Each of the three pieces was clearly three cables long. But Simon persisted in assuming that the cuts were made transversely, or across, and that therefore the complete length was nine cables. The skipper, however, explained (and the point is quite as veracious as the rest of his yarn) that his cuts were made longitudinally--straight from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail! The complete length was therefore only three cables, the same as each piece. Simon was not asked the exact length of the serpent, but how long it _must_ have been. It must have been at least three cables long, though it might have been (the skipper's statement apart) anything from that up to nine cables, according to the direction of the cuts. 105.--_The Dorcas Society._ If there were twelve ladies in all, there would be 132 kisses among the ladies alone, leaving twelve more to be exchanged with the curate--six to be given by him and six to be received. Therefore, of the twelve ladies, six would be his sisters. Consequently, if twelve could do the work in four and a half months, six ladies would do it in twice the time--four and a half months longer--which is the correct answer. At first sight there might appear to be some ambiguity about the words, "Everybody kissed everybody else, except, of course, the bashful young man himself." Might this not be held to imply that all the ladies immodestly kissed the curate, although they were not (except the sisters) kissed by him in return? No; because, in that case, it would be found that there must have been twelve girls, not one of whom was a sister, which is contrary to the conditions. If, again, it should be held that the sisters might not, according to the wording, have kissed their brother, although he kissed them, I reply that in that case there must have been twelve girls, all of whom must have been his sisters. And the reference to the ladies who might have worked exclusively of the sisters shuts out the possibility of this. 106.--_The Adventurous Snail._