Return of the Great Brain John Fitzgerald

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CHAPTER FIVE

Tom the Magician

IT WAS JUST A FEW DAYS after Tom had received

the five-hundred dollar reward that the Chautauqua came to town. Once a year people like Mayor Whitlock, Bishop Aden, Reverend Holcomb, Papa, Mamma, and Mrs. Vinson believed the citizens of Adenville needed a little cultural entertain-ment. The money to pay for the Chautauqua was raised by selling tickets before it arrived. It was a way of guaranteeing there would be enough money to pay for the cultural entertainment. I always sort of figured this selling of tickets was almost like blackmail because anybody who refused to buy a ticket would be considered uncultured and an ignoramus. About the only thing I enjoyed about a Chautauqua was

watching them put up the tent at the campground. I guess that made me uncultured. But let me tell you what a Chautauqua was like in those days and see if you don’t agree with me. They always had a fellow who played a fiddle but not like anybody in town played one. They called it classical music, but all it ever sounded like to me was a fellow practicing the scales. And there was always a man or woman who recited poetry the likes of which had never been heard in Adenville. I doubt if three people in the audience understood what the poems were about. And they had singers. But did they sing good old songs like “My Old Kentucky Home” or “Sweet Adeline”? Heck, no. Papa said they sang arias from operas, which was enough to convince me that I’d never spend any money going to an opera. The singing was bad enough, but they made it worse by always singing in a foreign language. Then they would have a man or woman who read passages from classical literature-That was the silli-est thing of all. It didn’t make sense” unless you knew the whole story and the only time that happened was when a man read some passages from A Christmas Carol by Dickens. But he spoiled it by reading some passage from a Greek play written hundreds of years ago next. Sometimes they would act out a scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays. And sometimes a fellow would play solos on a cornet. I must admit there was one time they had Swiss bell ringers which I enjoyed. They had a lot of different sounding bells on a table, and by ringing them they could play a tune.

The Chautauqua we had this year was the worst yet tor my money. But rather than let anybody know they didn’t understand or appreciate the classical stuff, everybody applauded. There was one woman who must have scared every dog in town. I mentioned her to Tom as we sat on the corral

fence with Frankie the next morning after doing our chores-

“My ears are still ringing from that big fat woman screaming at the Chautauqua last night,” I said.

“She was a soprano,” Tom said. “That is the highest pitch a human voice can have.”

“Why anybody would pay money to hear a woman like that beats me,” I said. “The next Chautauqua that comes to town I’m going to pretend I’m sick and can’t go.”

“You know, J.D.,” Tom said, “you are right in a way. I doubt if any kid in town enjoyed the Chautauqua. But you’ve given me an idea. I’m going to put on a magic show because I’m getting a little short of cash.”

Tom’s saying he was getting short of cash was like a dog all alone in a butcher shop complaining there wasn’t enough meat.

“What do you mean by a magic show?” I asked.

“Yeah, what?” Frankie said.

“When I was at the Academy last year Father Rodriguez took all of us students to the Salt Lake Theater twice,” Tom said. “Once was for a vaudeville show. Two of the best acts were the Mental Marvel, a mind-reading act, and Murdock the Magician. My great brain figured out how the Mental Marvel and his assistant faked the mind-reading act. But the magic tricks Murdock the Magician performed stumped me.”

“He wouldn’t come to a small town like Adenville,” I said.

“Of course not,” Tom said. “But 1 told Father Rodriguez my great brain had to know everything. He let me buy a book on how to do magic tricks, I studied it and found out how Murdock the Magician did some of his tricks. How much would you pay to see a magic show?”

“I’ve never seen a magic show,” I said, “so how would

I know how much I would pay?”

“I’ll give you an example,” Tom said as he took a handkerchief from his pocket. “What if I told you this wasn’t a handkerchief but a hen that could lay eggs?”

“I’d say your great brain is as scrambled as scrambled eggs,” I answered and laughed because I thought that was funny and so did Frankie.

But not Tom- “All I’m asking you,” he said serious as he could be, “is if I could show you a trick like that and a few other magic tricks, how much would you pay to see a magic show?”

