———-
7233822 = three 9’s
“That is curious; but why is it so—does anybody know?” inquired Ronald.
“It will take a wiser head than mine to tell why it is so,” replied Marcus.
“I found out something the other day about figures that I didn’t know before,” remarked Ronald; “and that is, that if you wish to multiply a number by five, you can get the same result by dividing by 2, and adding a 0 if there is no remainder, or 5 if there is a remainder. Thus, 5 times 12 are 60. Divide 12 by 2, and add a 0, and you get 60. Or 5 times 83 are 415; divide 83 by 2, and add 5, because there is a remainder, and you have the same number, 415.”
“That is quite a convenient process, sometimes,” said Miss Lee, “but there is no mystery about it, like the properties of the figure 9. It is in fact the same thing as multiplying by 10 and dividing by 2.”
“So it is,” replied Ronald. “Well, it’s queer that I didn’t find that out myself—I thought that I had discovered something new.”
“Do you know how to make the magic square, Marcus?” inquired Otis.
“I used to know how to make a magic square, for there are several hundreds of them,” replied Marcus. “Let me see if I can do it, now—I suppose I have forgotten all about it.”
“What is a magic square?” inquired Ellen.