46.--MARY AND MARMADUKE.
Marmaduke: "Do you know, dear, that in seven years' time our combined ages will be sixty-three years?"
Mary: "Is that really so? And yet it is a fact that when you were my present age you were twice as old as I was then. I worked it out last night."
Now, what are the ages of Mary and Marmaduke?
47--ROVER'S AGE.
"Now, then, Tommy, how old is Rover?" Mildred's young man asked her brother.
"Well, five years ago," was the youngster's reply, "sister was four times older than the dog, but now she is only three times as old."
Can you tell Rover's age?
48.--CONCERNING TOMMY'S AGE.
Tommy Smart was recently sent to a new school. On the first day of his arrival the teacher asked him his age, and this was his curious reply: "Well, you see, it is like this. At the time I was born--I forget the year--my only sister, Ann, happened to be just one-quarter the age Pg 8of mother, and she is now one-third the age of father." "That's all very well," said the teacher, "but what I want is not the age of your sister Ann, but your own age." "I was just coming to that," Tommy answered; "I am just a quarter of mother's present age, and in four years' time I shall be a quarter the age of father. Isn't that funny?"
This was all the information that the teacher could get out of Tommy Smart. Could you have told, from these facts, what was his precise age? It is certainly a little puzzling.
49.--NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOURS.
There were two families living next door to one another at Tooting Bec--the Jupps and the Simkins. The united ages of the four Jupps amounted to one hundred years, and the united ages of the Simkins also amounted to the same. It was found in the case of each family that the sum obtained by adding the squares of each of the children's ages to the square of the mother's age equalled the square of the father's age. In the case of the Jupps, however, Julia was one year older than her brother Joe, whereas Sophy Simkin
was two years older than her brother Sammy. What was the age of each of the eight individuals?
50.--THE BAG OF NUTS.
Three boys were given a bag of nuts as a Christmas present, and it was agreed that they should be divided in proportion to their
ages, which together amounted to 171/2 years. Now the bag contained 770 nuts, and as often as Herbert took four Robert took three, and as often as Herbert took six Christopher took seven. The puzzle is to find out how many nuts each had, and what were the boys' respective ages.
51.--HOW OLD WAS MARY?
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Here is a funny little age problem, by the late Sam Loyd, which has been very popular in the United States. Can you unravel the mystery?
The combined ages of Mary and Ann are forty-four years, and Mary is twice as old as Ann was when Mary was half as old as Ann will be when Ann is three times as old as Mary was when Mary was three times as old as Ann. How old is Mary? That is all, but can you work it out? If not, ask your friends to help you, and watch the shadow of bewilderment creep over their faces as they attempt to grip the intricacies of the question.
52.--QUEER RELATIONSHIPS.
"Speaking of relationships," said the Parson at a certain dinner-party, "our legislators are getting the marriage law into a frightful tangle, Here, for example, is a puzzling case that has come under my notice. Two brothers married two sisters. One man died and the other man's wife also died. Then the survivors married."
"The man married his deceased wife's sister under the recent Act?" put in the Lawyer.
"Exactly. And therefore, under the civil law, he is legally married and his child is legitimate. But, you see, the man is the woman's deceased husband's brother, and therefore, also under the civil law, she is not married to him and her child is illegitimate."
"He is married to her and she is not married to him!" said the Doctor.
"Quite so. And the child is the legitimate son of his father, but the illegitimate son of his mother."
"Undoubtedly 'the law is a hass,'" the Artist exclaimed, "if I may be permitted to say so," he added, with a bow to the Lawyer. "Certainly," was the reply. "We lawyers try our best to break in the beast to the service of man. Our legislators are responsible for the
breed."
"And this reminds me," went on the Parson, "of a man in my parish who married the sister of his widow. This man----"
"Stop a moment, sir," said the Professor. "Married the sister of his widow? Do you marry dead men in your parish?"
"No; but I will explain that later. Well, this man has a sister of his own. Their names are Stephen Brown and Jane Brown. Last week
a young fellow turned up whom Stephen introduced to me as his nephew. Naturally, I spoke of Jane as his aunt, but, to my astonishment, the youth corrected me, assuring me that, though he was the nephew of Stephen, he was not the nephew of Jane, the sister of Stephen. This perplexed me a good deal, but it is quite correct."
The Lawyer was the first to get at the heart of the mystery. What was his solution?
53.--HEARD ON THE TUBE RAILWAY.
First Lady: "And was he related to you, dear?"
Second Lady: "Oh, yes. You see, that gentleman's mother was my mother's mother-in-law, but he is not on speaking terms with my papa."
First Lady: "Oh, indeed!" (But you could see that she was not much wiser.)
How was the gentleman related to the Second Lady?
54.--A FAMILY PARTY.
A certain family party consisted of 1 grandfather, 1 grandmother, 2 fathers, 2 mothers, 4 children, 3 grandchildren, 1 brother, 2 sisters, 2 sons, 2 daughters, 1 father-in-law, 1 mother-in-law, and 1 daughter-in-law. Twenty-three people, you will say. No; there were only seven persons present. Can you show how this might be?
55.--A MIXED PEDIGREE.
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Joseph Bloggs: "I can't follow it, my dear boy. It makes me dizzy!"
John Snoggs: "It's very simple. Listen again! You happen to be my father's brother-in-law, my brother's father-in-law, and also my
father-in-law's brother. You see, my father was----"
Pg 9But Mr. Bloggs refused to hear any more. Can the reader show how this extraordinary triple relationship might have come about?
56.--WILSON'S POSER.
"Speaking of perplexities----" said Mr. Wilson, throwing down a magazine on the table in the commercial room of the Railway
Hotel.
"Who was speaking of perplexities?" inquired Mr. Stubbs.
"Well, then, reading about them, if you want to be exact--it just occurred to me that perhaps you three men may be interested in a
little matter connected with myself."
It was Christmas Eve, and the four commercial travellers were spending the holiday at Grassminster. Probably each suspected that the others had no homes, and perhaps each was conscious of the fact that he was in that predicament himself. In any case they seemed to be perfectly comfortable, and as they drew round the cheerful fire the conversation became general.
"What is the difficulty?" asked Mr. Packhurst.
"There's no difficulty in the matter, when you rightly understand it. It is like this. A man named Parker had a flying-machine that would carry two. He was a venturesome sort of chap--reckless, I should call him--and he had some bother in finding a man willing to risk his life in making an ascent with him. However, an uncle of mine thought he would chance it, and one fine morning he took his seat in the machine and she started off well. When they were up about a thousand feet, my nephew suddenly----"
"Here, stop, Wilson! What was your nephew