St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 2/A Riddle
A Riddle
(For answer see page 190.)
Five vowels, three T’s, two S’s, N, B,Only these letters, as plainly you ’ll see;Yet out of the same you can fashion one wordThat for magic or power is—well, simply absurd!The way that it governs and changes affairs,Folks, and their projects—perhaps unawares;Decides who shall stay and as well, who shall go;Secure in its fiat, its bold “thus and so,”Such havoc with wills, or with heirs, I may say—Such sudden o’erturnings to some other way!Well, to work it all out is to lead you a dance,Till you turn yourself into another, perchance!It only is stable when harnessed, I ’m told,By a big dictionary, both careful and bold;Yet none of them differ—these books born of Babel;Though always ’t is changing, none lo change it are able;’T is a very hard task, and admits of no shirking.Beware, lest it change itself while you are working! M. M. D.