Riddle 1: Answer: One person

- The first line says, "As I was going to St. Ives." This indicates that only the narrator is going to St. Ives.

- The following lines describe how the narrator met a man with seven wives, and each wife had seven sacks, with seven cats in each sack, and each cat had seven kittens. However, it never says that the man, his wives, or the animals were also going to St. Ives.

- They are simply mentioned as people the narrator encountered on the way, but there is no indication that they were traveling to St. Ives as well.

Riddle 2: Answer: Time

- Time "devours" everything as it affects all living things (birds, beasts, trees, flowers) and non-living things (iron, steel, stone).

- Time wears down even the hardest materials, slowly eroding and breaking them.

- It "slays kings" by ending lives, "ruins towns" by leading to decay over the years, and even "beats mountains down" through gradual erosion and change.

Riddle 3: Answer: Spider

- "First think of the person who lives in disguise, who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies." – This refers to a spy.

- "Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend, the middle of middle and end of the end?" – This is the letter d (the middle letter of "middle" and the last letter of "end").

- "And finally give me the sound often heard during the search for a hard-to-find word." – This refers to er, the sound people often make when thinking or searching for a word.

➜ When you put these together: spy + d + er, you get spider, a creature most people would be unwilling to kiss!