Hop-Scotch
This is a game played by hopping on one foot and kicking an oyster-shell or piece of tile from one compartment to the other, without halting the lifted foot, except in one case, to the ground, and without suffering the shell or tile to rest on any of the lines. A diagram is first drawn similar to the subjoined. It consists of twelve compartments, each being numbered, and at its further end the pleasant and inviting picture of a plum pudding with knife and fork therein stuck. In commencing the game, the players take their stand at the place marked by a star, and "quoit" for innings. The object is, that of doing what every boy is supposed to like above all things to do, i.e. "pitch into the pudding," and he who can do this, and go nearest to the plum in the centre, plays first.
Method of Playing.--The winner begins by throwing his shell into No. 1; he then hops into the space, and kicks the tile out to the star *; he next throws the tile into No. 2, kicks it from No. 2 to No. 1, and thence out. He then thrown it into No. 3, kicks it from 3 to 2, from 2 to 1, and out. He next throws it into No. 4, kicks it from 4 to 3, from 3 to 2, from 2 to 1, and out; and so he proceeds till he has passed the cross and comes to No. 7, when he is permitted to rest himself, by standing with one foot in No. 6 and the other in No. 7; but he must resume hopping before he kicks the tile home. He then passes through the beds 8, 9, 10 and 11, as he did those of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c., and so on, till he gets to plum pudding, when he may rest, and placing his tile on the plum, he is required, while standing on one foot, to kick it with such force as to send it through all the other beds to * at one kick. If one player throws his tile into the wrong compartment, or when he is kicking it out, he loses his innings, as he does also if the tile or his foot at any time rests on a line, or if he kicks his tile out of the diagram.