Page:Cyclopedia of Puzzles by Samuel Loyd.pdf/11

 The children have worked all of their names into a wonderful patch-quilt puzzle, which they are going to present to their teacher. Commence wherever you please and go from square to square, and see how many names you can discover. Beginning at N, for example, as shown by the lines, you can spell NANCY, but when you find all of the others you will know just how many scholars went to this school in Puzzleland.

If you can only draw a little bit you might find lots of things worth showing. Sammy spent a few days on the farm and filled his sketch-book full of interesting things. Here is what he calls "pastural still life", The second view represents "a moving picture" of the same scene, showing the animals getting up on their feet. As an elementary drawing lesson, you are invited to sketch the moving scene as it appeared to Sammy. Upon second thought I give that part of his letter which described this picture:

P.S.—I want to say that the first thing I did after getting here was to go to the barnyard, and I found that the story that horses and cows never lie down to sleep is a fake. I send you a picture I made of them as they were lying in the barnyard, I watched them a long time, and they never moved, except the cow, which had a piece of chewing gum in her mouth, and to be certain that the horse wasn't dead I hollered 'Shoo!' And you ought to see them scramble to their feet."

P.S.— Do you remember how Houdin the famous magician, used to exercise his memory by glancing in a store-window and then telling how many things he could recall having seen during a one minute's inspection. He said most people went through the world without noticing anything. Did you notice the moon in my picture? It tipped the wrong way! The moon always tilts to the left. I drew that moon to make fun of Nelly; she wrote a poem and spoke about "the fleecy clouds behind the moon." Who ever heard of clouds behind the moon! The moon is always behind the clouds, but I drew it to make her mad.

P.S.—I sketched some hop vines and what they call pole beans, but do you know how to tell which are the hop vines? Hop vines always twine round to the left, while the others twist round to the right. You learn lots of things in the country.

P.S.—The Smith boy was down here Sunday, I asked him how many eggs he thought a peacock laid. He counted a brood of little ones and said "ten." I then told him that peacocks don't lay egg. "You might just as well ask how many eggs does a rooster lay?" Hut Smithy is a city chump and don't know lots of things.

P.S.—Do you see that chicken looking at the dog? how do I know its a dog? because a cat can't have a white tip to her tail. If a cat has any black on her at all, the tip of her tail is black, while if a dog has any white anywhere, the tip of his tail will be white. You never saw a chicken meandering by moonlight in your life, nor did you ever see a hen with spurs! Did yon think of that?

P.S.—I drew this picture to see if you can illustrate the difference between a horse or a cow getting up; but talking about that chicken, can you tell why it is like a farmer? Can you tell that it is a large chicken? What parts of an army do you see? Why does it remind you of a gas man? What parts of a mountain do you see? What part off a kite? What part of a will? What part of a needle? What should it lay on they dressing table? What should it lay on the dressing table? What else does that chicken show that is interesting? Show the source of a river, three nicknames, something on a canal, and part of a table.

P.S.—I won't wait to see how you draw the horse and cow getting on to their feet, because I guess a person has to live in the country to learn that a horse always raises bow end up first, while a cow gets up stern end first. The first horse and cow must have begun to get up that way, oh an awful long time ago, and all other little horses and cows did the same as their parents.