Tip-cat should always be played with caution, and never where there are many people about. It is impossible to keep the cat under as perfect control as one can a ball: at any moment it may fly into the face of a passer-by, and inflict an unsightly wound, or even blind him-such things have been; for a sharply-struck cat, as it comes spinning and whirling through the air, makes a most formidable missile, especially when it takes one unawares. Therefore we would reiterate our exhortation to caution and circumspection.

AUNT SALLY.

This game when it was first introduced had a tremendous run of popularity; even in the very highest ranks of society there was a perfect rage for the new game. For a season Aunt Sally was the reigning queen of society, the goddess of fashion, at whose shrine it behoved all persons who aspired to position in society to come and bow themselves down. If report says true, Cabinet Ministers and even great foreign potentates did not disdain at one time to number themselves amongst the votaries of this popular pastime. But the glory of its early days has departed; Aunt Sally's little day as a fashionable pastime is over; the game has dropped out of fashion almost as quickly as it came in, and with nearly as little reason, for it certainly has its good points, and is a game from which a good deal of fun may be extracted.

In providing the necessary appurtenances there is no occasion to go to any considerable expense. Take a round block of wood about eighteen inches long and eight or nine in diameter, and rough-hew it somewhat into the shape annexed. If there be any carving talent easily accessible, the head and features may be got up with any amount of elaboration consistent with solidity and strength: all really fine work is simply thrown away, and is, indeed, out of place; if not, flatten and smooth over one side for a face, and give the whole two or three coats of black paint, allowing one to dry thoroughly before the next is laid on. If beauty unadorned will serve your turn, the features may be marked out with

a mere dab or two of white paint, and as far as adornment is concerned Aunt Sally is complete. A little extra adornment, however, certainly adds to the spirit of the game; a little extra time and trouble, therefore, spent on getting the old lady up to better advantage, will not be thrown away; and with very little pains, backed by a little ingenuity and invention, you may turn her out "beautiful for ever."

Procure some canvas or stout calico, make this up, or get it made up, into something of a cap shape, the more fanciful the better, and nail it securely on to the head with brass-headed nails, covering all but the face. A frill, which will be found a great addition to the good lady's attractions, may be made by looping up a strip of the same, or better still, of some coloured stuff, between the nails. The features should be marked out in white paint with a judicious shading of red, and a liberal allowance of the latter for the lips, which should be very full and wide apart, showing a rather defective set of teeth of Brobdingnagian proportions.

Make three gimlet-holes at least two inches deep, one in the centre of the nose and one in each ear, and with an augur make a hole at least two and a half inches in diameter and four or five deep up the neck, to receive the head

of the stake on which she is to stand; then with a petticoat of strong but bright-coloured material tied round her neck, perch the head on the stake, which should stand about five feet out of the ground, and Aunt Sally "stands confessed in all her charms."

You will further require a good supply of tobacco-pipes, and ten or a dozen stout cudgels, from twenty inches to two feet in length. The pipes are placed

in the gimlet-holes in the nose and ears of Aunt Sally, and the cudgels are employed to throw at them, and knock them out and break them. The players stand at a mark about ten paces from the figure, and the game is counted by the number of pipes broken in a given number of throws; the ear pipes counting one each and the nose two. If possible, it is desirable to have some loose sacking or other material stretched at the back of Aunt Sally, to stop the sticks, otherwise the labour of fetching them is something considerable, and considerably detracts from the enjoyment of the game.

This is a game very similar to the last, or rather the last is a modification of this. A number of holes, generally three, about six inches in diameter, and set in a triangle, are dug in a loose sandy soil, and in each is set up a slender stick about five feet high, on the top of which is set some article of no great value, such as a snuff-box, tobacco-box, a cocoa-nut, &c., and the game consists in knocking off these articles with sticks similar to those used in Aunt Sally. It is no use striking the stick that supports the snuff-box or other article-it will only fall away and let the snuff-box itself fall perpendicu

larly into the hole, in which case the hit does not count, and the stick has to be replaced. The only possible way of knocking the things off so as to fall clear of the holes is by striking them themselves full and fair with the throwing stick, the knack of doing which is by no means easy of acquirement.

Knock-'em-downs is always in great request at fairs and races, where it is chiefly in the hands of the gipsies, who allow so many sticks a penny, taking good care that the value of the articles set up on the sticks shall not be too great to leave them a margin of profit on each transaction. Where the soil is not suitable, light baskets of sand are employed, in which the sticks are placed.

GAMES IN THE SNOW.

SNOWBALLS.

The best way to play snowballs is to form sides, draw a couple of lines across the play-ground ten yards apart, marking out the neutral ground, into which no combatant may enter, prepare as many snowballs as you like, and then fight it out with fair throwing.

This is a much better plan than mere desultory snowballing, which after a time nearly always degenerates into rubbing snow into each other's faces and necks, and so leads to bullying and quarrelling.

SNOW CASTLE.

