Here’s a puzzler to twist your brain a smidge.
Apparently this word puzzle used to hang in a New Hampshire lodge near a fireplace. And the words form a very important series of instructions. Here’s the puzzle.
If the BMT put more :
If the B . putting :
Never put more : over a - der
You'd be an * it
Okay, does your brain hurt yet?
You’re going to hate yourself when you see the answer.
At least give it a good hard try. Sound it out. Think about the fact that some of the characters might have a different description, based upon their use in other media.
Drag your cursor between the two braces below, and the answer will reveal itself in magic Inviso-Text.
[ If the BMT put more :
If the grate be empty (“if the ‘Great B’ MT”), put more coal on (“put more colon”)
If the B . putting :
If the grate be full, stop (“if the ‘Great B’ ‘full-stop’) putting coal on (“colon”)
Never put more : over a – der
Never put more coal on (“colon”) over a high fender (over a “hyphen”-der)
You’d be an * it
You’d be an ass to risk (“asterisk”) it.]
What can I say? New England rural humor.
Chuck The Writer 
Those wacky Pilgrims…
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Figured it all out except for “a high fender”,,,whatever that is…
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the “fender” is the grille that is positioned in front of the fireplace. Looks something like this.
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At one time, as I remember from the 1970s, this sign hung on an outside building, near the liftline, at Loon Mountain in NH. I could not remember all of the details of the puzzle, so I googled what I remembered as parts of the solution. This was the first hit.
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The sign hangs on the main lodge at Loon Mountain in NH over the outdoor fireplace adjacent to the gondola lift line. It is still there today.
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The riddle is on the fireplace in the gondola base station at Loon Mountain Ski Resort
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Loon was a favorite ski area for my friends and I when we were growing up in NH. We thought we had figured it out and we were close. The only difference is in how we translated “a – der”. Instead of a hyphen (a high fender) we interpreted it as a minus sign, which yields “a mine of cinder” or as a real New Englander would say it “a mine a cinder”.
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Hi – you’re close, but the original reads: [first line] If the Bmt put : [next line] If the B. putting : ~ the capitalization of only the “B” is important since it refers back to “great B” This particular sign hung over the coal-fired hearth of an inn in Delaware. Back in the late 1800’s, a traveler who could read it properly would receive one free night’s room and board. I learned about this back in the early 1970’s and have no idea whether the inn is still standing or, if it is, whether they still honor the tradition. I would have been the poorer, since I had to have it explained.
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