Twice five of us are eight of us, and two of us are three, And three of us are five of us—now how can all this be? If that does not puzzle you I’ll tell you one thing more: Eight of us are five of us and five of us are four.
“EXPRESSIONAL” MEASURES.
The table of measures says that 3 barleycorns make 1 inch—and so they do. When the standards of measures were first established 3 barleycorns, well-dried, were taken out and laid end to end, and measured an inch.
The “hairbreadth” now used indefinitely for infinitesimal space, was a regular measure, 16 hairs laid side by side equalling 1 barleycorn.
The expression “in a trice,” as everyone knows, means a very short space of time. The hour is divided into 60 minutes, the minute into 60 seconds, and the second into 60 “trices.”
A CHALLENGE.
[137.] A lady belonging to the W.C.T.U. was endeavouring to persuade a gentleman friend of hers to give up the drink; he replied, “I will sign the pledge if you tell me how many glasses of beer did I drink to-day if the difference between their number and the number of times the square root of their number is contained in 2 be equal to 3.”