Page:The art of kissing (IA artofkissing987wood).djvu/47

 with the aggrieved toes: "You know, I'm a little stiff from polo."—"Is that so?" she replied icily. "I have several friends from there."

Kissing games are popular chiefly among children of the former generation, or those living in more backward sections of the country. The modern youngsters scorn them as childish, so engrossed are they in more mature kissing and petting parties. Yet such games as "Postoffice," "Drop the Handkerchief," "Pillow," and "In a Well" were tremendous favorites in my youth—among the girls, that is, who had already reached their adolescence; and were endured, and in precocious cases liked, by the boys who participated. "Postoffice," in essence, consisted simply in girls and boys calling each other out, one at a time, for a kiss in the hall. "Drop the Handkerchief" had the wild thrill of the chase added—a chase in which the girls pretended very hard to try to get away, in order to yield more completely.

Many of the English folksongs, such as "The Farmer in the Dell," "King William Was King James's Son," and "The Needle's Eye" are used as ring-games for children, with kissing as an integral part. Certain "nice" children are forbidden to play these games, and thus get started in life with a false Victorian point of view. The games are pleasant enough for the very young; the more serious game of love will come in due time.

At old-fashioned country dances, in backwoods sections of America, the fiddlers who furnished the music used to break the monot-