“I’d gladly pay a dime to see a handkerchief lay an egg,” I said and laughed some more because I thought that was even funnier and so did Frankie.

Tom put the handkerchief back in his pocket. “A dime,” he said.-“If I could get fifty kids’at ten cents each that would amount to five dollars. I’ll put my great brain to work on it right away and start rehearsing for my magic act.”

For the next two days after school Tom took his book on magic and some things he wouldn’t let me see up to his loft in the barn. He said he had to rehearse his magic act.

Thursday after school Tom said he needed a large wooden box to use as a table for his magic act. Frankie and I went with him to the Z.C.M.I, store taking along Frankie’s wagon. The full name of the store was Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution. There were stores like this, which were owned by the Mormon church, in all Utah towns and cities. Tom asked Mr. Harmon if he could have one of the big wooden shipping boxes in back of the store. Mr. Harmon told Tom to help himself-Tom picked out a wooden box large enough to use as a

table. I helped him lift it on t6 Frankie’s wagon. Then Tom picked up a cardboard box and tossed it inside the wooden one. When we got to the barn we laid the box upside down after Tom had removed the cardboard carton. Tom sent me to the house to get Frankie’s set of crayons. By the time I returned he had cut two pieces of cardboard from the carton. He used them and a black crayon to make two signs which read:

SEE ADENVILLE’S FIRST MAGIC SHOW SUNDAY 2:00 P.M. FITZGERALD BARN ADMISSION 10f1 SATISFACTION GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK.

Tom got a hammer and some tacks from the tool shed. He tacked one of the signs near the door of our barn. Then we went to the post office where he tacked the other sign to a tree in front of the building.

“What’s the idea?” I asked. “Every kid in town will know about the magic show without any signs.”

“I got to thinking,” Tom said. “There are plenty of grownups who have never seen a magic show in Adenville. Maybe some of them will come too.”

Papa always stopped at the post office to get the mail from our box before coming home for supper. He must have seen the sign because he stared at Tom with a suspicious look when he entered the parlor.

“I saw the sign for your magic show,” he said. “Don’t tell me that you are backsliding and this is another of your great brain’s schemes to swindle people.”

Tom looked as if Papa had accused him of robbing the bank. “How can it be a swindle when I guarantee satisfaction

or your money back?” he asked. “I know if I’d never seen a magic show that I’d gladly pay a dime to see one.”

“A magic show, yes,” Papa said. “But magic acts are performed by professional magicians.”

“I may not be a professional,” Tom said, “but with my great brain I can do some tricks as good as any professional. And if you don’t believe me come and see for yourself.”

Then Tom told Papa about Murdock the Magician and the book on magic tricks he had bought. Papa was so relieved to find out that Tom wasn’t backsliding that he offered to help.

“You will need seats for the audience,” he said. “I’ll get Mr, Hoffman at the lumber yard to lend us some planks we can lay on bales of hay.”

“Thanks, Papa,” Tom said. “But I sure wish I had a high silk hat to use for one of my tricks.”

“Your mother knows where my plug hat is,” Papa said. “Tell her I said you could use it.”

Tom should have charged admission to the barn on Saturday morning. Papa and Uncle Mark came into the cor-ral with my uncle’s team and wagon. They had a load of planks loaned to them by Mr. Hoffman. About twenty kids kept getting in their way as they laid the planks on bales of hay, but they finally had six rows of seats for the audience. While they were doing this Tom and I put up a curtain in front of the box table. We used a piece of clothes line and an old sheet Mamma had given my brother.

The next day Tom asked Mamma to serve Sunday din-ner an hour early to give him time to get ready for the magic show. We were all finished eating by one o’clock.

“I’ve got to get my props ready now,” Tom said as he

stood up to excuse himself from the table.

“Just a moment,” Mamma said. “When I got your father’s high silk hat out I noticed his evening cloak. During our honeymoon in Denver we saw a magician perform at a vaudeville show. He wore a full dress suit, a high silk hat, and an evening cloak. You’ll find the cloak and hat in my clothes closet.”

“Thanks, Mamma,” Tom said.

