matters? Well, I do; and--will you believe it?--he has never told me
what his income really is, and I want, very naturally, to find out. Can
you tell me what it is from the figures I have given you?"

Yes; the answer can certainly be given from the figures contained in
Mrs. Perkins's letter. And my readers, if not warned, will be
practically unanimous in declaring the income to be--something absurdly
in excess of the correct answer!


32.--THE EXCURSION TICKET PUZZLE.

When the big flaming placards were exhibited at the little provincial
railway station, announcing that the Great ---- Company would run cheap
excursion trains to London for the Christmas holidays, the inhabitants
of Mudley-cum-Turmits were in quite a flutter of excitement. Half an
hour before the train came in the little booking office was crowded with
country passengers, all bent on visiting their friends in the great
Metropolis. The booking clerk was unaccustomed to dealing with crowds of
such a dimension, and he told me afterwards, while wiping his manly
brow, that what caused him so much trouble was the fact that these
rustics paid their fares in such a lot of small money.

He said that he had enough farthings to supply a West End draper with
change for a week, and a sufficient number of threepenny pieces for the
congregations of three parish churches. "That excursion fare," said he,
"is nineteen shillings and ninepence, and I should like to know in just
how many different ways it is possible for such an amount to be paid in
the current coin of this realm."