with him, had been driven back
upon the ingenious resort of tying a number of bricks to one end of the
plank to balance his weight at the other.

As a matter of fact, he just balanced against sixteen bricks, when these
were fixed to the short end of plank, but if he fixed them to the long
end of plank he only needed eleven as balance.

Now, what was that boy's weight, if a brick weighs equal to a
three-quarter brick and three-quarters of a pound?

123.--A LEGAL DIFFICULTY.

"A client of mine," said a lawyer, "was on the point of death when his
wife was about to present him with a child. I drew up his will, in which
he settled two-thirds of his estate upon his son (if it should happen to
be a boy) and one-third on the mother. But if the child should be a
girl, then two-thirds of the estate should go to the mother and
one-third to the daughter. As a matter of fact, after his death twins
were born--a boy and a girl. A very nice point then arose. How was the
estate to be equitably divided among the three in the closest possible
accordance with the spirit of the dead man's will?"

124.--A QUESTION OF DEFINITION.

"My property is exactly a mile square," said one landowner to another.

"Curiously enough, mine is a square mile," was the reply.

"Then there is no difference?"

Is this last statement correct?

125.--THE MINERS' HOLIDAY.

Seven coal-miners took a holiday at the seaside during a big strike. Six
of the party spent exactly half a sovereign each, but Bill Harris was
more extravagant. Bill spent three shillings more than the average of
the party. What was the actual amount of Bill's expenditure?

126.--SIMPLE MULTIPLICATION.

If we number six cards 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8, and arrange them on the
table in this order:--

1 4 2 8 5 7

We can demonstrate that in order to multiply by 3 all that is necessary
is to remove the 1 to the other end of the row, and the thing is done.
The answer is 428571. Can you find a number that, when multiplied by 3
and divided by 2, the answer will be the same as if we removed the first
card (which in this case is to be a 3) From the beginning of the row to
the end?

127.--SIMPLE DIVISION.

Sometimes a very simple question in elementary arithmetic will cause a
good deal of perplexity. For example, I want to divide the four numbers,
701, 1,059, 1,417, and 2,312, by the largest number possible that will
leave the same remainder in every case