THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
that they have cut out of the very hearts of great books that be
upon their shelves. Shall the nun therefore be greatly blamed if
she do likewise ? I will show a little riddle game, that we do
sometimes play among ourselves when the good abbess doth hap to
be away."
The Nun then produced the eighteen cards that are shown in the
illustration. She explained that the puzzle was so to arrange the
cards in a pack, that by placing the uppermost one on the table,
placing the next one at the bottom of the pack, the next one on the
G US,
al F
3
(R
[5
K
V
£
table, the next at the bottom of the pack, and so on, until all are
on the table, the eighteen cards shall then read " CANTERBURY
PILGRIMS." Of course each card must be placed on the table
to the immediate right of the one that preceded it. It is easy
enough if you work backwards, but the reader should try to arrive
at the required order without doing this, or using any actual
cards.
12.—
The Merchant's Puzzle.
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 alway 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
10
