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And then, poor little things, if they ventured to get out their knuckle-bones for a game, or took to a little boxing amusement among themselves, or to throwing the salt in each other's mugs, or pelting each other with bits of bread, or anything nice and entertaining, down came those merciless keepers on their innocent mirth, and the old stupid order went round for sitting upright and quiet.
From the shadows in the hut behind darted out a tall figure carrying a great spear in one hand and in the other a catskin bag which with a salute he laid down at the feet of his master. This salute, by the way, was that of a Zulu word which means "Lord" or "Home" of Ghosts. Zikali groped in the bag and produced from it certain knuckle-bones.
The skipper glared straight before him, then sank into his chair. "I'll pen no letter," he said, "I swears it by the knuckle-bones o' the holy saints!" Mother Nolan turned to Mary, wagging her head. "There bes ink an' a pen on the shelf there, an' a scrap o' clean paper in Denny's great book yonder," she said. "Take 'em to her an' let her pen the word wid her own hand." She turned to Denny.
No. 6 frowned, and No. 7 broke out at once into a howl; he had washed his hands ever so short a time ago, and had done nothing since but play at knuckle-bones on the floor! Surely people needn't wash their hands every ten minutes! It was very hard!
I look gaily at his protruding ears, and to show that I have nothing against him, I say: "You look nice to-day, and if your hair did not stand up so, and you weren't so poorly dressed, everybody would think that your mother was not a washerwoman but a lady. Come to me at Easter, we will play knuckle-bones." Mitka looks at me mistrustfully, and shakes his fist at me on the sly.
Without stopping his song, the lad halted in his march from time to time, and played at knuckle-bones with some coins which he had in his hand his whole fortune, probably. Among this money there was one forty-sou piece.
He became one of the leading players at knuckle-bones, which all jhampanis and many saises play while they are waiting outside the Government House or the Gaiety Theatre of nights; he learned to smoke tobacco that was three-fourths cowdung; and he heard the wisdom of the grizzled Jemadar of the Government House saises, whose words are valuable.
For two days he stayed in the parsonage kitchen, smoking his pipe, revelling in the odds and ends, such as knuckle-bones, stray bits of fat and tripe, which fell to his lot, and proudly exhibiting himself in one of the minister's cast-off black coats, which contrasted rather oddly with a pair of ornamented blue leggings and a scarlet sash.
All night long Vassilissa Igorofna lay awake trying to think what her husband could have in his head that she was not permitted to know. The morrow, on her return from mass, she saw Iwán Ignatiitch busy clearing the cannon of the rags, small stones, bits of wood, knuckle-bones, and all kinds of rubbish that the little boys had crammed it with.
The silliest little boy would not try to catch a fish without a weight. Of course anyone who did not understand might go to fish without a weight. There is no rule for a fool." "So you say you unscrewed this nut to make a weight for your fishing line out of it?" "What else for? It wasn't to play knuckle-bones with!" "But you might have taken lead, a bullet... a nail of some sort...."
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