The Project Gutenberg EBook of Floor Games; a companion volume to "Little
Wars", by H. G. Wells

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Title: Floor Games; a companion volume to "Little Wars"

Author: H. G. Wells

Posting Date: April 30, 2009 [EBook #3690]
Release Date: January, 2003
First Posted: July 22, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLOOR GAMES ***

Produced by Alan Murray. HTML version by Al Haines.

FLOOR GAMES

by

(H)erbert (G)eorge Wells

Contents

I. The Toys To Have
II. The Game Of The Wonderful Islands
III. Of The Building Of Cities
IV. Funiculars, Marble Towers, Castles And War Games,
But Very Little Of War Games

Section I

THE TOYS TO HAVE

The jolliest indoor games for boys and girls demand a floor, and the
home that has no floor upon which games may be played falls so far
short of happiness. It must be a floor covered with linoleum or cork
carpet, so that toy soldiers and such-like will stand up upon it, and
of a color and surface that will take and show chalk marks; the common
green-colored cork carpet without a pattern is the best of all. It must
be no highway to other rooms, and well lit and airy. Occasionally,
alas! it must be scrubbed--and then a truce to Floor Games. Upon such a
floor may be made an infinitude of imaginative games, not only keeping
boys and girls happy for days together, but building up a framework of
spacious and inspiring ideas in them for after life. The men of
tomorrow will gain new strength from nursery floors. I am going to tell
of some of these games and what is most needed to play them; I have
tried them all and a score of others like them with my sons, and all of
the games here illustrated have been set out by us. I am going to tell
of them here because I think what we have done will interest other
fathers and mothers, and perhaps be of use to them (and to uncles and
such-like tributary sub-species of humanity) in buying presents for
their own and other people's children.

Now, the toys we play with time after time, and in a thousand
permutations and combinations, belong to four main groups. We have (1)
SOLDIERS,