1877 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
267 
the female, and there they stay. The skin of the back of 
the female swells up, and forms little pits, or cells,.ill 
which each tadpole lives. Instead of taking their chances 
in the water, like the tadpoles of our frogs, each one has 
its little hole in the skin of the mother’s back, where it 
is safe from the attacks of fishes, and all other enemies, 
and it stays there, until it has gone through all the tad¬ 
pole life, and is ready to come out a young Surinam toad. 
The engraving shows the mother-toad, with some of the 
youngjust escaping.—Very curious, isn’t it ? 
About tlie “ Puzzling Puzzle.” 
We gave, in May last, under the heading of “A very 
Puzzling Puzzle,” diagrams and very much the words of 
the correspondent who sent it. In our remarks we stated 
that it had been sent to Aunt Sue, and she “ gave it up.” 
We were not quite correct, and find that we did that lady 
injustice. In fact, she really pointed out the direction 
in which the solution of the puzzle would he found, and 
made a rough drawing, saying if that was not the proper 
answer, she would “ give it up.”—In fact, Aunt Sue was 
really the first one to show the fallacy which makes the 
thing a puzzle at all. Answers have been sent to Aunt 
Sue, to The Doctor, and to The Editors, from a number 
of persons living in almost every State of the Union; 
some of these answers are accompanied by very elabor¬ 
ate descriptions, and carefully made diagrams, but with 
such a host, we cannot give all proper credit. We thank 
Fig. 1.— DIAGRAM SHOWING THE SPACE. 
all for the trouble they have taken, and acknowledge 
them below in the usual manner. The following, from 
a.unt Sue, gives the substance of the various explana¬ 
tions.—She says: 
•‘We have received several letters concerning the 64 
and 65 squares, and the verdict is that a perfect parallel¬ 
ogram cannot be made from the pieces cut from a square 
as marked in the illustration given on page 18" of the 
May American Agricultur¬ 
ist ; that there will be a 
rhomboidal space running 
through the center of the 
parallelogram diagonally 
from end to end, (fig. 1), 
the area of which is ex¬ 
actly equal to one of the 
squares. The reason for 
this, is, that the angles do 
not form a straight line 
because, in cutting across 
"• one piece, the line falls 
two squares in passing over five: while in the other it 
falls only three squares in passing over eight. So that if 
you should take the aggregation of pieces necessary to 
fill the space left in the parallelogram, and put them to¬ 
gether as in figure 2, you would just get the 65th square.” 
We have received letters embodying the substance of the 
foregoing remarks from A. J. T., Fillmore B. S., H., S.,‘ 
A. F. S„ Townsend W., T. B. A., A. S. W„ W. L. W., 
C. E. N., Thos. D. H., J. A. B., J. A. L„ F. S., C. F. L., 
“Geo. Metry,” W. S. Morgan, “Architect,” C. W. S., 
R. S. H., D. McC. K„ P. B. T„ A. W. M„ L. R. C., 
“Mount Vernon,” N. F. P., C. E. R., E. C. W., R. B., 
E. H. A., Mrs. M. B. Y., C. O., F. M. H., J. M. 
Aunt Sue’s Puzzle-ltox, 
“THE PRIZE ENIGMA.” 
Our little lady—“ Clara Josephine ”—has been per¬ 
suaded to perform the task assigned her. The envelopes 
superscribed “ Answer to Prize Enigma,” were dropped 
into a large cardboard box and placed upon the floor. 
C. J. stationed beside them. Her first ejaculation was 
“oh—h 1 ” ; then with one fell swoop, a dive, a flirt, and 
a scuffle, away went the letters all over the carpet. They 
were carefully gathered together again, and, by judicious 
management, she was persuaded to hand me one at a 
time, which I duly marked “1,” “2,” “3,” “4,” etc. 
And this was the order of the enclosed addresses : 
1. Geo. M. Taylor, Box 19,Riverside,Burlington Co.,N.J. 
2. Mrs. M. Thomas, Clear Lake, Sherburne Co., Minn. 
3. Frederick Bruce, P. O. Box 168, New Rochelle, 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
4. H. A. Frink, Westerly, R. I. 
5. D. Martinez, 1801 Park Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. 
6. Jas. A. Windsor, Jr., Barrington Centre, R. I. 
7. Jessie L. Kirk, 53 2nd street, New York City. 
8. Edward D. Campbell, 141 Lamed st.,E. Detroit,Mich. 
9. Abraham Resh, Bird in Hand, (what a queer name 
for a town, city, village, or whatever it is,) Lancaster 
Co., Penn. 