Frankie and I went with Tom into Mamma’s bedroom. He got the plug hat and the evening cloak that was black silk on the outside and lined with white silk on the inside. We went to the barn. Tom put the cloak and hat on the box table, Then he and I climbed up the rope ladder to his loft. He handed me a cigar box, an alarm clock, and a steel bar about two feet long and half an inch thick. He picked up a shoe box and then we climbed down the rope ladder.

Tom opened the shoe box and removed a candleholder with a candle in it, a half-open box of kitchen matches, a steel ring about an inch in diameter, and a red bandanna handkerchief, which he laid out on the box table. He took the shoe box and went back up to his loft. When he returned I asked him what was in the shoe box.

“You’ll find out during the show,” he said. “Now, J.D., I’m going to hire you to collect admissions, and remember no credit or promises. Keep the money in the cigar box.”

“What am I supposed to do with the alarm clock?” I asked.

“You will need it to know what time it is,” he answered. “I’ve got it all set. Don’t open the barn doors until a quarter to two. At one minute to two you close the bam doors and bring the cigar box and alarm clock backstage.”

“Where is backstage?” I asked.

“Behind the curtain,” Tom said. “Then you step around in front of the curtain and say, ‘I am proud to present Adenville’s first magic show with that great conjurer, T.D. Fitzgerald.’ “

“What’s a conjurer?” I asked.

“Yeah, what?” Frankie said.

“A magician,” Tom said as if disgusted.

“Then why don’t I say magician?” I asked. “None of the kids will know what a conjurer is any more than I did.”

“I can’t help that/’ Tom said. “Conjurer sounds more mysterious.”

“What do I get for collecting admissions and introduc-ing you?” I asked because I wanted some guarantee before the show started.

“I’ll pay you twenty-five cents,” Tom answered.

“What if nobody comes?” I asked. “Will I-still get the quarter?”

“If you are low-down enough to take it,” Tom said. “Now get going.”

I sure as heck didn’t have to be low-down to take the quarter. By one thirty I was regretting that I hadn’t driven a harder bargain. The show wasn’t due to start until two o’clock but there were already about twenty kids in the corral. And by the time I opened the bam doors and began collecting admissions just about every boy in town was there, along with five girls and six adults. Tom was going to make a fortune.

Most of the customers had paid and were in the barn when I saw Papa, Mamma, Aunt Bertha, Aunt Cathie, and Uncle Mark come into the corral. Boy, oh, boy, what a spot that put me in. Should I charge our own family to see the show or let them in free? I knew if I let them in free what

Tom would say with his money-loving heart. He would say I should have charged them fifty cents. Then he would say that because I let them in free, instead of him owing me twenty-five cents, I owed him a quarter. Papa solved my problem by handing me fifty cents.

I waited until one minute to two and then entered the barn and shut the door. I went “backstage” as Tom called it. He was peeking through a hole he had cut in the sheet curtain. He turned and looked at me the way a hungry horse would look at a manger full of oats.

“We are playing to a full house,” he said grinning. “The seats are all filled and there are even some adults standing up. How do I look?”

He had on Papa’s evening cloak and high silk hat, which was pressing down on his ears.

“I don’t know if you look like a magician or not,” I said, “because I’ve never seen one.”

Tom took the cigar box and alarm clock-from me and placed them behind the box table. “All right, J.D.,” he said, “make your announcement and then draw the curtain.”

I stepped around in front of the curtain. “I am proud to present Adenville’s first magic show,” I said, “with that great conjurer, T.D. Fitzgerald.” Then I couldn’t help add-ing, “For the benefit of you kids who don’t know what a conjurer is, it is the same as a magician.”

1 didn’t see anything funny about it, but Papa and some of the other adults laughed. They all stopped laughing when I pulled the curtain over and revealed the great conjurer himself, Tom stood behind the box table wearing the high silk hat and evening cloak with his arms folded on his chest. Everybody in the audience began to applaud, and he hadn’t even done anything yet.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Tom said when the applause died down, “is the hand quicker than the eye? Some people say Yes and some say No. Do conjurers have supernatural powers that enable them to perform feats of magic? Some people say Yes and some say No. Today I am going to let you decide the answers to these two questions yourself by performing three of the most difficult magic tricks known.”

Tom removed the high silk hat and held it so the audience could see inside it. Then he laid it on the table. He removed the evening cloak and showed the audience the in-side and outside before putting it back on.

