The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1900-09-21
ARP GIVEN A POSER.
Little Girls Ask a Question the
Philosopher Cannot Answer.
Why VIII Geese Not Eat Corn When 1t
Is Strewn Around the Circum-
ference of a CircIe:-COn-
undrums and Poems.

will not eat corn when it is strewn
around the circumference of a circle
They say that their presiding elder
couldn't tell, and advised them to ask
me. | supposed it was a conundrum,
or that there was some catch in the
question: catch like the one, why
will guinea pigs eyes fall out If you
hold it up by the tail? As the guinea
pig has no tail, of course, his eyes
are in no danger. But a lady friend
who raises geese assures me that she
has often seen them tempted with corn
or other grain strewn thickly round
a circle, and they will not venture near
it; but if scattered, they will, after
careful inspection, approach and eat.
What the circle has to do with it is
past my ken, though we do know that
geese march in straight lines and the
wild geese fly in straight angles. A
goose is a very suspicious fowl, and is
always on the lookout for GIanger. a
goose hasn't much sense. In fact,
goose is a goose, but their devotion to
each other when mated is beautiful.
How faithfully the gander will stand
by his mate while she sits on her nest.
She plucks the down from his breast
and covers her eggs. How CALAMITY he
escorts her to the grass and escorts
her back when she leaves them for
food. How tenderly they care for the
brood when it comes, and never leave
them until feathered and grown. There
are no divorces nor grass widows in
the Anserian family-what pity we
are not all geese.
But, speaking of conundrums re-
minds me of how a lady caught me
Yesterday when she asked me how the
water got into the watermelon, and as
l proceeded to eXpound the chemical
processes that all fruits and vegetable
had to go thAugh. she stopped me
and said: sob, major, the water gets
into the watermelon because it is
planted in the spring" l got even
with her, though, by asking her why
was an elephant like lady's belt.
When she gave it up, l said, Because
there is a 81 in both" why" she
said, "there is no 81 in 'elephant."
"There is a 81 in BOTH" said l.
"B-o-t-h'-you can't spell both with
out a b." 1t takes little time to
see that. And there is another conun-
drum that was classic when l was
young
"Charge, Chester charge-On, Stanley, on!
Were the last words of Marmion.
Hal but been in Stanley's place
Tears would have moistened Chester s
face"
The smell of an onion would have
brought tear or two, l reckon. Now,
let those sweet schoolgirls strain
their minds over that, and then let
them search the Scriptures and tell
the Old and New Testaments to a
person who died as no other person
ever died; whose body never saw cor
ruption, whose name is never spoken
and the material of whose shroud is
found in every household. There is no
catch in that-it is a fact. Ask the
presiding elder.
| am indulging in these thoughts
to please the children, for that is the
biggest and best part of parental life,
and is what the world is working for.
Sometimes l cannot help Eliminating
upon what pleased me when l was
young and my mind was expanding
into knowledge day by day. How l
did strain over the problem of the fox
and the goose and the bag of corn.
And there was the elephant puzzle,
where an old man died leaving IS ele-
plants to his three sons-one to have
half of them, another one-third of
them and the other one-ninth. But
before the division one elephant died,
and II wouldn't divide even at all. So
they consulted wise old nabor
who had but one elephant. He gen.
erously drove his one into the herd
of II and then divided them, giving
to one of the boys nine, to another
six and to the other two. This took
but II, and so he drove his own ele-
plant back home again. How is that?
Wasn't he smart old fellow TO sat
isfy the boys and save his elephant?
But by and by these school children
advance into their teens and begin to
choose sweethearts, and the boys
brush their hair more carefully and
the girls cast glances that are shy
and sly and read poetry and mark
the loving passages, and flowers grow
lovelier and the birds sing sweeter
and the world grows brighter, and the
days of loves young dream have come.
Delightful days, delicious memories
even an old man loves to revel in
them. No wonder the poets wrote so
tenderly of love and the novelists