SOLITAIRE.

During the long winter evenings, we cannot have too many games to amuse the younger members of the household, and a variety is always acceptable.

Where the family is large and the means small, and especially in the country where boys are forced to rely upon their own devices in the way of amusement, few of the ready-made games find their way into the household.

Now boys, and girls, too, let me whisper to you so softly that your city cousins may not hear—you are no losers because of that fact. A great part of the enjoyment of a thing consists in the making of it. And many of the games which are best enjoyed by children all over the land you can, with a little ingenuity and some trouble, perhaps, make for yourself.

Among the many things which a boy can make, there are very few more interesting or fascinating than the simple game of Solitaire, or, as it is more frequently called, The Peg Puzzle.

Take a piece of smooth board, from nine inches to a foot square, cut out the corners as indicated in the illustration, and bore holes in the positions indicated by the dots.

Out of soft pine or other suitable wood whittle thirty-two pegs, which are to fit into these holes; the middle or thirty-third hole is to be left empty.

The game consists in removing all the pegs excepting one from the board, and that one is to be left in the middle hole.

This is effected, as in “checkers,” by a series of captures; that is, when taken off the board, the peg removed must first have been jumped over by another peg.

In beginning the game, peg No. 1 jumps over peg No. 2, and is placed in the central hole. No. 2 is then removed from the board. As the hole occupied by No. 2 is now empty, peg No. 3 jumps over No. 4, and is placed in the empty hole No. 2. No. 4 is removed, and the moves continue in like manner as those described.

The following is a key to the solution of the puzzle, but should not be consulted until you find it impossible to accomplish the feat without its aid.

KEY.

1	to	centre
3	to	2
5	to	4
2	to	3
7	to	4
8	to	6
9	to	7
11	to	3
7	to	4
6	to	8
13	to	2
x	to	1
15	to	2
16	to	14
2	to	13
18	to	11
20	to	19
8	to	21
22	to	20
20	to	19
11	to	18
24	to	14
26	to	25
25	to	17
28	to	14
17	to	25
29	to	x
x	to	27
30	to	24
32	to	25
27	to	centre.

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