St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 4, February 1878 — John Shaqi
St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 4, February 1878Various
General
St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 4, February 1878
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals; Children's periodicals, American
bri-d-l-e, because they both sound alike, and if she had had either one
of them, she would have been married. This is a pretty long riddle, but
it's easier than mine, because it's all fixed up right, with the answer
to it and everything. You like it better than mine, don't you?"
The small girl did not answer, and when Huckleberry looked around, he
saw that she was asleep.
"Poor little thing!" said Huckleberry, softly, to himself. "I guess I
gave her a little too much riddle to begin with. Her mind isn't formed
enough yet. But it's pretty hard on me. I wanted to teach somebody
something, and here she's gone to sleep. I wish I could find that
goose-girl. If father could teach her something, I'm sure I could."
[Illustration: THE FAIR LADY OF RENOWN.]
So he went walking through the fields, and pretty soon he saw Lois,
standing among her geese, who were feeding on the grass.
Huckleberry skipped up to her as lively as a cricket.
"Can you tell me," said he, "why an elephant with a glass globe of
gold-fish tied to his tail is like the Lord High Admiral of the British
Isles?"
"Was the globe of gold-fish all the elephant owned?" asked the
goose-girl, thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Huckleberry. "But I don't see what that's got to do with
it."
"Then the answer is," said Lois, without noticing this last remark,
"because all his property is entailed."
"Well, I de-clare!" cried Huckleberry, opening his eyes as wide as they
would go, "if you didn't guess it! Why, I didn't know it had an
answer."
"I wish it hadn't had an answer," said the goose-girl, suddenly
stamping her foot. "I wish there had never been any answer to it in the
whole world. It was only yesterday that I promised Old Riddler that I
would never guess another riddle, and here I've done it! It's too bad!"
"I don't think it is," cried Huckleberry, waving his little cap around
by the tassel. "It's all very well for father not to want people to
guess his riddles, because they've got answers and he knows what they
are. But I would never have known that any of mine had an answer if you
hadn't guessed this one. If you had had a riddle like this one,
wouldn't you have been glad to have some one tell you the answer?"
"Yes, I would," said Lois.
"Well, then, my good girl, remember this: If a thing gives you
pleasure, it's very likely that it will give somebody else pleasure. So
let somebody else have a chance, and the next time you hear a riddle
that you think the owner has no answer for, guess it for him, if you
can. Good-by!"
And away went Master Huckleberry, skipping and singing and snapping his
fingers and twirling his cap, until he came to a wide crack in the
ground, when he rolled himself up like a huckleberry dumpling, and went
tumbling and bouncing down into the underground home of the gnomes.
"Get out of the way!" said he to the gnomes he passed, as he proudly
strode to his father's apartments. "I'm going to make a report. For the
first time in my life I've taught somebody something."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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