y an elephant with a
glass globe of gold-fish tied to his tail is like a monkey with one
pink eye and one of a mazarine blue?"

"No," said the small girl, "I don't know. Go away!"

"Oh," said Huckleberry, "perhaps that's too hard for you. I know some
nice little ones, in words of one syllable. Why is a red man with a
green hat like a good boy who has a large duck in a small pond?"

"Go away!" said the small girl. "I came here to pick flowers. I don't
know riddles."

"Perhaps that one was too easy," said Huckleberry, kindly. "I have all
sorts. Here is one with longer words, divided into syllables. I'll say
it slowly for you: What is the dif-fer-ence between a mag-nan-i-mous
ship-mate and the top-most leaf-let on your grand-mo-ther's bar-ber-ry
bush?"

"I haven't got any grandmother," said she.

"Oh, well! Any grandmother will do," said Huckleberry.

"I can't guess it," said the small girl, who was now beginning to lose
her fear of the funny little fellow. "I never guessed any riddles. I'm
not old enough."

"Very well, then," said Huckleberry, "I'll tell you what I'll do. Let's
sit down here under the tree, and I'll tell you one of father's
riddles, and give you the answer. His riddles are better than mine,
because none of mine have any answers. I don't put answers to them, for
I can never think of any good ones. I met a boy once, and told him a
lot of my riddles; and he learned them, and went about asking people to
guess them, and when the people gave them up, he couldn't tell them the
answers, because there were none, and that made everybody mad. He told
one of the riddles to his grandmother,--I think it was the one about
the pink-eyed monkey and the wagon-load of beans--"

[Illustration: THE BOY AND HIS GRANDMOTHER.]

"No," said the small girl; "the elephant and the gold-fish was the
other part of the pink-eyed monkey one."

"Oh, it don't make any difference," said Huckleberry, "I don't join my
riddles together the same way every time. Sometimes I use the gold-fish
and elephant with the last part of one riddle, and sometimes with
another. As there's no answer, it don't matter. I begin a good many of
my best riddles with the elephant, for it makes a fine opening. But, as
I was going to tell you, this boy told one of my riddles to his
grandmother, and she liked it very much; but when she found out that
there was no answer to it, she gave him a good box on the ear, and that
boy has never liked me since. But