Holders

Source: Games For The Playground, Home, School And Gymnasium
Category: COUNTING-OUT; CHOOSING SIDES



A favorite method of choosing players, especially with boys,
is that called "holders" or "hand holders." When a group of boys
decides to play a game, one suddenly shouts, "Picker up!" picks up a
pebble and hands it to another boy. The one who picks it up is called
the stone picker, and is "out" to start with; that is, he does not
have to take part in the guessing of hands which follows.

Mr. Beard, who has recorded from observation this method of
choosing players, gives an additional point which the writer
has not happened upon. He says that the first player has
scarcely shouted "Picker up!" before another cries
"Wipe-'er-off!" and a third, "Stone holder!" "Picker-up hands
the stone to Wipe-'er-off. Picker-up is then free. Wipe-'er-off
makes a great show of wiping the stone off on his trouser leg,
and hands it to Stone-holder. Wipe-'er-off is then free, and
Stone-holder puts his hands behind him," etc. This preliminary
of handing the stone is often omitted, especially where a large
group is to play, as the first holder of the stone has in a
large group a good chance to go "out" as the guessing proceeds.

The person who holds the stone (a coin, button, or any small object
may be used) places his hands behind his back so that the other
players may not know in which hand he disposes the stone and then
holds his closed fists out in front of him, with the backs of the
hands (knuckles) upward. The first player on his left steps forward
and touches the hand in which he thinks there is no stone. The holder
opens that hand; if the guess has been correct, the guesser is "out"
and the holder must go through the same performance with the next
guesser. Should the one who guesses touch the hand which holds the
stone instead of the empty hand, then he must become holder, taking
the stone and going through the same play with it, the holder from
whom he took it being "out." In other words, the object of the
guessing is to choose the hand which is empty, a successful guess
putting the guesser out, a wrong guess making him the next holder and
putting the preceding holder out.


Next: Drawing Cuts

Previous: Counting-out

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