A. and B., two countrymen, came to the New York market with 30 geese each. A. sells his 30 geese at the rate of two for $1, and B. sells his 30 geese at the rate of three for $1, at which rate the purchaser seems to get five geese for $2. The net proceeds of the sales, however, amounted to $25. Subsequently A. and B. have another lot of thirty geese each for the market, but as A. is sick, he gets B. to sell his lot, who comes to the market, and believing that he was selling his geese on the same terms as before, offers them at the rate of five for $2. When he returns home, he finds, in making up his account with A., that he has only netted $24 for the sixty geese, and is out $1, but cannot account for the deficiency. In the first instance, the sixty geese brought $25; in the second, only $24, and yet he has apparently sold them on the same terms - five for $2, as they sold them in the first place three for $1, and two for $1 - five for $2. Can any of our smart men at figures account for the deficiency of $1 on the second sale?

Answer. - The solution of the problem of the geese is very simple. It is true that the buyer of the geese from A., at two for $2, and from B. at three for $1, obtains five for $2. But when B. has sold all of his geese, having received $10 for his 30, A. has only sold 20 for the same money, and has 10 left at the rate of two for $1. Thus, when A. has sold only 20, the rate of five for $2 ceases; being two for $1, or four for $2, for the remaining ten belonging to A. Therefore this accounts for the dif ference of $1 between the two sales