58. Riddles
One day our old friend Tom read his mother a riddle he had made. This is it:
I am a tiny little thing and have an orange face. What am I?
"Can you guess it, mother?" he asked. "A dandelion," she answered. "Yes, that's right," said Tom. "What do you think of it?"
"It's a pretty good little riddle," his mother replied, "but I think you can make it better. Is orange the best word for a dandelion? And should you not put in something to show that you do not mean a bird? Your riddle, as it is, would do for a yellow bird as well as for a dandelion."
Tom thought this over. Then he wrote the following riddle:
I am a tiny little thing with a bright yellow face. I have no legs or wings, but I come and go with spring. What am I?
Tom's mother was very much pleased with this riddle, and so was Tom. Tom thought he could not make it the least bit better. The next day, however, he had made the riddle over once more. "This," said Tom, "is the very best that I can do."
Here it is: