sure and interest in the same game. Previous
training or experience, conditions of fatigue, the circumstances of
the moment, and many other considerations determine the suitableness
of games. To illustrate, the author has known the game of Three Deep,
which is one of the best gymnasium games for men, to be played with
great interest and ability by a class of six-year-old boys; and the
same game stupidly and uninterestedly bungled over by a class of much
older boys who had not had previous training in games and were not
alert and resourceful. Similarly, the comparatively simple game of
Bombardment may be interesting and refreshing for a class of tired
business men, while high-school pupils coming to care largely for team
play may prefer Battle Ball, a more closely organized game of the same
type. In general, boys and girls dislike the mode of play they have
just outgrown, but the adult often comes again to find the greatest
pleasure in the simpler forms, and this without reaching second
childhood.

[Sidenote: Graded course of study on games]

The index of games for elementary and high schools contained in this
volume constitutes a graded course based on experimental study of
children's interests. This grading of the games for schools is made,
not with the slightest belief or intention that the use of a game
should be confined to any particular grade or age of pupils, but
largely, among other considerations, because it has been found
advantageous in a school course to have new material in reserve as
pupils progress. The games have usually been listed for the earliest
grade in which they have been found, on the average, of sufficient
interest to be well played, with the intention that they be used
thereafter in any grade where they prove interesting. This school
index by grades, which includes most of the games, will be found a
general guide for the age at which a given game is suitable under any
circumstances.

[Sidenote: Relation of games to school life]

The relation of games to a school programme is many-sided. To sit for
a day in a class room observing indications of physical and mental
strain and fatigue is to be convinced beyond question that the
schoolroom work and conditions induce a tremendous nervous strain, not
only through prolonged concentration on academic subjects, but through
the abnormal repression of movement and social intercourse that
becomes necessary for the maintenance of discipline and proper