FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135  
136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   >>   >|  
that the long winter evenings are upon us," he began---- "Anyhow, it's always dark at half-past nine," said Norah. "Not in the morning," said Dennis, who has to be excused for anything foolish he says since he became obsessed with golf. "Please don't interrupt," I begged. "Gerald is making a speech." "I was only going to say that we might have a little game of some sort. Norah, what's the latest parlour game from London?" "Tell your uncle," I urged, "how you amuse yourselves at the Lyceum." "Do you know 'Hunt the Pencil'?" "No. What do you do?" "You collect five pencils; when you've got them, I'll tell you another game." "Bother these pencil games," said Dennis, taking an imaginary swing with a paper-knife. "I hope it isn't too brainy." "You'll want to know how to spell," said Norah severely, and she went to the writing-desk for some paper. In a little while--say, half an hour--we had each a sheet of paper and a pencil, and Norah was ready to explain. "It's called Definitions. I expect you all know it." We assured her we didn't. "Well, you begin by writing down five or six letters, one underneath the other. We might each suggest one. 'E.'" We weighed in with ours, and the result was E P A D U. "Now you write them backwards." There was a moment's consternation. "Like 'bath-mat'?" said Dennis. "An 'e' backwards looks so silly." "Stupid--like this," explained Norah. She showed us her paper. E U P D A A D P U E "This is thrilling," said Mrs. Gerald, pencilling hard. "Then everybody has to fill in words all the way down, your first word beginning with 'e' and ending with 'u,' and so on. See?" Gerald leant over Dennis and explained carefully to him, and in a little while we all saw. "Then, when everybody's finished, we define our words in turn, and the person who guesses a word first gets a mark. That's all." "And a very good game too," I said, and I rubbed my head and began to think. "Of course," said Norah, after a quarter of an hour's silence, "you want to make the words difficult and define them as subtly as possible." "Of course," I said, wrestling with 'E--U.' I could only think of one word, and it was the one everybody else was certain to have. "Are we all ready? Then somebody begin." "You'd better begin, Norah, as you know the game," said Mrs. Gerald. We prepared to begin. "Mine," said Norah, "is a bird." "Em
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135  
136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Dennis
 

Gerald

 

define

 

backwards

 

pencil

 
explained
 
writing
 

Anyhow

 
beginning
 

ending


carefully

 

pencilling

 
parlour
 

consternation

 
Stupid
 

showed

 
thrilling
 
finished
 

wrestling

 

subtly


difficult

 

prepared

 

silence

 

quarter

 

guesses

 

person

 

winter

 

evenings

 

rubbed

 

moment


begged

 
making
 

speech

 

imaginary

 

brainy

 
interrupt
 

severely

 
taking
 

pencils

 
collect

Bother
 

Lyceum

 
Please
 
suggest
 

weighed

 

underneath

 
letters
 

excused

 
result
 

morning