[107.—THE SUFFRAGISTS' MEETING.—solution]
Eighteen were present at the meeting and eleven left. If twelve had gone, two-thirds would have retired. If only nine had gone, the meeting would have lost half its members.
[108.—THE LEAP-YEAR LADIES.—solution]
The correct and only answer is that 11,616 ladies made proposals of marriage. Here are all the details, which the reader can check for himself with the original statements. Of 10,164 spinsters, 8,085 married bachelors, 627 married widowers, 1,221 were declined by bachelors, and 231 declined by widowers. Of the 1,452 widows, 1,155 married bachelors, and 297 married widowers. No widows were declined. The problem is not difficult, by algebra, when once we have succeeded in correctly stating it.
[109.—THE GREAT SCRAMBLE.—solution]
The smallest number of sugar plums that will fulfil the conditions is 26,880. The five boys obtained respectively: Andrew, 2,863; Bob, 6,335; Charlie, 2,438; David, 10,294; Edgar, 4,950. There is a little trap concealed in the words near the end, "one-fifth of the same," that seems at first sight to upset the whole account of the affair. But a little thought will show that the words could only mean "one-fifth of five-eighths", the fraction last mentioned—that is, one-eighth of the three-quarters that Bob and Andrew had last acquired.