Don't Count Your Chickens

The sphinx returned Al's dictionary, now rather ravaged, and also gave him the medallion with her name as a remembrance. She then rather wistfully bade them good journey, and the trio set out once more.

Al was now well satisfied, although all down the mountain he had to endure his companions' ribbing and ribaldry: they were convinced that they had left the sphinx smitten with him. He responded with good humor, but wasn't fool enough to comment that he actually thought her quite a fine figure of a . . . creature.

At length the trio stopped in a pleasant glade to rest. They had been resting for some fifteen minutes when an odd group came into view. The center of the cluster was a willowy young woman, looking both resigned and annoyed. Clustered around her were three fresh-faced youths. From the way they circled for position (for of course there were only two spots next to the maid,) it was quite clear that they were rivals for her favor, although it looked unlikely that any of them would actually get it.

When her entourage saw the trio, they drew up short, their faces alive with conflicting emotions. Foremost among these was distrust, for here were more potential rivals. However, more surprisingly, a sort of eager hope warred with this antagonism. The girl nodded a courteous good-day, and would have continued on if one of her stalwart swains had not called, "Lily, hold on now. It is only fair for you to give us a chance to ask these strangers for their assistance, since you are being so difficult."

It was clear that Lily had no desire to stop, but she reluctantly retraced her steps, and put her basket down, although one small foot tapped impatiently.

The tallest youth explained the problem.

"Lily is an eggler, but today she had more than a dozen eggs left over when it was time for her to turn homeward. I asked to buy her remaining eggs, as a token of my esteem,"

"I did too!" cried the second.

"And I!" cried the third.

The first youth gave the other two a dirty glance and continued.

"As they say, these two stole my idea and also offered to purchase her remaining eggs. She agreed, but would give none of us the privilege of buying all of them. She said I might buy half," here his chest puffed out a bit in pride, "Joel could buy a third, and Ben could buy a ninth."

Ben also puffed up a bit, for apparently he had decided that she was doing him an honor by not making him buy eggs that he didn't need. The clearer-eyed Bert could see the girl's reasoning, though: the first speaker was also the best dressed, and so presumably could afford the most eggs; the quality of clothes dropped from him to Joel, and again from Joel to Ben.

"So what's the problem?" asked Bert. "That seems clear enough."

"Ah, but there are 17 eggs! And Lily said that she won't let us break any eggs until we've purchased them. And she won't let us purchase them except in those proportions!"

Bert stifled a grin. It was apparent that Lily was thoroughly fed up with her admirers, but either was too nice to say so, or, more likely, had told them so and they had decided that she was just being modest.

"I think I see a way out of this quandary," he declared.

What was Bert's solution?

Solution