ood_, _Sally in our Alley_, or _Drink to me only with thine Eyes_.
These standard games are amply represented, mingled in the true spirit
of American democracy with strangers from foreign lands and the new
creations of modern athletic practice.

[Sidenote: Local color and humor in games]

The games, old and new, are full of that intimation of environment
which the novelist calls local color, often containing in the name
alone a comprehensive suggestiveness as great as that of an Homeric
epithet. Thus our familiar Cat and Mouse appears in modern Greece as
Lamb and Wolf; and the French version of Spin the Platter is My Lady's
Toilet, concerned with laces, jewels, and other ballroom accessories
instead of our prosaic numbering of players. These changes that a game
takes on in different environments are of the very essence of
folklore, and some amusing examples are to be found in our own
country. For instance, it is not altogether surprising to find a game
that is known under another name in the North called, in Southern
States, "Ham-Ham-Chicken-Ham-Bacon!" The author found a good example
of folklore-in-the-making in the game usually known as "Run, Sheep,
Run!" in which a band of hidden players seek their goal under the
guidance of signals shouted by a leader. As gathered in a Minnesota
town, these signals consisted of colors,--red, blue, green, etc. This
same game was found in the city environment of New York under the name
of Oyster Sale, and the signals had become pickles, tomatoes, and
other articles strongly suggestive of a delicatessen store. The
butterfly verse for Jumping Rope is obviously another late production
of the folklore spirit.

The lover of childish humor will find many delightful examples of it
among the games, as where little Jacky Lingo feeds bread and butter to
the sheep (Who Goes Round My Stone Wall?); or the Mother, trying the
Old Witch's apple pie, discovers that "It tastes exactly like my child
Monday!" The tantalizing "nominies" or "dares," as in Fox and Geese,
and Wolf, and the ways in which players are trapped into false starts,
as in Black Tom, are also highly amusing.

* * * * *

PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION.--In the selection of material for this work,
a marked distinction has been made between games, on the one hand,
and, on the other, the unorganized play and constructive activities
included in many books of children's games. While the term "play"
includes gam