CHAPTER XI

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT COUNTING-OUT GAMES AND THE RHYMES USED BY
PLAYERS


When children indulge in counting-out games they are quite indifferent
to the fact that since the infancy of history and in every land,
civilized, barbarous and savage, other children have played the same
game, in much the same way, and have used rhymes that are curiously
alike. Some learned men use this fact to prove the unity of all races.

Mr. Beard, to whom I am indebted for much, has collected many of these
rhymes. It will interest boys to compare some of them with those he
already knows.

Sometimes it happens that there are more boys than words in the
counting rhyme, or the counter foresees that he himself will be it. In
both cases he adds to the verse something like this:

One, two, three,
Out goes he!

Often he will add a whole verse and dialogue as follows:

One, two, three,
Out goes he,
Into the middle
Of the deep blue sea!
Are you willing to be IT?