Now if there is one thing I dislike it is being turned into an examiner. There is always a chance of the boys knowing a great deal more than the amateur setter of questions. But, as the clergyman pressed me, I tried to remember some of the sums which I had once learned under the tuition of my highly esteemed old master Mr. Marillier of Harrow.
The herring and a half sum would have been too easy; I bethought myself of another.
"Well," said the priest, a little impatiently, "they are waiting for you."
There was a dead pause, and I gave the worthy divine the following question: "If one man can mow a field in three days, and another man in four, how long will they be doing the work, if they are both mowing it together?"
"Come," said the divine, "you have set them a very easy sum," and he duly translated it into Armenian.
"It is hardly worth doing," said one of the schoolmasters, "for of course the answer is three days and a half."
"Of course, three and a half," said the priest.
"No," I replied.
The engineer began to laugh, and we soon afterwards left the school, neither masters nor pupils being at all certain in their minds as to how they ought to set about doing the sum.
I breathed more freely on arriving in the open air, and blessed my old master, who had once set me this catch question, for my reputation as a profound mathematician is established for ever amidst this generation of school-boys in Yuzgat. After saying good-bye to the senior pedagogue who had accompanied me to the steps of the threshold, I asked him to give the lads a half-holiday. He very kindly acceded to my request; and a cheer from the boys inside, when the good news was imparted to them, made me aware that they, if not their masters, were in no way dissatisfied by my visit.