de it into
ninepence. Five minutes later the boy returned. "I have made it into
ninepence," he said, at the same time handing his benefactor threepence.
"How do you make that out?" he was asked. "I bought threepennyworth of
apples." "But that does not make it into ninepence!" "I should rather
think it did," was the boy's reply. "The apple woman has threepence,
hasn't she? Very well, I have threepennyworth of apples, and I have just
given you the other threepence. What's that but ninepence?"

I cite these cases just to show that the small boy really stands in need
of a little instruction in the art of buying apples. So I will give a
simple poser dealing with this branch of commerce.

An old woman had apples of three sizes for sale--one a penny, two a
penny, and three a penny. Of course two of the second size and three of
the third size were respectively equal to one apple of the largest size.
Now, a gentleman who had an equal number of boys and girls gave his
children sevenpence to be spent amongst them all on these apples. The
puzzle is to give each child an equal distribution of apples. How was
the sevenpence spent, and how many children were there?

37.--BUYING CHESTNUTS.

Though the following little puzzle deals with the purchase of chestnuts,
it is not itself of the "chestnut" type. It is quite new. At first sight
it has certainly the appearance of being of the "nonsense puzzle"
character, but it is all right when properly considered.

A man went to a shop to buy chestnuts. He said he wanted a pennyworth,
and was given five chestnuts. "It is not enough; I ought to have a
sixth," he remarked! "But if I give you one chestnut more." the shopman
replied, "you will have five too many." Now, strange to say, they were
both right. How many chestnuts should the buyer receive for half a
crown?

38.--THE BICYCLE THIEF.

Here is a little tangle that is perpetually cropping up in various
guises. A cyclist bought a bicycle for L15 and gave in payment a cheque
for L25. The seller went to a neighbouring shopkeeper and got him to
change the cheque for him, and the cyclist, having received his L10
change, mounted the machine and disappeared. The cheque proved to be
valueless, and the salesman was requested by his neighbour to refund the
amount he had received. To do this, he was compelled to borrow the L25
from a friend, as the cyclist forgot to leave his address, and could not
be found. Now, as the bicycle cost the sales