Here, then, is a puzzle: In how many different ways may nineteen
shillings and ninepence be paid in our current coin? Remember that the
fourpenny-piece is not now current.


33.--PUZZLE IN REVERSALS.

Most people know that if you take any sum of money in pounds, shillings,
and pence, in which the number of pounds (less than £12) exceeds that of
the pence, reverse it (calling the pounds pence and the pence pounds),
find the difference, then reverse and add this difference, the result is
always £12, 18s. 11d. But if we omit the condition, "less than £12," and
allow nought to represent shillings or pence--(1) What is the lowest
amount to which the rule will not apply? (2) What is the highest amount
to which it will apply? Of course, when reversing such a sum as £14,
15s. 3d. it may be written £3, 16s. 2d., which is the same as £3, 15s.
14d.


34.--THE GROCER AND DRAPER.

A country "grocer and draper" had two rival assistants, who prided
themselves on their rapidity in serving customers. The young man on the
grocery side could weigh up two one-pound parcels of sugar per minute,
while the drapery assistant could cut three one-yard lengths of cloth in
the same time. Their employer, one slack day, set them a race, giving
the grocer a barrel of sugar and telling him to weigh up forty-eight
one-pound parcels of sugar While the draper divided a roll of
forty-eight yards of cloth into yard pieces. The two men were
interrupted together by customers for nine minutes, but the draper was