Nobody seemed to know of any particular game to play, until Ruth volunteered to explain to them a new game that had recently made its appearance in Boston.
The game was called “It,” and was great fun, Ruth said, if the players would agree to keep their temper.
All present willingly agreed to do this.
“It’s really only difficult for one,” explained Ruth; “the one who does the guessing must be guaranteed to possess a temper that is positively incapable of being ruffled under any provocation.”
Although entirely unfamiliar with the details of Ruth’s game, it suddenly occurred to Patty that here was an excellent chance to test the quality of Lorraine’s reform in the matter of amiability. So she said:
“If you want someone good-natured to do your guessing, I propose Lorraine Hamilton.”
Lorraine looked up suddenly, caught Patty’s glance, and determined that she would prove herself worthy of the confidence Patty had shown in her.
“I’ll do it,” she said, “and I’ll agree not to lose my temper, whatever your game may be.”
“You’ll be tempted to,” said Ruth; “I warn you that ‘It’ is a most exasperating and provoking game.”
“I’ll risk it,” said Lorraine; “what must I do first?”
“First, you must leave the room while I explain the game to the others,” said Ruth; “go out in the hall, please, entirely out of hearing, and don’t come back until we send for you.”
“Very well,” said Lorraine, gaily; “when you want me you’ll find me sitting on the stairs, with my fingers in my ears.”
“Now,” said Ruth, after Lorraine had gone, “we must all sit round in a sort of an oblong circle.”
“An ‘oblong circle’ is easily managed,” said Clifford Morse, as he began to arrange chairs around the walls of the long parlour. The other boys helped him, and soon the whole party were sitting in a continuous ring around the room.
“The game,” went on Ruth, “is to have Lorraine guess, by asking questions, an object which we’ve all agreed upon. That part of the game is something like ‘Twenty Questions,’ but the difference is, that instead of taking a single object we each of us have in mind our right-hand neighbour. For instance, Patty’s right-hand neighbour, as we sit, is Kenneth Harper, but his right-hand neighbour is Adelaide Hart. So you see, we must each answer Lorraine’s questions truthfully, but in regard to the person who sits at our right-hand; and the answers will seem to her contradictory and confusing.”
Patty was quick-witted enough to see at once that these conflicting answers would seem like ridiculing Lorraine’s intelligence, and would certainly be provoking enough to make anyone angry. It was a severe test, but she privately determined that if Lorraine showed signs of irritation, she would explain the game at once, and not allow it to be played to a finish.
When everybody thoroughly understood the directions, Clifford went out, and escorted Lorraine back to the parlour.
Then Clifford resumed his seat, and Lorraine was left sitting on a piano stool in the middle of the room, so that she might twirl about and face each one in turn.
“We have all agreed upon an object,” said Ruth, “which we want you to guess. You may question us each in turn, and you may ask any questions you choose; if your questions can be answered by yes or no, we’re obliged to answer them, but if not, we may do as we choose about it. Now suppose you begin with me, and then go right around toward the right.”
“Wait a moment, Lorraine,” said Patty; “before you start remember this: everything we tell you will be the exact truth, although it may not seem so.”
“Very well,” said Lorraine, “I’ll begin with Ruth. Does It belong to the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom?”
“Animal,” answered Ruth.
“How large is It?” asked Lorraine of Gertrude Lyons, who sat next to Ruth.
“Which way?” said Gertrude, laughing.
“Well, how long is It?”
“About two yards,” replied Gertrude, mentally measuring the tall boy who sat on her right.
“What colour is It?” asked Lorraine next.
“Green,” responded Dick Martin, with a side-long glance at the frock of the girl next to him.
“Is It all green?”
“No,” said the girl in green, “it is mostly black.” This of course was true, as her right-hand neighbour was a boy in black clothes.
Lorraine began to look puzzled. “It seems queer,” she said, “that one of you should say it is all green, and another that it is mostly black. But I suppose one of you must be colour-blind.”
They all laughed at this, and Lorraine went on: “Where did It come from?”
Lorraine asked this question of a boy who sat next to Margaret Lane, who was from Philadelphia.
“From Philadelphia,” he replied.
“Is It Margaret Lane?” asked Lorraine of Margaret herself.
“No,” she replied, laughing.
“Is It anything belonging to Margaret Lane?”
“No.”
“Has It any connection whatever with Margaret Lane?”
“None that I know of.”
“To whom does It belong?”
Lorraine asked this question of a girl who sat next to a young cadet from West Point, so she replied: “To the United States.”
“Is It in stripes?”
“Yes,” replied the cadet, after glancing at the striped dress of the girl next to him.
“Then It’s the flag!” exclaimed Lorraine, triumphantly.
But they all told her she had guessed wrong, and she good-naturedly went on with her queries.
“Has It anything to do with the army?”
“Nothing, except that It carries arms,” said the waggish boy whom she asked.
“Is It a person?”
“Yes.”
“Is the person in this room?”
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