buttony

Whenever we inquired of the village girls what their occupation was, almost invariably the quaint answer ‘We do buttony’ was given.

She collected all her treasures, the bottle with the brass top that she had got from Shovel’s old girl, […] the pretty buttons Tommy had won for her at the game of buttony, the witchy marble, […] these and some other precious trifles she made a little bundle of and set off for Double Dykes with them, intending to leave them at the door.