over 50 points means you can hear like an owl. In
this you go by your best ear.

2. _Pindrop-test._ Sometimes it is difficult to get a good watch-test.
Then the trial may be made with an ordinary, silvered brass stick-pin,
1-1/8 inches long, with small head. Lay the pin on a block of wood that
is exactly half an inch thick. Set this on a smooth polished board, or
table top of hardwood, not more than an inch thick, and with open space
under it. Set it away from the edge of the table so as to be clear of
the frame and legs. After the warning "ready," let the Guide tip the
block of wood, so the pin drops from the block to the table top (half an
inch). If you hear it at 35 feet in a perfectly still room, your hearing
is normal, and your hearing number is 35. If 20 feet is your farthest
limit of hearing it, your number is 20, which is low. If you can hear it
at 70 feet, your number is 70, which is remarkable.

You can use either the watch-test or the pin-test. If you use both, you
add the totals together, and divide by 2, to get your _hearing_ number.

TALE 88

Feeling

1. Have you got wise fingers like a blind man?

Put 10 nickels, 10 coppers and 10 dimes in a hat or in one hand if you
like. Then, while blindfolded, separate them into three separate piles,
all of each kind in a separate pile, within 2 minutes. If it takes you
the full 2 minutes (120 seconds), you are slow, and your feel number is
0. If you do it without a mistake in 1 minute and 20 seconds, your feel
number is 40, one point for each second you are less than 2 minutes. But
you must take off 3 points for every one wrongly placed, so 3 wrongly
placed would reduce your 40 to 31. I have known some little boys on the
East Side of New York to do it in 50 seconds without a mistake, so their
feel-number by coins was 70. That is, 120 seconds minus 50 seconds
equals 70. This is the best so far.

2. Now get a quart of corn or beans. Then when blindfolded, and using
but one hand, lay out the corn or beans in "threes"; that is, three at a
time laid on the table for 2 minutes. The Guide may move the piles aside
as they are made. Then stop and count all that are exactly three in a
pile (those with more or less do not count at all). If there are 40
piles with 3 in each, 40 is your number, by corn.

3. The last test is: Can you lace your shoes in the dark, or
blind-folded, finishing with a neat double bow knot?

Arrange it so your two shoes together have a total