The Cook Who Doesn’t Like Peas
The fun of this game depends on a fair proportion of the players not being acquainted with it. The leader begins, addressing the first player, “I have a cook who doesn’t like peas (p’s); what will you give her for her dinner?” The person addressed, if acquainted with the secret, avoids the letter p in his answer, and, for example, says, “I will give her some walnuts.” The question is then asked of the second person, who, if unacquainted with the trick, is likely enough to offer some delicacy which contains the letter p; e. g., potatoes, asparagus, pork, apple-pie, pickled cabbage, peanuts, etc., etc. When this occurs, the offender is called upon to pay a forfeit, but the precise nature of his offence is not explained to him. He is simply told, in answer to his expostulations, that “the cook doesn’t like p’s.” When a sufficient number of forfeits has been extracted, the secret is revealed, and those who have not already guessed it are aggravated by being told over and over again that the cook did not like p’s, and if they would persist in giving them to her, they must, of course, take the consequences.