Jackstraws is a game which most of us have played in our youth.

You empty on a table a box of miniature toy rakes, shovels, picks, axes, all sorts of tools and implements.

These lie under each other and above each other in intricate confusion, not unlike cross timber in a western forest, only instead of being logs, they are about two inches long and very light.

The players sit round the table and with little hooks try in turn to lift one jackstraw out of the heap, without moving any of the others.

You go on until you do move one of the others, and this loses you your turn.