10. John Brown Mitchell, Box 326, P. O., Clinton, 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
Only four were left in the box, and they looked so lone¬ 
some that I determined to count them in also, and send 
prizes to all; but upon opening them, I found that two 
were written by the same person, though signing differ¬ 
ent names (one “Nellie Hunt,” and the other “Emma 
Goldie ”), and as I did not propose to give two prizes to 
one individual, and could not quite tell how to identify 
the right party, I must put them down blank. The re¬ 
maining two were May Goldie, Mott Haven, New York 
City, care of Geo. W. Kirk, and C. S. Campbell, Owego, 
Tioga Co., N. Y. (I should like to know if these two 
Campbell’s are related to each other, as it is rather curi¬ 
ous that there should be two of that name out of only 
fourteen.) 
The answer to the enigma is—“As you cannot avoid 
your own company, make it as good ns possible.” 
Not thinking it worth while to wait until July before 
notifying the puzzlers of their success, I have already 
(May 13th) sent some of the prizes, with a request that 
the recipients would acknowledge the same, and also tell 
me how they found a clew to the solution of the enigma. 
I have received one answer, which gives such an excel¬ 
lent description of the modus operandi, that I publish it 
entire, (it is better than one of my “ lessons ”): 
“ Westerly, R. I., May 11, 1877. 
Dear Aunt Sue /—Please accept my acknowledgements 
for the very neat ‘Pocket Companion’ sent me on ac¬ 
count of the ‘ Prize Puzzle,’ and convey my kindest re¬ 
gards to Miss Clara Josephine (yon know how to do it) 
for her perspicacity, if that is not too big a word for such 
a little lady, in selecting me as one of the recipients for 
her favor. Now for the modus operandi of the solution. 
I seldom pay much attention to that style of enigma, but 
this being preceded by instruction, attracted my notice. 
At first I did not look at the dictionary, but glanced over 
the meanings and could think of none to suit. For the 
first, I knew no word of eight letters meaning Fop. For 
the third, I did not know whether it should be a noun or 
.an adjective. Forthe fourth and fifth, words of three let¬ 
ters were so scarce that I could think of none ; and so I 
went on, down to the bottom, completely at sea. Then 
I took the dictionary (I had no unabridged Worcester, 
but I have a Webster), and looking at Fop, I took each 
of its meanings and looked for its synonyms without re¬ 
sult. I then took the second and pursued a similar 
course, succeeding no better. By this time, to use a 
slang term, ‘ I smelt a rat,’ and made up my mind that 
none of the words could be found by referring to the 
meanings given. Then I pursued another course. Of 
course the ‘musical instrument’ and ‘an animal’ were 
too general to begin upon, and besides I wanted one 
which had No. 20 in it; so I, noticing that ‘carniverous 
animal ’ and ‘fop’ each .had No. 6 and ‘fop’ No. 20, se¬ 
lected them for the attack. I had been working at some 
difficult Algebraic Problems, and my ‘dander’ was up 
and I was bound- to do it. I made a list of carniverous 
animals as follows: Civet, Genet, Hyena, Otter, Ounce, 
Ratel, Sable, Stoat, Tiger, and noticing that five of them 
had the letter ‘ e ’ for the next to the last, and that must 
be the third letter in No. 1,1 looked for a word meaning 
Fop, whose third letter was ‘ c,’ and there was no such 
word. That left me but four on the list. I then tried 
‘ Sable,’ but there was no word with ‘ L ’ for a third letter 
meaning ‘Fop.’ Next I tried ‘Ounce,’ and found Mac¬ 
aroni and Macaroon. Of course I did not have to look 
at all the words consecutively in the dictionary, but only 
such as commenced with a consonant followed by a 
vowel After knowing what No. 20 was, I took address 
for adroitness, which gave me ‘ S ’ for No. 2, and it did 
not take me long to find ‘ Sop ’ for a pacificator, etc., etc. 
Rather a long answer to your question of which item I 
guessed first. Yours, respectfully, H. A. Frink.” 
Is there one among you who does not know how to find 
out anagrams ? Well, suppose I tell you to find out the 
original word, from the anagram “ sad rub ” ; you take 
the letters S—A—D—R—U—B (if you have no printed 
letters, take a strip of cardboard and print the letters 
upon it yourself), then cut them separate, and move them 
about (transpose them) until you discover the word 
“absurd.” If you desire to construct anagrams, reverse 
the process. Select your word, make small words out of 
the letters composing the original word, using all the 
letters every time, until you get a sentence to suit you. 
