The riddle
What Has One Head, One Foot and Four Legs?
Which end is which
Beds have two ends with names. The head is where the pillow goes, and the foot is where the feet go. Many beds also have a headboard and a footboard at those ends. The four legs hold the frame off the floor, usually one at each corner. A creature with one head, one foot and four legs would be strange, but a bed has all three without any trouble.
The bedstead in 1915
Edith B. Ordway printed a close cousin of the riddle in her 1915 Handbook of Conundrums: "What is it that has four legs and only one foot?" The book answers "A bedstead." A bedstead is the framework of a bed, so the old riddle refers to the frame alone. J. Gilchrist Lawson repeated it in 1924.
Size by size
Beds in the United States are sold by size: twin, full, queen and king, from smallest to largest. Every size has the same three features the riddle names, a head, a foot and legs, though a frame with a platform base may hide the legs.
Telling it step by step
Give the parts one at a time and let the group picture each. After "one head" most people imagine an animal. "One foot" makes the animal odd, and "four legs" makes it stranger still. Then the answer replaces the creature with something in the next room.
A different four-legged riddle
Beds are not the only furniture with legs. What has four legs but cannot walk has its own answer, with its own trick.