Arrange for it beforehand, and therefore have the requisite slips of
paper, and nicely sharpened lead pencils ready for all, but if you
are not ready there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that part of
the amusement may be in the preparation. In the latter case, have a
competition as to who will make the sharpest points on the pencils, or
cut the papers the most accurately; when all is prepared, however, give
slips of paper and lead pencils to your friends, and ask them to write
the words you will name. State that they will have fifteen minutes in
which to write a composition, and put into the same every word you
have mentioned. No one can look over his neighbor’s paper, and each
composition must be signed with the writer’s full name.
When the time has expired, all the compositions are collected and read
aloud, votes are taken as to which is the best, and the individual
having received the highest number of votes is entitled to a prize.
Example: Wreath, Mausoleum, suicide, farewell, another, conjointly,
starred, huntsman’s song, early, queen, historical, many, dramas.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was for _many_ years Poet Laureate. He wrote
several poems, descriptive, _historical_, national and otherwise. He
also wrote three notable _dramas_, one called Becket, known as Thomas
à Becket, Chancellor of England, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury,
_another_ called _Queen_ Mary, the ill-_starred_ daughter of Henry the
Eighth, and Harold, who was Earl of Wessex, afterwards King of England.
_Early_ in life Tennyson wrote several poems, _conjointly_ with his
brother Charles. Among these were the _Huntsman’s Song_, The Grave of a
_Suicide_, The Fall of Jerusalem, and the Bard’s _Farewell_.
Tennyson’s monument is in that great English _mausoleum_, Westminster
Abbey. On the dark stone slab, the visitor may frequently see a
_wreath_ of laurel, so placed in grateful memory.
As this game would oftener than otherwise be played informally, the
matter of prizes cannot be too simple. If you are in the birch-bark
section, why not make a bookmark or a napkin ring out of the bark?
Should you be at the seashore make a nest of shells. For example, find
a large mussel shell, and next to it put one a size smaller, and so
on fit in the others, graduating them evenly, the top one being very
small. Or give a curious shell, which may be used as an ornament or
receptacle.