For instance, we will take the word “ A —T—M—O—S— 
P—H—E—R—E ” ; now let us see how many sentences 
we can make—“ Seraph to me ” (well, there’s ho sense 
in that!)—Phrase tome;—He taps more;—OI stamp here; 
—Heart poems;—Hope, master;—A shop metre;—Old see 
tramp;—Mere hot sap;—He tore maps;—Stop 1 hear me !— 
Tom see harp;—Home repast;—O ! three maps;—Mother’s 
ape;—and I dare say we could make many more combina¬ 
tions. None of the above anagrams are very good, as 
they are neither relevant nor comically irrelevant (like 
“Real fun,” which resolves itself into “funeral”); but 
I think the most tolerable of the lot is “ Stop 1 hear me 1 ” 
And as our anagrams are made more for amusement than 
for approbation, we will not be too particular. 
The following old English anagrams are excellent: 
Sly ware—Lawyers. It’s in Charity—Christianity. 
Great helps—Telegraphs. No more stars—Astronomers. 
Got as a clue—Catalogues. Best in prayer—Presbyterian. 
’Tis ye govern—Sovereignty. There we sat—Sweetheart. 
Now, little ones, go to work and make some anagrams, 
but be sure that you send only the best of them to 
Aunt Sue. 
Below wo give some anagrams for you to try your skill 
upon: 
1. Seedy tray. 6. Draw faster. 
2. Did I feign ? 7. Amusing my—. 
3. Even road. 8. I spyachiu. 
4. Idle stoic. 9. Nine treats. 
5. Troy’s deed. 10. No mimic roses. 
east anagrams.— (For the little ones.) 
1. Shore. 6. No cat in. 
2. Or ivy. 7. To eat sop. 
3. Bleat. 8. Hurt hog. 
4. China. 9. Been wet. 
5. No ears. 10. Red ear. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 26 letters : 
My 18, 21, 23, 9, 6, is something that each one of us 
possesses, which may be transposed into a planet. 
My 4, 3, 11,17, is something necessary to each one of us. 
My 26, 19, 16, 15, is generally an unpleasant noise, 
though there may be exceptional cases. 
My 2, 12, 20,10, is a small animal. 
My 1, 7, 25,15, 8, is a large animal, though it is often 
called something else. 
My 11, 23, 13, is a tool. 
My 24, 14, 22, 5, is what sensible people are. 
My whole is a well-known proverb. 
ANSWERS TO TUZZLES IN TUE MAY NUMBER. 
Illustrated Enigma.— The Centennial Exhibition. 
Hidden Counties in Ohio.— 1. Darke. 2. Medina. 3. 
Allen. 4. Logan. 5. Wayne. 6. Iioss. 7. Lorain. 
(Maud Beach, a little girl nine years old, answered these.) 
Hidden Deities.— 1. Tyro. 2. Arge. 3. Io. 4. Ino. 5. 
Atd. 6. Comus. 7. Abas. 8. Orus. 
The Liquor Agent’s Account, given in April, has been 
correctly answered (in addition to those credited last 
month), by : C. E.N., M„ W.A.H. 
Thanks for letters, puzzles, etc., to W. W. B., L. J. S., Ella 
M. K., G. A. C., II. H., Lollie F. T., E. A. Y„ W. W., 
Emma, Frank Nichols. 
Send communications intended for Aunt Sue, to Box 111, 
P. 0 ., Brooklyn, N. Y., and not to 245 Broadway. 
Aunt Size’s Chats. 
I have been asked to describe a frame made of lamp¬ 
lighters, so give one this month. Cut six sticks nine 
inches long, and six ten inches Jong. Weave the three 
shorter into the three longer (as shown in the pattern), 
for one corner of the frame ; push them togetheras close¬ 
ly as you can, then measure the width of the three sticks, 
and if it be two inches, cut 22 pieces each 2 inches long, 
he latter 
seen in 
the pattern), for the purpose of hold¬ 
ing the picture in place. Suppose the 
sticks already cut are brown, cut eight 
more of the 2 inch, length, of white, 
and proceed to put them all together, 
as in the pattern. The white pieces 
are marked 1, 2, 3, 4; the rest are 
brown. The only difficulty about mak¬ 
ing such a frame is in joining the six 
sticks at the last corner (after having 
completed the four sides and the three corners); but all 
it requires is dexterity. The corners may be ornamented 
with colored worsteds, as shown in the corner of the 
illustration. You will see how to push them together, 
under and over, without further explanation. Of course 
you can vary the colors and lengths to suit your tastes 
and the size of your picture, remembering that when a 
different color from the main frame is to be used, the 
ends should be put under the outside bars, as shown in 
the white pieces at 1, 2, 3, and 4, in the pattern. 
Thomas Thumb.—P uzzles sent to us must always be 
