The following is a key to the solution of the puzzle, but should not be consulted until you find it impossible to accomplish the feat without its aid.
1 to centre 3 to 2 5 to 4 2 to 3 7 to 4 8 to 6 9 to 7 11 to 3 7 to 4 6 to 8 13 to 2 x to 1 15 to 2 16 to 14 2 to 13 18 to 11 20 to 19 8 to 21 22 to 20 20 to 19 11 to 18 24 to 14 26 to 25 25 to 17 28 to 14 17 to 25 29 to x x to 27 30 to 24 32 to 25 27 to centre.
If any of my young boy friends wishes to make a useful, and at the same time acceptable, present to a sister or girl friend, he cannot do better than make a set of this pretty and amusing game.
The battledore is readily made with a hickory stick and a piece of hoop, and the shuttlecock with a cork and a few short feathers. The forms of the two are shown in the illustrations.
The game is played by two players, each having a battledore, and each bats the shuttlecock from one to the other, the one failing to return it when it is batted to him within possible reach losing a point in the game. A game consists of twenty points, and the best two out of three games gains the match.
This light pastime for the summer lawn, or for the parlor on a winter’s evening, is one of the most graceful and pretty games ever invented. Although particularly intended for the fairer sex, boys are generally the most skillful, if not the most graceful, competitors in the game.
This game is played with a target-post, more or less ornamental, as the skill and taste of the maker may decree, and a number of light rings or small hoops, ranging from five to ten inches in diameter.
The rings are nicely made of old hoop-skirt wires, bent in the desired shape, and strongly fastened with cords, the whole covered with bright silk or ribbon; the greater variety of colors used the brighter the effect of the game. The ribbons need not necessarily be perfectly fresh, as in winding the rings any soiled spots can readily be hidden.
It is also better to have the rings divided into three sets or sizes, and all those of each set as nearly as possible of the same size. For instance, if eighteen rings are to be used, let six be about five inches in diameter, six more be seven or eight inches, and the remaining six to be ten inches across.