Ken's blog

One sunny afternoon, Mrs. Cuddleworthy was sitting in the shade of a tree on a small hill in the Rolling Hills Village Park observing children play below her. She had a basket of fruits which contained four apples, three oranges, two pears and a plum.

Mrs. Cuddleworthy was in doubt about how to distribute these fruits to two imp-faced youngsters – a boy and a girl – who had climbed up to her with eager eyes attracted by the fruit basket decorated with a red cloth.

I wonder in how many ways could I distribute the fruits to these two little urchins? …

After some moments of confused thought, Mrs. Cuddleworthy decided to hand out the fruits in a random manner. Later she would ask her son Leonard to work out the answer to her puzzle.

What would you say are the number of ways Mrs. Cuddleworthy could hand out the fruits, ensuring that none of the children would receive nothing?