“You have seen there is nothing in the hat,” Tom said. “And you have seen there are no hidden pockets in the cloak.” He then rolled the sleeves of his shirt up above his elbows and left them there- “You can also plainly see, ladies and gentlemen, that I have nothing up my sleeves.” He held up his hands with fingers spread apart showing the back and palm of both hands. “And you can plainly see that I have nothing concealed in my hands. I will now proceed to do my first magic trick by turning the flame of a candle into a red handkerchief.”

Tom picked up the half-open box of kitchen matches. He removed a match with his right hand and then closed the box. He put the box of matches on the box table and then lit the match on the side of it. He used the match to light the candle in the candleholder with his right hand. Then he held the doubled up fist of his left hand above the flame of the candle.

“Abracadabra, abracadabra,” he chanted. “Flame of can-dle enter my fist and become a red handkerchief when I blow you out.”

Tom blew out the candle. Then he held up his left fist.

He opened his fingers slightly. Then using his right thumb and index finger he drew a red handkerchief from his left fist. He waved it back and forth and then placed it on the table.

Everybody in the audience applauded except some kids who were so bug-eyed with astonishment they just sat there staring with their mouths open.

Tom put the candle and box of matches behind the box table. Then he held up the shoe box sideways.

“I know you are all wondering what I’ve got in this shoe box,” he said. “I will tell you. I have a magic hen in this shoe box whose name is Henrietta.”

The audience laughed.

“Please don’t laugh,” Tom said, very serious. “If you hurt Henrietta’s feelings she might refuse to lay an egg for me.”

The audience laughed some more.

Tom put the shoe box down. He picked up Papa’s high silk hat and showed the audience the inside-

“As you can see the hat is empty,” he said as he put it back down. “I will now get Henrietta to lay an egg in the

hat.”

He took the lid off the shoe box and stared inside. Then

he faced the audience.

“Now look what you have done,” he said. “You hurt Henrietta’s feelings by laughing at her. I told you she was a magic hen. She has cast a spell over the audience so you will think you are seeing just a plain old white handkerchief instead of a hen.”

Tom reached into the shoe box and held up a white handkerchief by two corners. “I know this looks like a white handkerchief to you,” he said. “But I am actually holding

Henrietta in my hands. I will prove she is a real hen by mak-ing her lay an egg in the hat.”

Tom placed the handkerchief over Papa’s hat which was turned upside down. “All right, Henrietta,” he said, “lay me an egg like a good hen.”

Everybody started to laugh.

“Come on, Henrietta,” Tom pleaded. “Please lay me an egg.”

It was so comical, Tom’s talking to a handkerchief as if it were a hen that understood English, everybody laughed some more.

“All right, Henrietta,” Tom said looking angry, “if that is the way you want to be. You lay me an egg right now or I’ll have my mother make a chicken stew out of you.”

That made the audience roar with laughter.

Tom held up his hands for silence. “Quiet please,” he said as he bent his head closer to the hat. “She’s cackling and clucking now. She is going to lay me an egg. She did it!”

People in the audience were now laughing so hard some of them were holding their sides. But not for long. Tom peeled the handkerchief back holding it and the brim of the hat. He kept the hat in plain sight as he walked around in front of the box table. Then he tipped the hat so everybody in the audience could see inside. And lying in the hat was a white egg.

Tom walked in back of the box table. He put the hat down. He picked up the handkerchief by two corners and carefully put it back in the shoe box.

“Don’t cry, Henrietta.” he said. “I was just joking about making a chicken stew out of you.”

The audience, which had been stunned into silence when they saw the egg inside the hat, now began to applaud

and whistle. Tom put the lid on the shoe box and placed it behind the box table. He took several bows and then held

up his hands for silence.

“I have saved the most difficult of all magic tricks for last,” he said. “But this trick can’t be done unless I’m wearing the magic hat.” He picked up the hat.

“The egg!” I and about twenty other kids yelled at the

same time.

