Plot
During a Christmas Eve party, Jackson refuses to play hide-and-seek because he sometimes stays at a house where a girl was accidentally killed playing the game by falling down a flight of stairs. He wasn’t there when this happened, but he was visiting the same house during another Christmas party when something worse happened.
When asked about this “something worse,” he defers and tells the group about a game called “smee” or “it’s me.” It’s like hide-and-seek, except only “it” knows who “it” is. Non-its identify themselves by calling “smee” to each other as they search the house. “It” responds with silence.
In a large, dark old house, it’s essential to keep track of how many people are in your party. A person missing could mean tragedy—for example, someone falling down a flight of stairs. An extra person could mean something entirely different, but nothing happy.
Thoughts:
If this tale is creepy and sad, there are few surprises. A couple of misunderstandings arise. Our hero, Tony Jackson, finds himself in what appears to be a compromising position with Mrs. Gorman. The homeowner, Mr. Jack Sangton, pulls him aside and warns him, in so many words, that he’ll have none of that in his house.
Jackson admits he doesn’t know everyone at the house and is bad with names. He expects the names he’s missing will come up in conversation. They don’t.
That adults—adults old enough to have grown children of their own—play parlor games at Christmas parties may strike the modern reader as a bit odd, but this is 1929. Radio was in its infancy, and commercial television was a couple of decades in the future. References to the accident victim as a “girl” when she was a grown woman also made me reset my thinking; I thought of her at first as this impetuous ten-year-old.
The characters initially enjoy the game, but the fun doesn’t last. Something is off. No one can quite put their finger on it, and most are too polite to say anything.
I liked this odd little story.
Bio: A. M. Burrage (Alfred McLelland Burrage) (1889-1956) was a UK novelist and short story writer active from 1905 into the 1940s. Several of his relatives, most notably his uncle Edwin Harcourt Burrage, were also writers. Because he wrote under several pseudonyms and in various genres, it’s difficult for cataloguers to determine the total number of stories he published. In 1930, Burrage published a scathing memoir of his wartime experiences, War is War, under the pseudonym “Ex-Private X.” He is best known now for his ghost stories, but he also wrote for boys’ magazines, stories of black magic, and a satire set in Arthurian England.
This story can be read here: (slightly different version from what I read)
This story can be listened to here: (23:28)
Title: “Smee”
Author: A. M. Burrage (1889-1956)
First published: Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, December 1929
Length: short story
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 
That is a really creepy and mysterious premise. I get shivers just thinking about it. It is great that it also was a good story. You wrote a very helpful review as usual.
Thanks for your kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed it? Yes, it was quite the creepy little story.
I read this story many decades ago, and loved it so much, introduced the game to my extended family. It’s now a feature of every holiday get-together. Just yesterday (late American Thanksgiving), we played four rounds of Smee, with the ages of the participants ranging from 7 to 61, so I guess I don’t find it *too* strange that adults from 100 years ago would have played it also. It’s rather hilarious to have eight people crammed into contortionist positions in a closet trying to keep absolutely quiet, while the final person searches for the Smee. Played in the dark, though, it can also seem a bit uncanny as well – the fact that players can only say “Smee,” and you end up in close confinement packed in with other people you can hear breathing, but can’t see or talk to does make it feel a bit uncanny. There have been a few moments where you really aren’t sure who you are next too… amazing game, though!
How fun! Yes, I can see how uncanny that would be, even if no ghost shows up. And how cool you and your relatives play this game.