>On the 1st day of Xmas, my true love gave to me:
>1 item
>On the 2nd day of Xmas, my true love gave to me:
>2 items + 1 item
>On the 3rd day of Xmas, my true love gave to me:
>3 items + 2 items + 1 item
>.
>.
>On the n-1 day of Xmas, my true love gave to me:
>n-1 items + n-2 items + ... + 1 item
>On the nth day of Xmas, my true love gave to me:
>n items + n-1 items + ... + 1 item
>
>How many total items did my true love give to me, as a function of n?

Looks like the Summation of k for k=1 to n. Solution to this is

( n * ( n + 1 ) ) / 2

Good one Bruce :-)

Bill