Of the Merchant the poet writes, "Forsooth he was a worthy man withal."
He was thoughtful, full of schemes, and a good manipulator of figures.
"His reasons spake he eke full solemnly. Sounding away the increase of
his winning." One morning, when they were on the road, the Knight and the
Squire, who were riding beside him, reminded the Merchant that he had not
yet propounded the puzzle that he owed the company. He thereupon said,
"Be it so? Here then is a riddle in numbers that I will set before this
merry company when next we do make a halt. There be thirty of us in all
riding over the common this morn. Truly we may ride one and one, in what
they do call the single file, or two and two, or three and three, or five
and five, or six and six, or ten and ten, or fifteen and fifteen, or all
thirty in a row. In no other way may we ride so that there be no lack of
equal numbers in the rows. Now, a party of pilgrims were able thus to
ride in as many as sixty-four different ways. Prithee tell me how many
there must perforce have been in the company." The Merchant clearly
required the smallest number of persons that could so ride in the
sixty-four ways.
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