strapped and buckled their satchels, all gabbling gaily:

A riddle, sir? Ask me, sir.

O, ask me, sir.

A hard one, sir.

This is the riddle, Stephen said:

The cock crew,

The sky was blue:

The bells in heaven

Were striking eleven.

’Tis time for this poor soul

To go to heaven.

What is that?

What, sir?

Again, sir. We didn’t hear.

Their eyes grew bigger as the lines were repeated. After a silence Cochrane said: