“But you can’t,” Peggy insisted. “You’ve got to play the game.”
Alice looked up beseechingly at Uncle Joe. She smiled and showed her dimples. “Dear Uncle Joe,” she said sweetly, “can’t you fix the game some way so I can live in New Hampshire and paint it pink?”
Uncle Joe looked thoughtful. A bright idea occurred to him. “Alice, what word do the three last letters of your last name spell if you begin at the end and spell backwards?”
“New,” said Peggy, before Alice could speak.
“She can live in New Hampshire on that account,” said Uncle Joe.
“That isn’t fair,” said Peggy. “I ought to be able to live in New Hampshire.”
“You can if you like—or in New York, or New Jersey, or New Mexico.”
Peggy was dazzled by these opportunities for travel.
“It isn’t a bit fair,” said Christopher. “Poor Diana oughtn’t to have to live in Delaware when Peggy and Alice have such a lot of States to choose from.”
“It doesn’t seem quite fair,” Uncle Joe admitted. “I’ll have to let Diana live in a State beginning with a C if she prefers.”