companion,
with a thousand grimaces to evoke the
forfeit.compelling laugh, held a wand
in their faces and recitcd-
"Buf says BuHto all his mon,
Aud say BuiftO you again;
Buff neither laughs nor smiles,
But carries his face
With "a very good grace,
And passes the stick TO the very next place.
Few but have often chanted, as the
hands, piled up alternately rapidly
changed position
"pcas pudding hot, poas.pudiiug cold,
Poas-puddiug iu the pot nine days old,
Some like 90 hot, some like it cold
Some like it ina the pot, nine days old"
Go into the school-yard during the
play recess, and the chances are that
one group Of little girls, at least, will be
found playing the "Gipsey" game. The
sedate little mother counts her row Of
children sitting along the step, and says
to them
"I charge my daughters every one
To keep good house while ann gomez
You and YOU, but specially you,
Orusg III beat you black aud bluc.'
Then sneaks in the gipsey, steals q
child aud hides her, and so the game
goes on.
Don't you remember the plank that
was picked up by you and one Of your
play mates and balanced evenly on a
stump? Then one mounted at each
end, and away you went, singing
.sscc-Saw, NIargcry Daw
Sold her bed and lay upon straw
Was she nutH dirty slut
To sell her bed aud lie in the dirt''
Uurrah for a game Of Tag" or else
."Hidc and Seek, and some one must be
"Tag, or else he must hide. How to
decide it? Try the old formula, count
ing as the rhyme goes on
"HcEory, Dcbory, Dock
The mouse ran mp the clock
The clock struck one,
The mouse WIS gomez
u spells OUI'
1t is a pleasant sight and a pleasant
sound to see and hear a number of
merry little girls, hand in hand, dan
cling around a circle, and singing to a
pretty little melody
"Horo We go round the bramlo bush
The bramble bush, the bramllr hushr
Here we go round the brumble bush,
On cold, frosty morning."
Then all the little girls initiate the
process of washing clothes, singing
meanwhile
"This is the way we wash our clothes
Wash our clothes, wash our clothesi
This is the way we wash our CJthcs
On cold, frosty morning.
They then dance around, repeating
the first stanza, after which the process
Of drying the clothes, ironing them and
putting them away is performed, with
an appropriate stauza to each, winding
up with circle and the chorus, "Here
we 90 round the brambo bush, &c"
Alas for the schOol-b boy days Of the
years gone byl Shall we 20 back, o So
Der merchant, to the school yard where
we used to play? The yard, once seem.
ing so spacious, is somewhat singularly
contracted. Yctit is the same old place
There is brick wall, against which was
pitched the ball that we worked over
so cunningly with twine. Here We
played "loot out, ," and there is the site
of the chop scotch" bed. In the cor
ner, mounted on Jack Johnson's back
you held up three fingers, ezclaiming,
"He buck, she buck
How many horns do oldup3"
"Fourl' said Jack, when tho chan
went on
"Four you say and three there be,
And four good cUbs give 10 thee"
which "cobs" were duly administered
with a knotted handkerchief, There
we played marbles-in that spot was odl
"town," and here we played pits" the
ring for our peg-tops was to the right
II Cleveland Herald
MENTAL INDEPENDENCE Every man
and every woman is brought up from