once snatched up their short sticks and began playing at a
game that is not unlike our American "shinny," a game
which is so familiar to every American boy as to make
description unnecessary--the principal difference between
this and the American game being that the boys all try to
prevent one boy from putting a ball into what they call the
big hole, which, like the others, tended to develop quickness
of action in the boys.


I was familiar with the fact that there are certain games
which tend to develop the parental or protective instinct in
children, while certain others develop the combative and
destructive, as for instance playing with dolls develops the
mother-instinct in girls; tea-parties, the love of society; and
paper dolls teach them how to arrange the furniture in their
houses; while on the other hand, wrestling, boxing, sparring,
battles, and all such amusements if constantly engaged in by
boys, tend to make them, if properly guided and instructed, brave
and patriotic; but if not properly led, cause them to be
quarrelsome, domineering, cruel, coarse and rough, and I wondered
if the Chinese boys had any such games.

"Chi," I asked, "do you have any such games as host and guest, or
games in which the large boys protect the small ones?"

"Host and guest," said Chi.

The boys at once arranged themselves promiscuously over
the playground, and with a few peanuts, or sour dates