This Tale originally appeared as a serial in The
Monthly Packet, beginning in April, 1880. The writer's intention was to
embody in each Knot (like the medicine so dexterously, but ineffectually,
concealed in the jam of our early childhood) one or more mathematical
questionsin Arithmetic, Algebra, or Geometry, as the case might befor the
amusement, and possible edification, of the fair readers of that Magazine.
L.
C.
October, 1885.