By Dan Beard
Fig. 280.
Hands Up.
The blank side-wall of a brick house and a bit of hard, flat ground form an ideal field for Hand Up. With a sharp stick trace three sides of a square on the hard ground in front of the wall, and let the wall form the fourth side and complete the square. These are the boundary lines. Make another line on the wall, three feet from the ground, and a taw line, nine feet from the wall, on the ground, and you are ready to choose up for sides or toss for "first hand up." You may have one on a side, or as many as you choose; there is no limit.
First Hand Up takes a small rubber town-ball or a baseball and drops it in the square at the taw line, so that it will bound, or bounce, as the boys would say. As the ball rises from the earth the player strikes it with the flat of his hand, sending the ball against the wall, above the three-foot line, with sufficient force to cause it to rebound and fall outside the taw line. The next player uses his hand as a bat, and sends the ball back against the house in the same manner. He must hit the ball on the first bound or before it has touched the earth. The next player is ready to take his turn and strikes the ball on the rebound, and so the game proceeds, until someone misses, or sends the ball below the three-foot mark or outside the boundaries.
If it is the first striker who misses or sends the ball out of the boundaries on the ground or side of the house, then he loses his inning, and the boy on the other side drops the ball and strikes it as already described.
If it is a player on "outs" that makes a miss, then the "inners" count one for each miss or foul. A foul is when the ball goes below the three-foot tin, on the house or rebounds outside the boundaries.
The Outs cannot count when the Ins miss, but they take the place of the Ins and the Ins are out. After the first hand up or play it is unnecessary that the ball should rebound beyond the taw line. Fifteen points make a game. In England the boys have the same game under the name of Fives.
