"Do you s'pose I'm going to believe all that tomfoolery? It doesn't
weigh more'n twenty, I know. Here, Maggie! Take this out and ask Albro
to weigh it for you."

"I'm blamed if he hasn't hit it about right," said the farmer who had
brought the turkey. "How did you find out?"

"Well, you see," said I, "the flat-iron has a figure 6 on it; that
shows that it weighs six pounds. Now, if the turkey had not weighed
more than the flat-iron they would have balanced each other at the
same distance from the balancing loop; but the turkey was the heavier,
so I had to move the flat-iron out further. At the same distance from
the loop as the turkey (two inches), the flat-iron pulled six pounds'
weight, and at every addition of that distance it would pull six
pounds more. Thus: at four inches it pulled twelve pounds; at six
inches, eighteen pounds; and at eight inches, twenty-four pounds.
At that distance it just balanced the turkey, thus proving that it
weighed----"

"Well, Maggie, what does Albro say?"

"Twenty-four poun', mum," replied Maggie, coming in.

"Well, I give up," said Mrs. Simpson; and she did, and so do I--till
next time.