you will believe me, I take home just as many shillings as I had pounds, and half as many pounds as I had shillings. It is monstrous!'" Can you say exactly how much money Jorkins had spent on those presents?11.--THE CYCLISTS' FEAST.
'Twas last Bank Holiday, so I've been told, Some cyclists rode abroad in glorious weather. Resting at noon within a tavern old,
They all agreed to have a feast together. "Put it all in one bill, mine host," they said, "For every man an equal share will pay." The bill was promptly on the table laid,
And four pounds was the reckoning that day. But, sad to state, when they prepared to square,
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'Twas found that two had sneaked outside and fled.
So, for two shillings more than his due share Each honest man who had remained was bled. They settled later with those rogues, no doubt. How many were they when they first set out?
12.--A QUEER THING IN MONEY.
It will be found that PS66, 6s. 6d. equals 15,918 pence. Now, the four 6's added together make 24, and the figures in 15,918 also add to 24. It is a curious fact that there is only one other sum of money, in pounds, shillings, and pence (all similarly repetitions of one figure), of which the digits shall add up the same as the digits of the amount in pence. What is the other sum of money?
13.--A NEW MONEY PUZZLE.
The largest sum of money that can be written in pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings, using each of the nine digits once and only once, is Pg 3PS98,765, 4s. 31/2d. Now, try to discover the smallest sum of money that can be written down under precisely the same conditions. There must be some value given for each denomination--pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings--and the nought may not be used. It requires just a little judgment and thought.
14.--SQUARE MONEY.
"This is queer," said McCrank to his friend. "Twopence added to twopence is fourpence, and twopence multiplied by twopence is also fourpence." Of course, he was wrong in thinking you can multiply money by money. The multiplier must be regarded as an ab-stract number. It is true that two feet multiplied by two feet will make four square feet. Similarly, two pence multiplied by two pence will produce four square pence! And it will perplex the reader to say what a "square penny" is. But we will assume for the purposes of our puzzle that twopence multiplied by twopence is fourpence. Now, what two amounts of money will produce the next smallest possible result, the same in both cases, when added or multiplied in this manner? The two amounts need not be alike, but they must be those that can be paid in current coins of the realm.
15.--POCKET MONEY.
What is the largest sum of money--all in current silver coins and no four-shilling piece--that I could have in my pocket without be-ing able to give change for a half-sovereign?
16.--THE MILLIONAIRE'S PERPLEXITY.
Mr. Morgan G. Bloomgarten, the millionaire, known in the States as the Clam King, had, for his sins, more money than he knew what to do with. It bored him. So he determined to persecute some of his poor but happy friends with it. They had never done him any harm, but he resolved to inoculate them with the "source of all evil." He therefore proposed to distribute a million dollars among them and watch them go rapidly to the bad. But he was a man of strange fancies and superstitions, and it was an inviolable
rule with him never to make a gift that was not either one dollar or some power of seven--such as 7, 49, 343, 2,401, which numbers of dollars are produced by simply multiplying sevens together. Another rule of his was that he would never give more than six persons exactly the same sum. Now, how was he to distribute the 1,000,000 dollars? You may distribute the money among as many people as you like, under the conditions given.
17.--THE PUZZLING MONEY-BOXES.
Four brothers--named John, William, Charles, and Thomas--had each a money-box. The boxes were all given to them on the same day, and they at once put what money they had into them; only, as the boxes were not very large, they first changed the money into as few coins as possible. After they had done this, they told one another how much money they had saved, and it was found that if John had had 2s. more in his box than at present, if William had had 2s. less, if Charles had had twice as much, and if Thomas had had half as much, they would all have had exactly the same amount.
Now, when I add that all four boxes together contained 45s., and that there were only six coins in all in them, it becomes an entertaining puzzle to discover just what coins were in each box.
18.--THE MARKET WOMEN.
A number of market women sold their various products at a certain price per pound (different in every case), and each received the
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same amount--2s. 21/2d. What is the greatest number of women there could have been? The price per pound in every case must be
such as could be paid in current money.
19.--THE NEW YEAR'S EVE SUPPERS.
The proprietor of a small London cafe has given me some interesting figures. He says that the ladies who come alone to his place for refreshment spend each on an average eighteenpence, that the unaccompanied men spend half a crown each, and that when a gentleman brings in a lady he spends half a guinea. On New Year's Eve he supplied suppers to twenty-five persons, and took five pounds
in all. Now, assuming his averages to have held good in every case, how was his company made up on that occasion? Of course, only single gentlemen, single ladies, and pairs (a lady and gentleman) can be supposed to have been present, as we are not considering larger parties.
20.--BEEF AND SAUSAGES.
"A neighbour of mine," said Aunt Jane, "bought a certain quantity of beef at two shillings a pound, and the same quantity of sausages at eighteenpence a pound. I pointed out to her that if she had divided the same money equally between beef and sausages she would have gained two pounds in the total weight. Can you tell me exactly how much she spent?"
"Of course, it is no business of mine," said Mrs. Sunniborne; "but a lady who could pay such prices must be somewhat inexperienced in domestic economy."
"I quite agree, my dear," Aunt Jane replied, "but you see that is not the precise point under discussion, any more than the name and morals of the tradesman."
21.--A DEAL IN APPLES.
I paid a man a shilling for some apples, but they were so small that I made him throw in two extra apples. I find that made them cost just a penny a dozen less than the first price he asked. How many apples did I get for my shilling?
22.--A DEAL IN EGGS.
A man went recently into a dairyman's shop to buy eggs. He wanted them of various qualities. Pg 4The salesman had new-laid eggs
at the high price of fivepence each, fresh eggs at one penny each, eggs at a halfpenny each, and eggs for electioneering purposes at a greatly reduced figure, but as there was no election on at the time the buyer had no use for the last. However, he bought some of each of the three other kinds and obtained exactly one hundred eggs for eight and fourpence. Now, as he brought away exactly the same number of eggs of two of the three qualities, it is an interesting puzzle to determine just how many he bought at each price.
23.--THE CHRISTMAS-BOXES.
Some years ago a man told me he had spent one hundred English
