making runs become at
last impossible, and the game is entirely stopped.... The game,
of course, is at its best when there is most going on and of
the most thrilling sort,--a lot of players making runs and
freeing and defending prisoners,--with flight and rally, charge
and rout, and triumph and despair."

PUSS IN A CORNER

_5 to 30 or more players._

_Schoolroom; playground; gymnasium._

All of the players but one are disposed in the corners or at
convenient goals that will answer the same purpose. The odd player
goes from one to another, saying, "Pussy wants a corner!" The player
to whom this is addressed replies, "Go to my next-door neighbor." Any
two of the other players meanwhile watch their opportunity to beckon
to one another for exchanging places. They try to make this exchange
of signals and to dash across from place to place when the attention
of Puss is attracted in some other direction, as Pussy must try to
secure a corner by rushing to any place that is vacant when the
players thus exchange.

The sport of the game consists very largely in tantalizing Puss by
making many exchanges, or, on the other hand, in Puss suddenly dashing
for some vacant place without giving previous evidence of knowing of
it. Whenever Puss secures a corner, the odd player left out becomes
Puss.

Puss, when not succeeding in getting a corner as soon as desirable,
may call "All change!" when all of the players must exchange places,
and in the general flurry Puss should secure a place.

Out of doors.--This game may be very delightfully adapted to
outdoor play by each player taking a tree as a "corner," when
the dodging and running may be much more varied and
interesting than in the open space of a parlor or gymnasium.

PUSS IN THE CIRCLE

_10 to 30 or more players._

_Playground; gymnasium._

A large circle is marked on the ground or floor. One player, who is
Puss, stands in the center of this circle; the other players stand
outside of the circle surrounding it. These players may be tagged by
Puss whenever they have a foot inside of the circle. They will make
opportunity for this by stepping in and out of the circle, teasing
Puss in every possible way to tag them. Any one whom Puss touches
becomes a prisoner and is another Puss, joining the first Puss in the
circle to help tag the others. The last one tagged is the winner of
the game.

This is one of the gam