And, meantime, my own vegetables are on their way. They are in a soap box with bars across the top, coming by freight. They weigh forty-six pounds, including the box. They represent the result of four months’ arduous toil in sun, wind, and storm. Yet it is pleasant to think that I shall be able to feed with them some poor family of refugees during the rigour of the winter. Either that or give them to the hens. I certainly won’t eat the rotten things myself.
XV. The Perplexity Column as Done by the Jaded Journalist
INSTANTANEOUS ANSWERS TO ALL QUESTIONS
(All questions written out legibly with the name and address of the sender and accompanied by one dollar, answered immediately and without charge.)
Harvard Student asks:
Can you tell me the date at which, or on which, Oliver Cromwell’s father died?
Answer: No, I can’t.
Student of Mathematics asks:
Will you kindly settle a matter involving a wager between myself and a friend? A. bet B. that a pedestrian in walking downhill over a given space and alternately stepping with either foot, covers more ground than a man coasting over the same road on a bicycle. Which of us wins?