In order to be enjoyable this game requires several players, and it
is better that they should be both boys and girls, as it then has the
added element of a match between the boys and girls.
Put a silver or gold thimble in full view, in any convenient room,
into which your friends have not yet entered. It makes the game more
difficult if this room is well filled with _bric-à-brac_, hangings,
pictures, plants, etc., for the reason that the eye is confused with so
much ornament and therefore cannot so easily detect such a small thing
as a thimble.
State clearly the following directions before your friends enter.
No one can touch anything. Each player must stand until he sees the
thimble. Every one may walk about as much as he pleases, but talking
is prohibited. Having seen the thimble, immediately sit down. It is
a point of honor that no player will give information. When all are
seated the game is finished.
Of course the girls want to get ahead of the boys, and the boys ahead
of the girls, in locating the thimble. Therefore if a boy sits down
first, the girls are sorry; and if a boy sits down last, the boys are
sorry.
The one who first sits down is the one to receive honor, and he has the
privilege of selecting the next game as well as deciding on the forfeit
to be given by the boy or girl who has been the last to sit down.
Sometimes the hostess gives the thimble to the one winning the game.
Players must be very cautious, or their eyes will tell what their
tongues would not; therefore, having seen the thimble, at once glance
in another direction, and you will thus mystify where you would
otherwise assist.