Three hungry scholars came to a wayside inn, and saw this sign over the door:
PLACET ORE
STAT ORDINE
ORE STABIT
ORE AT ABIT
One of them eager to show his ready wit, translated these Latin words of welcome roughly into English verse:—
“Good cheer we provide,
Our service is sure;
Their savours abide
Though meats don’t endure!”
The complacent smile faded from his face as a village schoolboy, who had overheard him, broke in with the real rendering of the words:—“Place to rest at or dine; O rest a bit, or eat a bit!”
45
In these lines, where the dots occur, insert words, each of which is longer by one letter than the one before, and so complete the poem. The same letters are carried on each time in varied arrangement:—
Nature . love .. every land,
On burning plain, by wooded rill;
Where ... is girt by coral strand,
Or .... rears her castled hill.
Then ..... from me the tale to hear,
How, true to one ......, the bee
Once ....... out keeps, year by year,
The ........ by her instinct given,
Which teach her, wheresoe’er she roam,
In every clime beneath the heaven,
To build the same ......... home.