e floor, an equal number to each line. Any even
number of competitors can play, the race being run in heats. Each
competitor is armed with a long spoon, and his task is to pick up all
the potatoes on his line and return them to the basket before his
opponent can. Each potato must be carried to the basket in turn, and
if dropped on the way must be picked up again before another can be
touched, and the spoon only must be used. Any help from the other hand
or from the foot disqualifies.

Fire-Buckets

At a fire in the country, where there is no hose, a line of men
extends from the burning house to the nearest pond, and buckets are
continually being passed along this line. Hence the name by which this
excellent game is called here. It is played thus. A large number of
miscellaneous and unbreakable articles--balls, boots, potatoes, books,
and so on--are divided into two exactly equal groups, and each group
is placed in a clothes basket. The company then forms into two equal
lines, and each chooses a captain. Each captain stands by the basket
at one end of his line, at the other end being a chair and another
player standing by that. At the word "Start," the articles are handed
one by one by the captain to the first player in the line, and passed
as quickly as possible without dropping to the player by the chair. As
they come to him he piles them on the chair (without dropping any)
until all are there, and then returns them with equal speed until the
basket is filled again. The side which finishes first is the winner.
If an article is dropped it must be picked up before any other of the
articles can pass the player who dropped it.

Forfeits

In many of the games already described mention has been made of
"Forfeits." They do not now play quite so important a part in an
evening's entertainment as once they did, but they can still add to
the interest of games. "Paying a forfeit" means giving up to the
player who is collecting forfeits some personal article or other--a
knife, a pencil, a handkerchief--which, at the end of the game, or
later in the evening, has to be recovered by performing whatever
penance is ordered. When the times comes for "crying the forfeits," as
it is called, the player who has them sits in a chair, while another
player, either blindfolded or hiding her eyes, kneels before her, the
remaining players standing all around. The first player then holds up
a forfeit, remarking, "I have a thing, and a very