He first takes over the goat, and then returns for the wolf; he then takes back the goat, which he leaves, and takes over the cabbage, he then returns and takes over the goat All as simple as A, B, C, when _you know how to do it_; that knowing how to do it is the great difficulty in ninety-nine out of every hundred things in this world.
Puzzles which involve long and laborious calculation are not in our line; they are too suggestive of the school and the country room. Something like the following is good for skirmishing:
Put down four nines, so that they will make one hundred.
After a short struggle you surrender at discretion, and in an instant get the
There is no delay, no tedious figuring up; you get your answer and are ready for something fresh. Some such abstruse calculation as the following, for instance:
If a herring and a half cost three cents, how many will you get for a dollar?
To ladies, who as a general rule have not the organ of calculation very largely developed, this will usually prove a poser. As the problem is to be solved by patience and study, we will leave them to do it, _or give it up_, and proceed to the next
A gentleman sent his servant with a present of nine ducks in a box, upon which was the following direction:--
The servant, who had more ingenuity than honesty, purloined three of the ducks, and contrived it so that the number contained in the box corresponded with that upon the direction. As he neither erased any word or letter, nor substituted a new direction, how did he so alter it as to correspond with the contents of the box?
The dishonest but ingenious servant simply placed the letter S before the two Roman numerals, IX. The direction then read thus:
It will be seen that this problem is very easy of solution to every one, save Artemus Ward, who would spell it _Sicks dux in a bocks_.
Here is one, however, which would suit the taste, if not the ability, of the great showman to a nicety:
To distribute among three persons twenty-one casks of wine, seven of them full, seven of them empty, and seven of them half full; so that each of them shall have the same quantity of wine, and the same number of casks.
This problem admits of two solutions, which may be clearly comprehended by means of the two following tables: