The Diamond Ring

: NURSERY GAMES
: Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales

Children sit in a ring or in a line, with their hands placed together

palm to palm, and held straight, the little fingers downmost between the

knees. One of them is then chosen to represent a servant, who takes a

ring, or some other small article as a substitute, between her two

palms, which are pressed flat together like those of the rest, and goes

round the circle or line, placing her hands into the hands of every

pl yer, so that she is enabled to let the ring fall wherever she

pleases without detection. After this, she returns to the first child

she touched, and with her hands behind her exclaims,--



My lady's lost her diamond ring:

I pitch upon you to find it!



The child who is thus addressed must guess who has the ring, and the

servant performs the same ceremony with each of the party. They who

guess right, escape; but the rest forfeit. Should any one in the ring

exclaim, "I have it," she also forfeits; nor must the servant make known

who has the ring, until all have guessed, under the same penalty. The

forfeits are afterwards cried as usual.