ssarily go together.

1.--_The Reve's Puzzle._

[Illustration]

The Reve was a wily man and something of a scholar. As Chaucer tells us,
"There was no auditor could of him win," and "there could no man bring
him in arrear." The poet also noticed that "ever he rode the hindermost
of the route." This he did that he might the better, without
interruption, work out the fanciful problems and ideas that passed
through his active brain. When the pilgrims were stopping at a wayside
tavern, a number of cheeses of varying sizes caught his alert eye; and
calling for four stools, he told the company that he would show them a
puzzle of his own that would keep them amused during their rest. He then
placed eight cheeses of graduating sizes on one of the end stools, the
smallest cheese being at the top, as clearly shown in the illustration.
"This is a riddle," quoth he, "that I did once set before my fellow
townsmen at Baldeswell, that is in Norfolk, and, by Saint Joce, there
was no man among them that could rede it aright. And yet it is withal
full easy, for all that I do desire is that, by the moving of one cheese
at a time from one stool unto another, ye shall remove all the cheeses to
the stool at the other end without ever putting any cheese on one that is
smaller than itself. To him that will perform this feat in the least
number of moves that be possible will I give a draught of the best that
our good host can provide." To solve this puzzle in the fewest possible
moves, first with 8, then with 10, and afterwards with 21 cheeses, is an
interesting recreation.

2.--_The Pardoner's Puzzle._

[Illustration]

The gentle Pardoner, "that straight was come from the court of Rome,"
begged to be excused; but the company would not spare him. "Friends and
fellow-pilgrims," said he, "of a truth the riddle that I have made is but
a poor thing, but it is the best that I have been able to devise. Blame
my lack of knowledge of such matters if it be not to your liking." But
his invention was very well received. He produced the accompanying plan,
and said that it represented sixty-four towns through which he had to
pass during some of his pilgrimages, and the lines connecting them were
roads. He explained that the puzzle was to start from the large black
town and visit all the other towns once, and once only, in fifteen
straight pilgrimages. Try to trace the route in fifteen straight lines
with your pencil. You may end where y