HAVE each of the company put on a sheet, securing it around himself like the pictures of a Roman toga. Put on his head a pillowslip, making it assume any fanciful shape desired, and bringing it closely around his face, concealing features as much as possible. All this must be done before assembling, as it is the object to have players disguised as far as possible from each other. Have your Leader chosen. Then you must follow him implicitly; whoever fails to, must be counted out of the game. Those who do not wish to dress in sheet-and-pillow-case costume must form audience. The Leader must wear high above his pillow-case-enveloped head, a small United States flag, so that all can recognize him as Leader. (You will remember that the fourth of March is always the Inauguration Day, when the President of the United States goes into the White House as Leader for four years.) Now let the Leader start to music from the piano—through the parlors, halls, dining-room—perhaps if the cook is pleasant, to the kitchen. These little games do a great deal to draw all the family together with a happy feeling. If he stops a minute to examine anything, the company following him in Indian file must stop too and imitate his movements, as if examining something closely. If he says in the course of his travels "ooh—ooh!" just like a pig, each one of the pillow-slip-and-sheet brigade must say "ooh—ooh!" also in the same tone without smiling, unless he laughs. If he says "cock-a-doodle-doo-o!" each one must say it. Whoever fails to follow his Leader imitating him in everything, and whoever smiles or laughs, or says anything unless the Leader does, must be pointed out by the audience, dropped out of ranks, set up in a corner, told to stand there until the game is played out, and all take off sheets and pillow-slips—to sit down and laugh over it all, before plates of apples and cracked walnuts. May you have a jolly time with your March game. I wish I could play one with the Pansies. Margaret Sidney. double line decoration
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