269. If a man can load a cart in five minutes, and a friend can load it in two and a half minutes, how long will it take them both to load it, both working together? 270. A gentleman on being asked how old he was, said that if he did not count Mondays and Thursdays he would be 35. What was his actual age? TOO SMART FOR DAD. “Pa,” said a boy from school, “How many peas are in a pint?” “How can anybody tell that, foolish boy?” “I can every time. There is just one ‘p’ in pint the world over.” He was sent off to bed early. SIMPLE PROPORTION. 271. If it takes three minutes to boil one egg, how long will it take to boil two? “PUNCH’S” MONEY VAGARIES. The early Italians used cattle as a currency instead of coin (thus a bull equals 5s.) and a person would send for change for a thousand pound bullock, when he would receive 200 five pound sheep. If he wanted _very_ small change there would be a few lambs amongst them. The inconvenience of keeping a flock of sheep at one‘s bankers’, or paying in a short-horned heifer to one’s private account led to the introduction of _bullion_. As to the unhealthy custom of _sweating sovereigns_, it may be well to recollect that Charles I., the earliest Sovereign, who was sweated to such an extent that his immediate successor, Charles II., became one of the lightest Sovereigns ever known in England. Formerly every gold watch weighed so many _carats_, from which it became usual to call a silver watch a turnip. The Romans were in the habit of tossing their coins in the presence of their legions, and if a piece of money went higher than the top of their Ensign’s flag it was presumed to be “above the standard.” “MARCH ON! MARCH ON!” 272. An army 25 miles long starts on a journey of 50 miles, just as an orderly at the rear starts to deliver a message to the General in front. The orderly, travelling at a uniform speed, delivers his message and returns to the rear, arriving just as the army finishes the journey. How many miles does the orderly travel? “WITH A LONG, LONG PULL.” [Illustration] 273. If eight men are engaged in a tug-o’-war, four pulling against four, on a continuous rope, and each man is exerting a force of 100 lbs., what strain is there at the centre of the rope? “FIND OUT.” 274. A gentleman in a train with a boy got into conversation with a stranger, who asked him the lad’s age. The boy quickly replied, “This gentleman, who is my uncle, is twice as old as me, but the sum of the figures in my age are twice the sum of those in his.” What was the age of each? 275. One of our squatters who had made his fortune in the “good times” determined to sell his run and spend the rest of his days in the old country. A new chum, possessing considerable wealth, and desirous of settling down in Australia, hearing of the squatter’s intention, interviewed him with the object of purchasing, when the following conversation ensued:-- NEW CHUM: “How big is your run? What’s its area?”