The runners will naturally take a course that will eventually bring them back to the starting point, the chasers, however, trying to overtake them before they can accomplish this.
This schoolroom game is played with most of the class sitting, being a relay race between alternate rows. The first child in each alternate row, at a signal from the teacher, leaves his seat on the right side, runs forward around his seat and then to the rear, completely encircling his row of seats, until his own is again reached. As soon as he is seated, the child next behind him encircles the row of seats, starting to the front on the right side and running to the rear on the left side. This continues until the last child has encircled the row and regained his seat. The row wins whose last player is first seated. The remaining alternate rows then play, and lastly the two winning rows may compete for the championship.
The interest may be increased by calling the race an international one, the teacher providing small flags of different nations, or the children may cut and paint these of paper. The first child in each row chooses the country he will represent by the selection of a flag at the beginning of the game. This he places on the rear desk, and it is held aloft by the last player when he regains his seat, indicating that his country has come in first, second, etc., in the automobile race.
A long, narrow strip of ground is needed for this game, divided into three spaces measuring from ten to fifty feet square. The central one of these three spaces is called the barley field. In each of the three stands a couple of players (or more, as hereinafter described). The couple in the center is obliged to link arms; therefore the center place is the most difficult and considered disadvantageous. The couples in the other spaces advance, singly or together, into the barley field, trampling the barley by dancing around the field as much as they can without being caught. These couples need not link arms. When one of these is caught, he must remain inactive in the barley field until his partner is also caught. The couple owning the barley field may not step beyond its limits, nor may the couple being sought take refuge in the field opposite to their own. When the two are caught, they become warders of the barley field, changing places with the previous couple, and any others who have been caught return to their own fields. The game is made interesting by not confining the effort to catching two members of the same couple in succession. Both couples in the adjoining fields should venture far into the barley, taunting the couple who have linked arms by calling "Barley break!" These, in turn, will assist their object by making feints at catching one player and turning suddenly in the opposite direction for another.