WISER THAN A WIZARD.
A Rare Combination of Natural History, Folk-lore, Charade, and Riddle, with Prizes to those who Unravel Most of the Forty Queer Questions.
Once there lived a very wicked King, a brother of the original Bluebeard. (1) He had an only daughter called Minnehaha. (2) She was a very obedient girl in every respect save one—she would not hearken to the suit of Harry Hotspur, (3) whom her father had determined she must marry. Continuing in her refusal, her father threatened to imprison her in the Plenty Perplexing Puzzle Palace, known as the Four Pi's, (4) the residence of the English Merlin. (5) Finally a compromise was effected—the princess was to marry that man, be he prince or beggar, who should present a query to the King's Wizard which he could not answer. If, however, the Wizard did answer correctly, the propounder of the query was to lose his head.
All the details being fixed, a band of naturalists on their way to the Island of the Moon (6) stopped to try their fortunes. In turn they asked for the edible English philosopher, (7) the species of mollusk that is used in all printing-offices, (8) the bird that is always in evening dress, (9) the bird (10) that sometimes brings corns on your feet, the animal that cannot say no, (11) the insect that fills the new Boston Public Library to the number of many thousands, (12) and the fish (13) that everybody seeks after. As the Wizard replied to all correctly, he chopped off the heads of the questioners. Then Dick the Scholar (14) arrived, and demanded the Story of Molorchos. (15) As soon as the story had been related, Dick's head followed the others into the basket. Next came the Knight of the Lions, (16) singing:
"A hundred and fifty if rightly applied
To a place where the living did once all abide—
Or a consonant joined to a sweet-singing bird—
Will give you a name that you've oftentimes heard.
Which 'mong your friends at least one person owns;
It's a rival of Grey, and as common as Jones." (17)
The Wizard was wise.