This is one of the most interesting house party games for young people for either out of doors or within.
A circle about three feet in diameter is drawn on the floor in the front of the room and serves as a goal. One player is chosen to be It, and stands ten feet from the goal. The other players sit at their desks. The one who is It calls the name of some player, who must at once rise and try to run through the goal and return to his seat without being tagged. In order to do this, he may have to make quite a detour before passing through the goal, or he may be able to run through it at the opening of the chase. The chaser must also run through the goal before he may tag the runner. If the chaser succeeds in tagging the runner, he continues to be chaser, and calls the name of another player to run. If the runner gets to his seat without being tagged, he changes places with the other and becomes It.
This game is printed with the kind permission of the Alumni Association of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, from the book entitled _One Hundred and Fifty Gymnastic Games_.
This is a very pretty form of tag, suitable for little children, and they delight in playing it. It hardly need be said that it requires a sunny day.
The player who is It tries to step or jump on to the shadow of some other player, and if successful, announces the fact by calling the name of the player. That player then becomes It.
The teacher or leader will need to encourage the children to venture boldly into the open spaces, where the shadows become apparent, rather than to huddle on one side of the ground, where the chaser cannot reach the shadows.
This form of relay race is especially adapted to large numbers in limited space. The action is more rapid than in the single relay, although each runner runs only half as far.
The players are divided into two or more groups of equal numbers. Each group in turn is divided into two divisions, which stand facing each other in single file, with the leader of each division toeing a starting line. There should be from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet between the starting lines. At a signal, the leaders on one side of the ground run forward, but instead of touching a goal or terminal line at the opposite end of the ground, the runner "touches off" (touches the outstretched hand of) the leader of the line facing him, and passes at once away from the playing space. He should not line up again with his team.