Wet or Dry

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By Dan Beard

This was formerly the method of deciding who should have first choice for sides in a game of ball. Not baseball, for it was before that now popular game had made its appearance. It was used for "town-ball," a game played with at bat like a cricket bat. One boy would dampen one side of the bat, and then send the bat twirling in the air, and the other boy would guess which side would come up, wet or dry. Often one side of the bat would be marked with a piece of chalk or soft brick, and that side was called wet. 

But the old flat bat and the old game have both been swept aside. "Wet or dry" has not disappeared, however, with the bat that originated it. If any one will watch the boys carefully as they scream and shout at their play, he will no doubt, sooner or later, see the youngsters decide "first choice" by throwing up a chip and crying "Wet or dry?" 

The choice is decided exactly as it is in "Heads or tails," or "Odd or even," and when the chip is used in counting out, as in "Heads or tails," "Odd or even," or "Which hand is it in," each boy has a turn to guess. The boy who fails, tosses the chip, until another unlucky playmate fails, when he in his turn tosses the chip, crying "Wet or dry?" This goes on until all the boys are free but one, and as this one, should he choose to toss the chip, would have no one to guess but himself, he gracefully accepts the situation and becomes "It."