A SCOUT GAME

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 445, 29 August 1928, Page 6

A SCOUT GAME

Here is a capital game to play in camp after tea, when some interesting pastime which is not too strenuous is needed. The game is especially suited to older Scouts and Rovers. The game, which is very like quoits, owes its origin to the cowboys, who still play it outside their bunk-houses after a hard day r s riding. All the gear you need is four old horse-shoes and two wooden pegs, the latter being hammered into the ground about thirty feet apart. The ground should be dug up for a couple of feet round the pegs to make it soft; and the pegs should protrude about six inches above the ground. Four Scouts play at a time, two on each side; but partners must take up their positions one at the first peg and the other at the second peg. The opponents at one end start off by pitching two horse-shoes in alternate turns. Their respective partners pitch them back again, and so the game goes on. If a player gets his two horse-shoes nearer the peg than his opponent, it counts two points to his side. If he gets only one nearer, it counts one point. A shoe leaning against a peg is known as a “leaner” and counts three points, whilst a shoe which encircles a peg is called a “ringer” and counts five points. The side getting twenty-one points first wins. As the horse-shoe is being pitched, impart a slight spinning action, making it revolve about a couple of turns in the air. The game has only to be played a few times to realise how interesting it can be, and it lends itself to much skilL

THE SILKIE WIFE

The waters around the Shetland IsJ*s are crowded with seals. The islanders call them Silkies, and they tell many strange tales about them. One night a young fisherman saw two seal-skins lying on the shore. He picked one up, and two beautiful women came swimming toward him crying. One of them seized the sealskin on the ground and put it on, and changed into a seal, and disappeared in the ocean. The other remained by the shore and wrung her hands, and begged the fisherman to give her back her skin, so that she could rejoin her companion. In return for this she promised to bring him much treasure. But the fisherman, wanted a wife, and he kept the skin, and spoke so lovingly to the Silkie that she agreed to marry him. For some years they lived happilv in a cottage by the seashore, and the Silkies wife had two charming littl children. But one night the fisherman came home tired and hungry after a day’s fishing, and as he had caught nothing he was in a bad temper. There was no supper ready. “That is what cornea of marrying a Silkie i” said the fisherman. The Silkie wife said no word. She went to the seashore, and took off her clothes and out on her seal-skin; and the fisherman never saw her again.