Additional zest may be given to snowballing by constructing a castle or fort of snow, and the players dividing into attacking and defending parties. The walls must be made very solid, and considerably thicker at the base than the top; if the fort is of any height, five or six feet will not be too thick for the base of the wall.

In constructing this fort, the first thing is to select the site; the commanding engineer-it is always well to put the whole management, in this and similar cases, under the undivided control of one individual, who shall be responsible for the results-must look about him not only for the most suitable place, strategically, for his fort, but for the place where his materials will be most ready to hand. If possible, he should choose an angle of the play-ground wall, as this narrows the front upon which he can be attacked, and at the same time diminishes the amount of material required, which latter is a very important item in the account, for no one who has not tried has the least idea of the enormous mass of snow required to build even the most unpretending snow castle. Having selected his ground, and got together his party of labourers, armed with spades and other requisites-a wheelbarrow or two will be found very useful-the engineer must set some to clear the ground ready for his foundation, while others employ themselves in rolling up vast snowballs in different parts of the play-ground.

As soon as one of these snowballs attains to a diameter of about a yard it must be brought up to the place prepared for it, and there squared off with spades into a tolerably accurate cube; another is then placed alongside it, and then another, until the whole line of wall is complete; the interstices are then filled up with loose snow well rammed down. This being thoroughly compacted, a fresh line is made a foot or more inside the first, and the vacancy filled with loose snow trodden in. In this way a good solid foundation is obtained and about two feet of wall raised. By proceeding in the same way the wall may be raised to any requisite height. If the snow is deficient in binding power, or indeed under any circumstances, a few sticks planted along

at intervals will prove of great service in binding the several layers of the wall together.

The walls being thus raised to the desired height, which should be at least five feet, but better six, all is done so far as defence is concerned; but the defenders not only require to be protected from the fire of the enemy, but must be enabled to reply effectively to it. For this purpose a good solid ledge or platform must be constructed inside, of sufficient height to allow the besieged the full use of their arms in throwing-that is, when standing on it the outer wall should be about breast-high.

Of course the means of ingress and egress must not be forgotten. A narrow doorway should be cut, with the sill about four feet from the ground; and this during the siege must be barricaded in any rough-and-ready way that may prove most effective.

Everything being thus solidly constructed-by the way, a bucket or two of water thrown over the whole, just before leaving it for the night, will have a wonderful effect in compacting it all together-the players divide into two

parties under separate leaders, the smaller party to defend, the larger to attack the stronghold, and forthwith commence their preparations, which, especially on the part of the besieged, should be rather extensive.

The besieged gather together into the fort a great mass of snow as raw material, and pile up many score of snowballs as service ammunition, while the besiegers are equally busy outside piling up heaps of snow and snowballs, many and frequent, in a great circle round the walls.

At last the signal is given: the defenders retreat into the fort and barricade the entrance, the flag is mounted on the walls under a royal salute of all arms, three cheers, and hard to work they go, hammer and tongs.

The captain of the besieged will, if he is wise, remind his troops that with them ammunition is limited, whereas their opponents have an inexhaustible supply to fall back upon, and that nothing but a sortie, always a most dangerous expedient, can give them the means of replenishing their stock when once exhausted, and consequently that they must economize in every way, and make every shot tell.

The besiegers, on the other hand, will follow exactly the opposite tactics, and, being under no apprehension of failing ammunition, will ply their opponents to the full extent of their powers, leaving them no rest and no relief from the storm of missiles.

If the attacking party be large, numbering say forty or fifty, the captain should work them like skirmishers, one party firing while the others are loading. A boy of any ability will find plenty of room, as captain, to exercise his abilities in devising plans for offence or defence.

A good heavy vertical fire will often be found very effective. A party, armed with huge snowballs six inches or so in diameter, advance in open order under cover of a well-sustained fire, and pitch them in a volley or in rapid succession well up into the air, so as to fall almost perpendicularly within the fortification. These shells are dreadfully annoying: one or two are of no use, but half a dozen or so at a time coming tumbling in, compel the unfortunates within to give up everything else and bestow almost their whole time and attention to watching and avoiding them. Woe betide the unfortunate who, trusting to the walls and dreaming not of shell practice, shall be stooping down working up snowballs, if one of them comes-thump!-on the nape of his neck: go down he must; and what with the explosion of the shell, the consequent thorough saturation of his head and shoulders with snow, and the sudden blow, he may be considered fairly hors de combat for some time-at least, his snowball manufactory will be not a little interrupted.

Many more artifices and inventions might be mentioned, but enough has been said to put a boy of ordinary intelligence in the way of making the best use of his opportunities in this line.

One thing we must protest against-that is the cruel practice of compelling the little boys to make the snowballs while the big ones throw them. Snowballing is very pretty work for those who get the exercise; but the utter misery of standing still, working up with bare hands the bitter cold snow, with all the blood freezing in one's veins, and no hope of warming it-that indeed none but those who have experienced it as little boys can understand. Little boys ought to be made to serve their seniors; it is good for them that they should; but the seniors ought also to have kind consideration for the little fellows over whom they hold a rule so despotic, and in a large measure so irresponsible.