he light or dark side of an oyster
shell or some other small object which is used in the game.

A neutral odd player who acts as leader takes his place in the center
of the neutral territory and tosses the oyster shell into the air. If
there be no such leader available, the parties may choose captains to
toss the shell alternately. The shell is allowed to fall on the
ground. If the light side falls upward, the light party must turn and
run for the goal at the opposite end of the ground, the other party
chasing them. Any one captured (tagged) must carry his captor back to
his home goal on his back. A party scores one point for each prisoner
caught. These may be easily counted, as the prisoners carry their
victors home pick-a-back. The party first scoring fifty or one hundred
points (according to the number of players) wins the game; or the
winners may be determined by the largest score when the game ends.

Because of the carrying home of the victors by the players who
are caught, it is advisable that some means be adopted to have
opponents of nearly equal size. This is easily done by having
the players line up according to size at the opening of the
game and assigned alternately to the different sides. In any
event, the tall players should be placed opposite each other,
and the smaller players _vis-a-vis_.

This game is from the ancient Greeks, and is said to have
arisen from a custom of exiling wrangling political opponents
by writing their names on an oyster shell and sending from the
city the one whose name fell uppermost when the shell was
tossed. Some modern adaptations are here given.

PAR

_10 to 30 or more players._

_Playground; gymnasium._

This is a leapfrog game in which the distance of the back from the
jumping line is advanced after each round a "foot and a half,"
measured in a certain way called a "par." The game starts with the
back at a given distance from the line. After each player has
"overed," the back places one foot with the outer edge on the line on
which he has been standing, puts the heel of the other foot against
the instep so that the second foot will be at right angles to the
first, and marks a new line at the point where the toes come. The new
line is thus the length of one foot in advance of the first line, plus
the width of the other foot at the instep. The players then leap again
from the starting line, and as the