“I came once myself,” he says, “to a place, riding on a journey homeward from London, and I sent word overnight into the town that I would preach there in the morning because it was holy day, and methought it was an holy day’s work.” (It was the Feast of the Apostles Philip and James.) “The church stood in my way, and I took my horse and my company and went thither. I thought I should have found a great company in the church, and when I came there the church door was fast locked. “I tarried there half an hour and more. At last the key was found, and one of the parish comes to me and says, ‘Sir, this is a busy day with us. We cannot hear you. It is Robin Hood’s Day. The parish are gone abroad to gather for Robin Hood. I pray you forbid them not.’ “I was fain there to give place to Robin Hood. I thought my rochet”—or bishop’s surplice—“should have been regarded, though I were not; but it would not serve; it was fain to give place to Robin Hood.” How did stay-at-home people amuse themselves then in the long winter evenings? No doubt they either made time seem short by going to sleep, or they sat by the fireside singing songs or telling oft-told stories, or exercising their wits by asking each other riddles or conundrums. Some of their fireside riddles are preserved in a little book called “Demands Joyous”—in modern English Merry Questions—which was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1511. The following are a few of the conundrums contained in this work, and at some of them the reader, who is well acquainted with the conundrums of the present day, will be tempted to exclaim with Solomon, that there is nothing new under the sun. “What is it that never freezeth?—Boiling water. “What is it that never was and never will be?—A mouse’s nest in a cat’s ear. “How many straws go to a goose’s nest?—Not one, for straws, not having feet, cannot go anywhere. “How many calves’ tails would it take to reach from the earth to the sky?—No more than one, if it be long enough. “What man getteth his living backwards?—A ropemaker. “Why doth a dog turn round three times before he lieth down?—Because he knoweth not his bed’s head from the foot thereof. “Why do men make an oven in a town? Because they cannot make a town in an oven. “How may a man discern a cow in a flock of sheep?—By his eyesight. “What is the worst bestowed charity that one can give?—Alms to a blind man; for he would be glad to see the person hanged that gave it to him.”