58. Riddles
Reading edition
One day our old friend Tom read his mother a riddle he had made. This is it:
I am a tiny little thing and have an orange face. What am I?
"Can you guess it, mother?" he asked. "A dandelion," she answered. "Yes, that's right," said Tom. "What do you think of it?"
"It's a pretty good little riddle," his mother replied, "but I think you can make it better. Is orange the best word for a dandelion? And should you not put in something to show that you do not mean a bird? Your riddle, as it is, would do for a yellow bird as well as for a dandelion."
Tom thought this over. Then he wrote the following riddle:
I am a tiny little thing with a bright yellow face. I have no legs or wings, but I come and go with spring. What am I?
Tom's mother was very much pleased with this riddle, and so was Tom. Tom thought he could not make it the least bit better. The next day, however, he had made the riddle over once more. "This," said Tom, "is the very best that I can do."
Here it is:
My face is bright yellow. I have hundreds of brothers and sisters. We have fine parties on the lawn. I cannot walk, but I can fly when I am old and white-haired. What am I?
Oral Exercise. 1. Which of Tom's three riddles do you like the best? Which do you care for least? Why? Do you think the third riddle is too long? What is in the third riddle that you do not find in the second?
2. Can you make a riddle of your own about the dandelion?
3. Make riddles for your classmates to guess, about flowers, birds, and animals that are seen in the spring.
Written Exercise. Write on paper the best riddle of a bird or a flower that you can make. Then, as Tom did, think it over a little longer and try to make it better. When you think it is so bright that your classmates will be much pleased with it, read it to them.[66]
Group Exercise. Some of the riddles should now be copied neatly on the board. It will be fun for the whole class to try to make them better. The very best ones the teacher will copy in a book to show to other classes.[35]
Written Exercise. 1. Copy the riddle or riddles that your teacher chooses. As you copy them, notice the spelling of the words, the capital letters, the punctuation marks, and the beginning of the first line of each riddle. This will help you to write the riddles correctly when you reach the next exercise. Together with another pupil, correct your copy and his.
2. Write from dictation the riddles you have copied. Then correct any mistakes you may have made. You may do this work of correcting either alone or with one or more other pupils.