SOLUTION.

A Puzzle-Solver.

1. There once was a maiden who tried
To find a new fall for her pride,
By attempting to solve,
Without earnest resolve,
The puzzle we monthly provide.

2. Ignoring the fanciful guile
With which we these efforts compile,
Her attempt was slap-dash,
And was fated to clash
With all proper notions of style.

3. So, finding her failure complete,
She fell at the Editor's feet—
Metaphorically—
And acknowledged that she
Was cured of her latest conceit.

Prize Winners.

Seven Shillings and Sixpence Each.

Five Shillings Each.

Equal with First-Prize Winners.

Mrs. J. Cumming, Edith E. Grundy, E. St. G. Hodson, E. Lord, M. Theodora Moxon, A. C. Sharp, Ellen C. Tarrant.

Equal with Second-Prize Winners.

Eliza Acworth, Lily Belling, F. M. Morgan, E. R. Oliver, Isabel Snell, G. S. Wilkins.

Most Highly Commended.

Ethel B. Angear, Florence M. Angear, Elsie I. Bale, Elsie Bayley, Mabel Brownlow, M. J. Champneys, Helen M. Coulthard, Rose D. Davis, E. H. Duncan, E. Ross Duffield, Dorothy V. Foley, A. Goakes, Mrs. W. H. Gotch, Alice L. Hewlett, M. Hodgkinson, G. D. Honeyburne, F. W. Hunt, Alice E. Johnson, Elizabeth A. Lord, Rev. C. T. McCready, Ethel O. McMaster, Benjamin Marcroft, Isabella M. Maxwell, Mrs. Nichols, Margaret G. Oliver, Gertrude Pegler, A. Pentelow, A. T. Porter, Constance M. Reade, Annie Roberson, Winifred H. Roberts, Kate Robinson, J. C. Scott, Lucy Shattock, James J. Slade, Gertrude Smith, Ethel Tomlinson, Etheldreda, M. Viner, Emily Wilkinson, Henry Wilkinson.

Very Highly Commended.

Edith K. Baxter, Elsie Benians, Rev. F. Townshend Chamberlain, Maud Chinn, Leonard Clark, Leila Claxton, Nina E. Coote, H. Cope, Vera F. Cremer, Mrs. Crossman, E. G. Dalton, Eva M. Edwards, William H. Edwards, Beatrice Fitzhugh, Marjorie A. Forbes, Edith A. Freeman, Will L. Freeman, Mabel Frewen, Ada J. Graves, Florence Graves, F. S. A. Graves, C. B. C. Hancock, Eleanor Hearsey, Julia A. Hennen, Percy E. Herrick, A. Hughes, W. R. Hughes, Minnie Ives, Annette E. Jackson, Gertrude J. Jones, D. Langley, Clara E. Law, B. M. Linington, Fred Lindley, M. Dorothy Long, Florence Lush, Winifred M. Macallister, C. Y. MacGibbon, Nellie Meikle, Nellie Minchener, Blanche A. Moody, Mrs. C. F. Morton, Charles Martin Morris, May Morris, Charles Nunneley, jun., G. de Courcy Peach, L. Pentelow, Ada Mavee Pleasance, Jessie C. Poole, Alexandrina A. Robertson, Dora O. Robinson, Elizabeth Russell, Mary Sheriff, A. J. Selwood, Kate C. Sinclair, Clara Souter, William Stradling, Margaret B. Strathorn, Mollie B. Taylor, Muriel Thompson, Lilian S. Toller, Aileen M. Tyler, Katie Whitmore, Helena M. Wilson, Alice Woodhead, Emily C. Woodward.

EXAMINERS' REPORT.

Once again we have been unable to satisfy every claimant for a prize, and in order to reduce the list to manageable limits we have been obliged to exclude all solvers who have been enriched during the last year.

As for mentions, space forbids us to indulge in anything less honourable than "very highly commended," and even that has been much more deserved than usual.

