Tobe was ready.
| A man without eyes saw plums on a tree. He neither took plums nor left plums. Pray tell me how that could be? |
The cross-eyed lad to whom Tobe had turned shook his head. “Well, then, Josie Binner, I can see you’re itchin’ to speak out. What’s the answer?”
Josie minded her words carefully. “A one-eyed man saw plums. He ate one and left one.”
It was the right answer so Josie had her turn at giving out the next riddle:
| Betty behind and Betty before. Betty all around and Betty no more. |
No one could guess the answer. Some declared it didn’t make a bit of sense and Josie, pleased as could be, challenged, “Give up?”
“Give up!” they all chorused.
“Well,” Josie felt ever so important, “a man who was about to be hanged had a dog named Betty. It scampered all around him as he walked to the gallows and then dashed off and no one saw where it went. The hangman told him if he could make up a riddle that no one could riddle they would set him free. That was the riddle!”
“Ah, shucks! Is that all?” Ben Harvey scoffed and mumbled under his breath, “I’ll bet Josie made that up herself.”