ou like, but note that the omission
of a little road at the bottom is intentional, as it seems that it was
impossible to go that way.

3.--_The Miller's Puzzle._

[Illustration]

The Miller next took the company aside and showed them nine sacks of
flour that were standing as depicted in the sketch. "Now, hearken, all
and some," said he, "while that I do set ye the riddle of the nine sacks
of flour. And mark ye, my lords and masters, that there be single sacks
on the outside, pairs next unto them, and three together in the middle
thereof. By Saint Benedict, it doth so happen that if we do but multiply
the pair, 28, by the single one, 7, the answer is 196, which is of a
truth the number shown by the sacks in the middle. Yet it be not true
that the other pair, 34, when so multiplied by its neighbour, 5, will
also make 196. Wherefore I do beg you, gentle sirs, so to place anew the
nine sacks with as little trouble as possible that each pair when thus
multiplied by its single neighbour shall make the number in the middle."
As the Miller has stipulated in effect that as few bags as possible shall
be moved, there is only one answer to this puzzle, which everybody should
be able to solve.

4.--_The Knight's Puzzle._

This worthy man was, as Chaucer tells us, "a very perfect, gentle
knight," and "In many a noble army had he been: At mortal battles had he
been fifteen." His shield, as he is seen showing it to the company at the
"Tabard" in the illustration, was, in the peculiar language of the
heralds, "argent, semee of roses, gules," which means that on a white
ground red roses were scattered or strewn, as seed is sown by the hand.
When this knight was called on to propound a puzzle, he said to the
company, "This riddle a wight did ask of me when that I fought with the
lord of Palatine against the heathen in Turkey. In thy hand take a piece
of chalk and learn how many perfect squares thou canst make with one of
the eighty-seven roses at each corner thereof." The reader may find it an
interesting problem to count the number of squares that may be formed on
the shield by uniting four roses.

[Illustration]

5--_The Wife of Bath's Riddles._

The frolicsome Wife of Bath, when called upon to favour the company,
protested that she had no aptitude for such things, but that her fourth
husband had had a liking for them, and she remembered one of his riddles
that might be new to her fellow pilgrims: "Why is a b