Concerning the special difficulties we need only refer to the mysterious M in line 1 and to the adjective in line 6. It was rare indeed for any solver who surmounted both those to fail elsewhere. The first stands for "maiden" in cricket parlance, being the manner in which a "maiden" over is recorded on the score sheet. It is not the first time in which the device has been employed in these puzzles, and yet it was interpreted in no less than twenty-six different ways.

The second difficulty is not so easily disposed of, as several adjectives equally well describe the fanciful G. But few of them are really appropriate as qualifying "guile," and to select the right one severely tested the solver's ability.

For instance, "flowery" describes the G exactly but is not at all a happy qualification of guile. We think that "fanciful" is, on the whole, the best word for the double duty, but we have also accepted "beautiful," "wonderful" and "exquisite." "Picturesque" would have been good but for the necessary transference of the accent from the last to the first syllable.

We observe with great pleasure the much larger number of solutions giving the form of the verse correctly. Failure in this respect in this puzzle marks the difference between the solutions most highly and very highly commended.

As to punctuation, actual mistakes had to be counted, and we found two of a glaring character in several papers, namely a comma after tried and after clash! Let no one say in regard to such errors that they are matters of opinion.

Many solvers still persist in ignoring the title, and others will write their names at the foot instead of at the head of their solutions. But on the whole the difference in carefulness between the solutions we now receive and those of three years ago is amazing. So much for the educational value of Our Puzzle Poems.

[QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.]

Girls' Employments.

Emigration.—"In which part of South Africa should I have the best prospect of obtaining employment as a useful help? Owing to a delicacy of the chest, I have been advised to seek a dry climate."—Christine.

Domestic servants, pace the latest report from the Emigrants' Information Office, are in less demand in South Africa than in Canada and Australasia. At the same time active girls, who are willing to rough it and to work hard, can usually obtain respectable situations with good wages. South Africa, however, is a large tract of country, and it may be of value to "Christine" if we quote some passages from an interesting letter which we have recently received from Miss Plunkett, who has lived for some time at Johannesburg. Miss Plunkett writes:—"Personally I cannot advise young women to go to Johannesburg; salaries are much lower; situations are scarce, and there are many other reasons why they should avoid the Transvaal altogether. British possessions are certainly to be preferred. Young women intending to go out to South Africa ought to procure reliable facts from the Agent-General of Cape Colony or Natal, or the United British Women's Emigration Association, Imperial Institute, South Kensington, who can extend information and advice on Rhodesia also." Miss Plunkett (to whom we tender our thanks for this helpful letter) adds the information that the Women's Residential Home, to which we referred some months ago, is now at 91, Bree Street, Johannesburg, and has passed under the care of Mrs. Matthews.

Nursing.—I am anxious to become a trained nurse, but I could not pay a premium. I have been engaged for four years as a children's nurse. I am twenty-three, and have no home.—S. E. C.

Under the circumstances "S. E. C." mentions, we think she might find it difficult to be taken as a probationer into one of those hospitals to which a recognised training-school is attached, while if she entered certain others which might be eager to have her, the drawback would be that in middle life she would be thrown out of this kind of work because no hospital would appoint to a paid post a nurse who was not, in the technical sense, "fully trained."

On the other hand, there is a great demand at the present time for what are known as "Cottage Nurses," and few women come forward to fill these posts. A cottage nurse is one who nurses the poor of a rural district in their own homes, sleeping and living under the cottager's roof during the period of illness, and helping to keep the house in order in those cases where the patient is the cottager's wife. The salary, usually £25 to £30, is paid to the nurse by an association or a local committee. If "S. E. C." cared to consider this suggestion further, she must write to the Hon. Secretary of the Holt-Ockley Association, Mrs. Hervey Lee Steere, the Cottage, Ockley, asking whether the association would be willing to have her trained for this work. There are other similar associations—one, for instance, is the Mid-Oxon Association, in which the Countess of Jersey is much interested, and another has lately been established under the best auspices in Norfolk.

[ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.]