Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/749

 721 CHILDREN 1 »- m ^^^B A Five Senses Competition. The touch test. Ev<ry competitor, blindfold, must pass a test in each of the five senses. Success is scored by marks part of Every Woman's Encyclopedia), or by the simpler plan of awarding victory to the players or side whose score first reaches ten. In an emergency an old cardboard book- cover makes a satisfactory bat, armed with which, in nursery days, the present writer has played many a closely contested match. Pass the penny is a most exciting game, for wiiich at least eight players are needed, and none being less than seven or eight: years of age, or the penny is more apt to Idc dropped and lost than passed quickly to a neighbour. To begin the game two small, firm-legged tables will be wanted, besides as many chairs as there are players. The players are seated on chairs arranged in two rows facing each other, and the tables are placed one at either end of the double row. The top table acts as both starting point and winning post, and behind this the umpire is stationed. Each side has a penny, and in order to begin the game these two pennies are placed one at either side of the top table close to the edge. When the umpire cries " go," the two rival players facing each other next the table take up the pennies in their left hands, and, transferring them swiftly to their right hands, pass them to their neighbour's left r,LLf.-i-L. ^ ^ jiwx i joT^i -lj^ rronging cherries with a fork. The player who. gazing into the opponent s eyes, hand to be transferred to the right, first succeeds in pronging and eating his fruit, is the winner and so on down the line until the bottom tabic is reached. The players next the bottom table ex- change the pennies from left hands to right. and put them down ujwn the table .so that the ring of the coins can be heard, before transferring them from hand to hand up the lines again, to be put down on the top table from whence they started. The race between the two sides — if neither side drop their penny — is, as a rule, so close as to be almost a tie, so that the umpire must watch the game most keenly in order to be able to decide which side first gets the penny back to the table from which it started. Five Senses Competition A FIVE SENSES COMPETITION is auothef ex- cellent way of amusing children. Each competitor has to pass five tests in sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Each one has a card bearing his or her name, upon which the marks won in each test are recorded, the prize being awarded to the competitor who gets the highest total. For the sight test a tray bearing 20 small objects — a bottle, penknife, pencil, orna- ments, photograph-frame, for instance — and covered with a cloth, is placed in the middle of the room, and each child comes forward in turn to gaze upon it for one minute before retiring to write down a list of as many objects as can be remembered. The hearing test. The competitors are all blindfolded, and half a dozen familiar noises are made in their presence. The fire is poked, a silk petticoat rustled, water poured from a jug into a glass, etc. The bandages are then taken off, and each one writes down how he or she beUeved the noises were made. The taste test consists of tasting, blind- folded, two different kinds of jam. and a bit of apple, of pear, of date, of French plum, etc., besides salt, and sugar. For the smelling test the contents of not fewer than six stone gingerbeer-bottles, each one numbered, and containing either lemonade, vinegar, coffee, or some other familiar fluid, must be guessed by the competitors.