WHILING AWAY TIME
Excluded from the plays of the older fellows, Jack drew around him a
circle of small boys, who were always glad to be amused with the stories
of hunting, fishing, and frontier adventure that he had heard from old
pioneers on Wildcat Creek. Sometimes he played "tee-tah-toe, three in a
row," with the girls, using a slate and pencil in a way well known to
all school-children. And he also showed them a better kind of
"tee-tah-toe," learned on the Wildcat, and which may have been in the
first place an Indian game, as it is played with grains of Indian corn.
A piece of board is grooved with a jack-knife in the manner shown in the
diagram.
[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF TEE-TAH-TOE BOARD.]
One player has three red or yellow grains of corn, and the other an
equal number of white ones. The player who won the last game has the
"go"--that is, he first puts down a grain of corn at any place where the
lines intersect, but usually in the middle, as that is the best point.
Then the other player puts down one, and so on until all are down. After
this, the players move alternately along any of the lines, in any
direction, to the next intersection, provided it is not already
occupied. The one who first succeeds in getting his three grains in a
row wins the point, and the board is cleared for a new start. As there
are always three vacant points, and as the rows may be formed in any
direction along any of the lines, the game gives a chance for more
variety of combinations than one would expect from its appearance.
[Illustration: JACK AMUSING THE SMALL BOYS WITH STORIES OF HUNTING,
FISHING, AND FRONTIER ADVENTURE.]
Jack had also an arithmetical puzzle which he had learned from his
father, and which many of the readers of this story will know, perhaps.
"Set down any number, without letting me know what it is," said he to
Joanna Merwin.
She set down a number.
"Now add twelve and multiply by two."
"Well, that is done," said Joanna.
"Divide by four, subtract half of the number first set down, and your
answer will be six."
"Oh, but how did you know that I put down sixty-four?" said Joanna.
"I didn't," said Jack.
"How could you tell the answer, then?"
"That's for you to find out."
This puzzle excited a great deal of curiosity. To add to the wonder of
the scholars, Jack gave each time a different number to be added in, and
sometimes he varied the multiplying and dividing. Harvey Collins, who
was of a studious turn, puzzled over it a long time, and at last he
found it out; but he did not tell the secret. He contented himself with
giving out a number to Jack and telling his result. To the rest it was
quite miraculous, and Riley turned green with jealousy when he found the
girls and boys refusing to listen to his jokes, but gathering about Jack
to test his ability to "guess the answer," as they phrased it. Riley
said he knew how it was done, and he was even foolish enough to try to
do it, by watching the slate-pencil, or by sheer guessing, but this only
brought him into ridicule.
"Try me once," said the little C. C. G. W. M. de L. Risdale, and Jack
let Columbus set down a figure and carry it through the various
processes until he told him the result. Lummy grew excited, pushed his
thin hands up into his hair, looked at his slate a minute, and then
squeaked out:
"Oh--let me see--yes--no--yes--Oh, I see! Your answer is just half the
amount added in, because you have----"
But here Jack placed his hand over Columbus's mouth.
"You can see through a pine door, Lummy, but you mustn't let out my
secret," he said.
But Jack had a boy's heart in him, and he longed for some more boy-like
amusement.