The St. Ives puzzle ... culturally speaking, it's difficult to know where to stand on this one. First, it seems entirely expected to overtake someone whose entourage is laden down with heavy sacks, so it's ok to take it as an geometric series excercise. I mean really, you know you want to say the answer, you love knowing all those numbers. The seven wives issue, that's troubling. OK, probably a Muslim was walking to St. Ives. Rather odd, but hardly impossible. But, is this a voluntary polygamist arrangement? We do see this sort of thing in Utah, but we want to know if the man was carrying anything. Cats, now I like that, and it is notoriously difficult to transport cats, so perhaps the sacks, for a short journey, are humane. But all those kittens, it's way too crowded, whatever is going on? Are they involved in some sort of charitable business providing kittens to Muslim orphanages? Had they purchased all these cat at the market fair in St. Ives and were returning to their home city to rid it of rats? With such unmanageable burdens, I would guess that the group was just about to turn back, anyway, so everyone went to St. Ives. Or, perhaps the narrator became overcome with curiousity and joined them, as did others, and that day, no one went to St. Ives. Hilarie