Hunt the thimble (also known as hide the thimble or hide the handkerchief in both the US and the UK) is a party game in which one person hides a thimble, or other small object, somewhere in the room, while all other players wait outside. (In some versions of the game, it must be hidden in plain sight.) When everyone comes back in, they race to locate the hidden object. The first to find it is the winner, and hides it for the next game. Huckle buckle beanstalk (or Huckleberry bean stalk) is a similar childhood game which can be played with two or more players, one being the hider, or the person who is "it," and the other person or persons being seekers. The game has also been known as hot buttered beans in the US since at least 1830, and other names for it include hide the object and hide the key. William Wells Newell described a version called thimble in sight in his 1883 Games and Songs of American Children. The game is known in various European countries. In some versions of the game, the hider tell the searchers what "temperature" they are based on proximity to the hidden object—the closer they get, the hotter they are; thus, the farther they are from the object, the colder they are. Other variations involve only one person leaving the room and everybody else hiding the object. In Singing Hunt the Thimble, the hiders sing louder when the searcher is close to the object and softer when they are farther away. Similar games exist in Germany (Topfschlagen, in which a blindfolded player must find a pot guided by calls of hot or cold ); in Poland (Ciepło-zimno) and in Russia (Kholodno-goryacho, both meaning Hot & Cold). In the Polish and Russian version a player is guided to find a hidden object by calls of cold, colder, warm, hot, boiling; blindfold is not used. The game exists also in Spanish speaking countries, where it is called La candelita (The Little Fire) or something similar. Gameplay The seekers must cover their eyes and ears or leave the designated game area while the hider hides a small, pre-selected object. When the hider says to come and find it, or after the seekers have counted to a specific number, usually sixty or one-hundred, the seekers come out and attempt to be the first to