House Over

 

 

 

Search  Inquiry Net

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]

Battle Callie
Corner Ball
Crackabout
Hand Up
Hat Ball
House Ball
House Over
Old Cat
Rolly Poly

Scout Books

Site Contents

By Dan Beard

Over the Barn, House Over or Haley Over

Choose up for sides. When all are ready, form two separate groups, one on each side of a house or barn. The boy with the ball cries, "House over! ",and throws the ball over the house where the others are watching for its appearance in the hopes of catching it before it touches the ground. If they are successful in this, the boy who makes the catch rushes around the house and throws the ball at someone on the other side.

Since there is no way for the side who threw the ball to know whether or not it was caught until the lad from the other side appears with it in his hand, it is no wonder that there should be wild cries and a scurrying of feet upon the sudden appearance of the boy with the ball.

If the latter hits one of the other side, the boy hit must follow his captor, who returns to his own side of the house with his prisoner, shouts, "Over the house!" and throws the ball. Each miss counts nothing. Each catch brings with it the right to invade the enemies' camp, and to select a victim and even run after him, so as to shorten the distance and increase the chance of hitting him with the ball.

Each boy hit joins the side of the boy who threw the ball, and the game ends only when all the players are gathered upon one side of the house. This game will do for the suburbs of cities and villages, where detached houses of moderate height are to be found.

In olden times Stool-ball appears to have been quite a popular game, but it never took root in American soil.

The second Christmas after the founding of the colony of Massachusetts, Governor Bradford took the balls and stools away from the players; and he it must be who is responsible for the killing of the ancient game in America, for apparently it never revived.

OHB

 

 

   

 

 


Additional Information:

Peer- Level Topic Links:
 [ Battle Callie ] [ Corner Ball ] [ Crackabout ] [ Hand Up ] [ Hat Ball ] [ House Ball ] [ House Over ] [ Old Cat ] [ Rolly Poly ]

Parent- Level Topic Links:
[ Games of Ball ] [ Bee Messengers ] [ Boat Plans ] [ Dead Bugs ] [ Choosing Up ] [ Counting Out ] [ Leap Frog ] [ Swimming ] [ Tag ] [ Water Periscope ] [ Circus in the Woods ] [ Boys' Vaulting-Poles ] [ Woodcraft Camps ] [ Deaf Scout Jamboree 2006 ] [ Do It Yourself Camps ]

The Inquiry Net Main Topic Links:
 [Outdoor Skills]  [Patrol Method]  [Old-School]  [Adults]  [Advancement]  [Ideals]  [Leadership]  [Uniforms]

Search This Site:

Search Amazon.Com:

When you place an order with Amazon.Com using the search box below, a small referral fee is returned to The Inquiry Net to help defer the expense of keeping us online.  Thank you for your consideration!

Search:

Keywords:

Amazon Logo

 

 

Scout Books Trading Post

Dead Bugs, Blow Guns, Sharp Knives, & Snakes:
What More Could A Boy Want?

Old School Scouting:
What to Do, and How to Do It!

To Email me, replace "(at)" below with "@"
Rick(at)Kudu.Net

If you have questions about one of my 2,000 pages here, you must send me the "URL" of the page!
 This "URL" is sometimes called the "Address" and it is usually found in a little box near the top of your screen.  Most URLs start with the letters "http://"

The Kudu Net is a backup "mirror" of The Inquiry Net.  

©2003, 2011 The Inquiry Net, http://inquiry.net  In addition to any Copyright still held by the original authors, the Scans, Optical Character Recognition, extensive Editing,  and HTML Coding on this Website are the property of the Webmaster.   My work may be used by individuals for non-commercial, non-web-based activities, such as Scouting, research, teaching, and personal use so long as this copyright statement and a URL to my material is included in the text. 
The purpose of this Website is to provide access  to hard to find, out-of-print documents.  Much of the content has been edited to be of practical use in today's world and is not intended as historical preservation.   I will be happy to provide scans of specific short passages in the original documents for people involved in academic research.  

 

Last modified: October 15, 2016.