Bobby Edwards, age 9, of Lakefield, Ontario, Canada, for his question:

How many prongs do a reindeer's antlers have?

Santa's reindeers, of course, clattered over your rooftop very, very early this morning. If you had been awake, you could have counted the prongs, or tines, on their antlers. This could have told you which ones were father reindeer, mother reindeer and teenage reindeer. Mrs. Reindeer's antlers are not so big as her husband's. Her two top branches have one tine and sometimes several more    and there are two stubby tines above her forehead. The young teenagers have only a few smallish tines on each branch.

Mr. Reindeer's proud antlers are like four branches of a spreading tree. The two highest branches may have 12 to 20 prongs or more. Some of them are a foot long. Two smaller branches swoop down along his forehead. They may have eight or ten more tines. These lower branches are called his shovel, but he does not use them to shovel snow. By the way, he is supposed to shed his stately antlers sometime in November. But no doubt he is allowed to keep them so that Santa's magic team can arrive in proper Christmas style.