"Here is a question," said Mildred Allgood, "that I should like some of you to settle for me. I am accustomed to buy from our greengrocer bundles of asparagus, each 12 inches in circumference. I always put a tape measure round them to make sure I am getting the full quantity. The other day the man had no large bundles in stock, but handed me instead two small ones, each 6 inches in circumference. 'That is the same thing,' I said, 'and, of course, the price will be the same;' but he insisted that the two bundles together contained more than the large one, and charged me a few pence extra. Now, what I want to know is, which of us was correct? Would the two small bundles contain the same quantity as the large one? Or would they contain more?" "That is the ancient puzzle," said Reginald, laughing, "of the sack of corn that Sempronius borrowed from Caius, which your greengrocer, perhaps, had been reading about somewhere. He caught you beautifully." "Then they were equal?" "On the contrary, you were both wrong, and you were badly cheated. You only got half the quantity that would have been contained in a large bundle, and therefore ought to have been charged half the original price, instead of more." Yes, it was a bad swindle, undoubtedly. A circle with a circumference half that of another must have its area a quarter that of the other. Therefore the two small bundles contained together only half as much asparagus as a large one. "Mr. Filkins, can you answer this?" asked Willie. "There is a man in the next village who eats two eggs for breakfast every morning." "Nothing very extraordinary in that," George broke in. "If you told us that the two eggs ate the man it would be interesting." "Don't interrupt the boy, George," said his mother. "Well," Willie continued, "this man neither buys, borrows, barters, begs, steals, nor finds the eggs. He doesn't keep hens, and the eggs are not given to him. How does he get the eggs?" "Does he take them in exchange for something else?" asked Mildred. "That would be bartering them," Willie replied. "Perhaps some friend sends them to him," suggested Mrs. Allgood. "I said that they were not given to him." "I know," said George, with confidence. "A strange hen comes into his place and lays them." "But that would be finding them, wouldn't it?" "Does he hire them?" asked Reginald. "If so, he could not return them after they were eaten, so that would be stealing them." "Perhaps it is a pun on the word 'lay,'" Mr. Filkins said. "Does he lay them on the table?" "He would have to get them first, wouldn't he? The question was, How does he get them?" "Give it up!" said everybody. Then little Willie crept round to the protection of his mother, for George was apt to be rough on such occasions. "The man keeps ducks!" he cried, "and his servant collects the eggs every morning." "But you said he doesn't keep birds!" George protested. "I didn't, did I, Mr. Filkins? I said he doesn't keep hens."