Peter Simple's Posers

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 207, 2 September 1939, Page 13 (Supplement)

Peter Simple's Posers

1. C;in you answer this one quickly, or do you need legal advice or medical attention? Can a man marry his widow's .-isterV 2. This family relationship business is often confusing. "What relation is that gentleman to you?" said one woman to another. "His mother wiw my mother's only child." replied the other. What was the relationship? 3. Who flew the famous signal beginning "England expects—and in what ship in what battle again«t what nations? What year? 4. Did Coleridge write "Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink?" f>. What is amber? fi. In those distant days when things (including tlio franc) were normal, what was the value of that coin? 7. What is an anodyne? 8. What famous marble building .it Agra, in Tndia. is considered to be one of the sights of the world?

0. Can you pay what biochemistry is? 10. An<l what is a littoral? 11. I've never been over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but 1 read that the water falls a distance of —a quarter of a mile, r>oon, itioft? 12. What is the name of the famous volcano just inshind Naples? 13. The lenirth of the Suez Canal is 20 mile*, 100. 500? 14. Of what country is the fleur-de-lis the national emblem? 15. Can you give the geographical meaning of latitude and longitude? 1 fi. What was a galleon? 17. Where and what is the Dogger Bank ? IS. What is an atoll? 10. From what is sago ohtained? 20. What is a salamander? (Answers on "Laugh With the World" page.)

Linen mistress! Linda was dumbfounded. Why, she thought Aunt Nora was well-to-do! Linda couldn't understand it. Then. before she could ask any questions, the door opened and a brisk little old lady in a rustling black silk dress came hurr> iiig in. "Here's your niece, Mre. Payson," said Mr. Ganty, smiling. • "Linda!" Aunt Nora came forward with arms outstretched. Linda reuse. Then suddenly a nervous reaction gripped her, and she found herself weeping on he.- aunt's shoulder. "There, there!" the old lady soothed. "I expect you've liad a long, hard trip. You must come along with me . . ." She took Linda by the arm, and with a '"Thank you. Mr. Ganty," steered her out of the office. She led her to a service elevator, in which she was whisked up six floors, then guided her down a corridor and ushered her into a email room. "This is my little home," she said. "It's not very much, but it's, very comfy. Now you just lie down there on the couch and rest." "But Aunt Nora," said Linda, sitting down and drying her eyes. "I didn't know —I mean I'd never have descended on you like this if I—if I " "If you'd known I was only the linen mistress here?" Aunt Nora finished for her. "I expect it's something of a shock to you. But now, don't you worry. I'm happy to have you come to me in your sorrow ... if you're not ashamed of an aunt who has charge of the linen instead of being a guest." "Ashamed? Why, I'm proud of you! But . . . but did mother know ?" "Oh, I wasn't the linen mistress then —not when your mother was alive," Aunt Nora explained. "It's been only since your IJncle Arthur died. You see, we were living here, but the depression had hit him very hard, and when he died I found myself left with very little. When I told Mr. Ganty he was most kind and offered me this position—so I took it." Linda looked about the small crowded room. "1 . . . I'm afraid you haven't much . . . room for a visitor." "Nonsense! I have my bed here behind this screen and you can sleep on the couch. There's plenty of room for both of us until you find a place of your own. Perhaps you'd like to stay right here at the Granada Arms. There is an apartment vacant on the fourth floor, I believe." Linda reddened. "Aunt Nora, I couldn't even rent sitting space in the lobby downstairs." The old lady stared at her. "What do you mean?" i "I mean that vol/ and I seem to be in the same boat. Father . . . left me practically nothing. That is why I came out here—to look for a job. " To make matters worse, I was robbed on the way. At the moment, I'm stone