VII

PUSS IN THE CORNER (VARIETY I)  (WITH ONE WHIST PACK)

PICK out the four aces, and place them in two rows of two in the centre of the board. These are to be built upon upward according to colour, but not necessarily according to suit; that is, you may place a heart on a heart or on a diamond, and a club on a club or on a spade.

Turn the rest of the pack face downward and deal from the top. If the card you deal will build on one of the aces, put it on; if not, it must be placed at one of the corners of the solid square of aces. Go on dealing in this way until the pack is exhausted; you are then allowed to take up the four corner packets (in any order you please, but without disturbing the arrangement of each packet), and to deal the cards through once more. If the four aces are not built up to kings at the end of this second deal the game has failed.

A special privilege pertains to the sevens. Whenever a 7 is dealt you may select any pair of the four corner packets, and put either of them on the top of the other. You may also perform a similar operation with the remaining pair. For example, if we call the four packets A, B, C, D, you may put A on C, and D on B or you may put A on D, and B on C, and so on The removal is not compulsory; you may leave any pair untouched if you think it more advantageous.

EXAMPLE.

The following is the first part of a deal actually played. The letters in brackets indicate the corner into which the card is put when it cannot be built on to one of the foundation packets in the centre.

Six of diamonds (D), 9 of spades (B), queen of spades (A), 5 of clubs (D), queen of clubs (A), knave of diamonds (A), knave of spades (A), knave of hearts (A), 9 of diamonds (B), 4 of spades (D), 10 of diamonds (A), 3 of diamonds (D), 2 of diamonds (goes on the ace; build the 3 on the 2), 2 of spades (goes on the ace), 7 of

PUSS IN THE CORNER (in progress)

clubs (put packet B on packet A; place the 7 on top of both), 3 of clubs (D), 9 of clubs (B), 8 of hearts (B), 8 of diamonds (B), queen of diamonds (C), 10 of spades (C), 2 of clubs (goes on ace; build 3 of clubs, 4 of spades, 5 of clubs), 4 of hearts (goes on 3 of diamonds), king of hearts (C), knave of clubs (C), 5 of diamonds (goes on 4 of hearts; build 6 of diamonds), 6 of clubs (goes on 5 of clubs; build 7 of clubs), 7 of hearts goes on 6 of diamonds; build the 8 and 9 of diamonds; put packet B on packet A, 5 of hearts (B), 8 of clubs (goes on 7 of

clubs), king of diamonds (D), the position is now as seen on diagram, p. 23.