THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
One evening ten of the company stopped at a village inn and
requested to be put up for the night, but mine host could only
accommodate five of them. The Sompnour suggested that they
should draw lots, and as he had had experience in such matters in
the summoning of juries and in other ways, he arranged the company
in a circle and proposed a " count out." Being of a chivalrous
nature, his little plot was so to arrange that the men should all fall
out and leave the ladies in possession. He therefore gave the Wife
of Bath a number and directed her to count round and round the
circle, in a clockwise direction, and the person on whom that number
fell was to immediately step out of the ring. The count then began
afresh at the next person. But the lady misunderstood her
instructions and selected in mistake the number eleven and started
the count at herself. As will be found, this resulted in all the
women falling out in turn instead of the men, for every eleventh
person withdrawn from the circle is a lady.
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