"How easy you do take things, Mary! Now, that would be _so_ good, and it comes so near!"
"That's the _best way to take things_, isn't it, Bess?" said Mary, gently lifting Bessie's face by the little fat chin, and looking into her large blue eyes lovingly. "Anagrams, you see, may teach us a lesson."
"_Almost_ anagrams, you should say," said Bess. "Well, let's try something else. Shall we try 'Aunt Sue?'"
"I can get--let me see--yes, 'use-a-nut;' but that don't _mean_ anything like 'Aunt Sue.'"
"Oh, yes, that will do as well as your 'battle-axes.' You know, she keeps 'nuts' for the 20,000 to crack in her '_drawer_.'"
"Very well; and if I get time, we will try and have two or three more ready by the next number, and every one with a meaning."
When Bess gave Mary her good-night kiss, she said to herself, "I like to get out puzzles; but I'd rather have Mary's patience than all the anagrams in the world. I wonder if I should try _very hard_, if I ever could be like her!"
Fi rwods locdu fiatsys het rhtea, Eht threa gimth nidf sles earc; Utb oswrd eilk rumsem isbdr padret, Dan veale tub typem rai.
A itleti dsai--nad yrtul isda-- Nac peeder yoj tarpim, Naht shots fo dowrs chwih chear teh dahe Tbu venre chout het ahetr.
[Illustration: THE PUZZLE IS, TO GET FROM THE ENTRANCE, A, TO THE CENTRE, B, WITHOUT CROSSING ANY OF THE WHITE LINES.]
124. Transpose a Persian monarch into a part of the human frame.
125. Transpose an article of food into a verb signifying to abate.
126. To what port was Henry VIII. bound when he sought a divorce from his wife?
127. He was ---- who came to ----. Express a truth taught in Scripture by the above, filling the two blanks with the same word taken first forward, and in the second blank backward.
My whole, I lightly swim The smooth lake's sparkling brim, Or down the river skim. Transpose me, all around The wide world's endless bound, In every clime I'm found.
My first, you hear its sullen roar When wandering by the ocean's shore; My second in the gambler's art Hath played no mean or paltry part, But, fired with sordid thirst to win, It often aids him in his sin. My whole is something that is found Upon the face of all around, Yet if you take from me my face, I am a title commonplace.