GUESSING STORIES.
This is a word puzzle entertainment, into which the riddler may, if by a judicious display of imagery, description, and humour, he only properly sets about his work, introduce much genuine amusement and fun.
The puzzle is best explained by an illustration which is given below, and which can be taken as a model on which other "Guessing Stories" may be constructed.
I am the child of the night, and the child of the day. Some dread me, some hate me, some find me a good companion. I have walked for many a mile, but no one ever heard my footfalls. Sometimes my master sends me on before him, but as he travels as quickly as I do, he sends me back sometimes, and I have to follow in the rear. I have hands and feet, head and shoulders, but no body. It is impossible to estimate my exact height. Nobody has ever looked into my eyes; nobody has ever incurred my anger. I sometimes in my haste run over people, and am sometimes trampled under foot by them. When my master writes, I always hold a pen by his side; and when he shaves, I generally take a razor too. I have travelled a good deal, and am very old. When Adam walked in Eden, I, too, was there, and when any new member of Parliament goes to the House of Commons, I nearly always accompany him. Robinson Crusoe was disturbed by my approach when I visited him on the Island of Juan Fernandez; and on one occasion I was the means of defeating an army. Although I have no eyes, I could not live without light. I am of very active habits, although I have not the will or the ability to move. Tell me my name.
Answer: A Man's Shadow.
MENTAL SCENES.
These are next-of-kin to "Guessing Stories," they will however be appreciated as they afford perhaps greater scope for vividly descriptive narrative.
The following specimen of a Mental Scene, which is sufficiently close to the original to reveal to all lovers of Shakspere the play upon which it is founded, will serve as an example as to how these scenes may be rendered:—
From camp to camp, throughout the live-long night, nothing is heard but the hum of either army. So stilly is the scene, that the opposing sentinels might almost hear each other's secret passwords. The cocks commence to crow, the armourers, with busy hammers, secure all rivets in the knights' full armour, the clocks do toll and the third hour of drowsy morning name, and all gives note of dreadful preparation. Proud of their numbers, and insolent with pride, one army rises from a night spent in counting chickens which have ne'er been hatched, and throwing dice for rich lands not yet secured. Anon they chide the cripple, tardy-gaited night, which limps so tediously away. They wait the morn, expectant and exulting. The poor wretches whom they have already, in imagination, condemned, like sacrifices, by their watch fires, sit patiently, and inly ruminate the morning's danger. Oh, now behold the royal captain of this seeming ruined band, walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent. He bids them all good morrow with a modest smile, and calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen. Beholding him, with his cheerful semblance and sweet majesty, one and all pluck comfort from his looks. A largess, universal as the sun, his liberal eye doth give to every one, thawing cold fear, and infusing his heroic nature into all. The scene is blurred over with bloodshed; but a ray of light reveals this royal captain, victorious against fearful odds, exclaiming, "O, God, thy arm was here! and not to us, but to thy arm alone, ascribe we all!"