In one of our great public schools a master known to successive
generations of his pupils for fifty years as “old Buggus” delighted
in surprising his boys with strange sayings and doings. On one
occasion, desirous of illustrating a question in the arithmetic
lesson, he said to a boy, “I am a tripe merchant, and this platform
is my shop. You will come here and buy a pound of tripe. Now, begin.”
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“Please, I want a pound of tripe,” said a boy, sauntering up.
“Where’s your money?” demanded old Buggus, hoping to put the boy out
of countenance.
“Where’s your tripe?” was the ready retort; but it gained for its
unfortunate author four hours’ detention on the next holiday.
55. A syphon would empty a cistern in 48 minutes, a tap would fill it
in 36. How long will it take to fill the cistern when both taps are
in action?
Born to rule--a book-keeper.
“MORE HASTE LESS SPEED.”
56. A compositor, hurrying whilst setting up type for an arithmetic
book--“How to Become Quick at Figures”--accidentally dropped the work
of a problem; unfortunately he mislaid the copy, and all that he
remembered was that both multiplicand and multiplier consisted of two
figures. The scattered type represented the following figures:--1, 2,
3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9. With the aid of a pencil and a piece of
paper the compositor managed after a while to rearrange the figures
in their proper place. What was the problem?
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