By Dan Beard
Fig. 263.
Leap-Frog.
When Mr. Landon Gibson was with Lieutenant Peary on his polar expedition he often had very jolly times with the hardy, good-natured, flat-faced natives of those cold climes. Among other things the explorers taught the natives the game of leap-frog, and used to have great fun in allowing the little fur-clad, laughing Esquimaux to go straddling over their bent backs. It is possible that all of those in the polar region now know how to play the game, for the sport pleased them beyond measure, and no doubt they took advantage of the first opportunity to teach it to all their neighbors.
How to Play Leap-frog
However, the Esquimaux will not read this book, and there may be some poor little chap so unfortunate as to be born and bred in one of our big cities, whose careful parents have had tutors for him in place of sending him to school, and whose life his been narrowed in various ways by his surroundings, so that he has never taken part in a game of leap-frog, or seen it played. For this unfortunate, possible boy it is well to explain that this simple game is performed in the following manner: One boy, with his back to the player, stoops down and rests his hands on his knees. This is called
"Giving a Back"
The other boy places his hands on the first boy's back and leaps over him by straddling his legs wide apart on each side like a frog. The second boy then assumes the stooping posture and the third boy leaps over the first and second, and the fourth over all three, one at a time, of course.
This goes on until there is no boy left who is not stooping. Then the first boy's back straightens up and he goes leaping over his fellows and again gives a back, while the second one follows, and so on until they are all tired and the game ceases.
