for the youngsters, Josie Binner, her hair
so curly you couldn't tell which end was growing in her head, always
wanted to outdo everyone else. Some said Josie was briggaty because she
had been off to settlements like Lufty and Monaville.

No sooner had they gathered around the fireplace and Aunt Lindie had
pointed out the first one to tell a riddle, than Josie popped right up
to give the answer. It didn't take Aunt Lindie a second to put her in
her place. "Josie, the way we always told riddles in my day was not for
one to blab out the answer, but to let the one who gives it out to a
certain one, wait until that one answers, or tries to. Your turn will
come. Be patient."

Josie Binner slumped back in her chair.

"Now tell your riddle over again, Nellie." Aunt Lindie pointed to the
Morley girl who piped in a thin voice:

As I went over heaple steeple
There I met a heap o' people;
Some was nick and some was nack,
Some was speckled on the back.

"Pooh!" scoffed Tobe Blanton to whom Nellie had turned, "that's easy as
falling off a log. A man went over a bridge and saw a hornet's nest.
Some were speckled and they flew out and stung him."

"Being as Tobe guessed right," Aunt Lindie was careful that the game was
carried on properly, "he's a right to give out the next riddle."

Tobe was ready.

A man without eyes saw plums on a tree.
He neither took plums nor left plums.
Pray tell me how that could be?

The cross-eyed lad to whom Tobe had turned shook his head. "Well, then,
Josie Binner, I can see you're itchin' to speak out. What's the answer?"

Josie minded her words carefully. "A one-eyed man saw plums. He ate one
and left one."

It was the right answer so Josie had her turn at giving out the next
riddle:

Betty behind and Betty before.
Betty all around and Betty no more.

No one could guess the answer. Some declared it didn't make a bit of
sense and Josie, pleased as could be, challenged, "Give up?"

"Give up!" they all chorused.

"Well," Josie felt ever so important, "a man who was about to be hanged
had a dog named Betty. It scampered all around him as he walked to the
gallows and then dashed off and no one saw where it went. The hangman
told him if he could make up a riddle that no one could riddle they
would set him free. That was the riddle!"