@Mimishu1995, that’s exactly the way we played it in a suburb south of Boston in the 1950s. To start, the players gathered around the base (usually a centrally located tree) and then scattered when IT covered their face and started counting. The one who was IT counted to 100 by fives, loudly, while everybody hid, and then called out: “Here I come, ready or not! Anyone found near my base shall be IT.” That meant that the designated IT would be the next seeker.
Then IT would look for hiders and, spotting one, would run to base while the discovered hider raced for it too. Whoever got there first would call ”My Gouls one-two-three” or “Mimi’s Gouls,” depending on who won (hand on the counting spot, the base).
So the trick was to hide as near the base as possible while still being concealed, so you could run out and get your Gouls while IT was looking elsewhere. Then you were safe and not caught, not IT. But of course if IT saw you breaking cover, they would run for base too.
“All-ie all-ie entry” (“in free”) was for when the game was over, IT giving up. Then (I think) the same kid had to be IT again. You only got out of IT by beating someone to the base.
The time to play this was in summer, as twilight faded into dark, in the brief window before we all got called in for the night. It was exciting and almost mysterious, the ritual and the suspense. I wonder if the game has a darker history.