[Arry]

Hanson and the second riddle . . .

Hanson started giggling as he thought about the second riddle. He nudged his brother, Woody, beckoning him to bend down low so he could whisper something to him. Woody turned beet red as Hanson cupped his hand to his mouth and spoke softly to him.

‘Don’t you dare say that,’ he said in a low, threatening voice to Hanson. ‘Ma will have your hide for it.’

Still, Hanson could not get the funny picture out of his mind and began to giggle again. When Reggie, who was sitting near him, asked what the matter was, Hanson told him.

‘I think she’s made up a riddle about my Great-granda Boffin,’ Hanson whispered. I heard Gammer Boffin telling stories about him one night when I was supposed to be asleep. She said he went a little soft in the head near the end. Liked to poke flowers in his hair in the spring. And sometimes on the hottest days in the summer he’d bundle himself up like it was getting on to winter and the snows. And in the colder weather, he’d say it was too hot, and the family’d find him in thin breeches and barely a vest on. Worst thing though, was one winter he’d gotten into the apple brandy. Got so heated up, I heard Gammer Boffin say, that he danced down the lane in his birthday suit afore they caught up with him.’ Hanson nodded solemnly at the story. ‘It’s what did him in finally, she said, too.’