Tom didn’t pay any attention to us. He put the high silk hat on his head. I expected to see egg yolk running from under the hat and down Tom’s face, and so did everybody else in the audience. There was a dead silence when nothing happened. Finally Danny Forester cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted from the rear of the audience. “What happened to the egg?” he yelled. Tom removed the plug hat and held it so the audience could see inside it. “What egg?” he asked, looking as innocent as he could be.

“The egg that was in the hat!” Danny shouted- “Oh, that egg,” Tom said. “I knew I had to use the magic hat for my next trick so I made it disappear.”

That got almost as much applause as the original egg trick. Tom put the hat back on and picked up the steel bar and steel ring from the box table. He rapped the ring against the steel bar making a clinking sound. Then he

motioned to me to take the steel bar.

“My assistant will now pass among the audience and allow you to examine the steel bar,” he said. “I want you to

make sure it is a solid piece of steel.”

A dozen kids insisted on examining the steel bar and so did Seth Smith’s father and Don Huddle the blacksmith. Tom used his handkerchief to blow his nose while this was

going on. When I returned the steel bar to him he took hold of the end of it with his right hand and then handed me the steel ring with his left hand.

“My assistant will now pass among you,” he said, “and let you examine the steel ring to make sure it is a solid steel ring.”

While I was doing this Tom slid the steel bar so he was holding it with his right hand around the middle. Again Mr-Smith and Mr. Huddle examined the steel ring, along with about twenty kids. When I returned it to Tom he held it up with the thumb and index finger of his left hand.

“I will now ask for two volunteers from the audience,” he said, “to help me perform the impossible. How about you, Basil, and you, Danny?”

Tom then came around from behind the box table holding the steel bar in one hand and the steel ring in the other hand. He told Danny to stand on one side of him and Basil on the other side.

“Now, Danny,” he said, “pick up that red bandanna handkerchief on the table and drape it over my right hand holding the steel bar.”

Tom waited until the bandanna had been placed over his right hand covering it from view. “Now, Danny,” he said, “you take hold of one end of the steel bar with your right hand, and Basil, you take hold of the other end with your left hand.”

Both boys took a firm grip on the steel bar. Tom held up the steel ring in his left hand.

“There is no way I can put the steel ring around the steel bar without using magic powers.” he said.

Then he placed his left hand and the steel ring under

the red bandanna handkerchief. “Abracadabra, abracadabra,” he chanted. “Using all my magic powers, I now command the steel bar to part in the middle so I can put the steel ring

around it.”

I think everybody in the audience held their breath as

Tom stood staring at the red bandanna handkerchief.

“Abracadabra, abracadabra,” Tom chanted. “I now command the steel bar to join itself together so nobody will ever know it parted to let me put the ring around it.”

Again there was dead silence for a moment. “Abracadabra, abracadabra,” Tom chanted. “I now command the steel ring to spin on the steel bar when I count to three and remove my hands and the bandanna handerkerchief. One,

two, three!”

On the count of three Tom removed his hands jerking

the bandanna handkerchief quickly away from the steel bar. I thought my own eyes and the eyes of everybody in the audience were going to pop right out of our heads. The steel ring was around the steel bar and spinning.

Tom laid the bandanna handkerchief down on the box table. Then he used his own handkerchief to wipe his tore-head. For my money, his whole body should have been wringing wet with sweat after pulling a magic trick like that.

Danny and Basil were still holding the steel bar. Danny’s left eyelid which was usually half closed was wide open, and so was his mouth. Basil kept blinking his eyes as he stared at the steel bar and steel ring as if he couldn’t believe them. Finally Danny recovered enough to speak.

“I still don’t believe it,” he said.

“Examine the steel bar and ring all you want,” Tom

said.

Danny let go of the steel liar and removed the ring. He stared at the ring for a moment and then put it in his mouth and bit on it.

“Ouch!” he yelled.

Then Basil took the .steel bar and tried to bend it but couldn’t.

Mr. Smith and Mr. Huddle came up to the box table. They both examined the steel bar and steel ring and then walked back to their seats shaking their heads.

All of this time the audience had been silent with astonishment. Then somebody began to applaud, and everybody joined in.

Tom took several bows and then held up his hands for silence. “Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “That concludes Adenville’s first magic show-I can tell from your applause that all of you are satisfied you got your money’s worth.”

That was a clever thing for Tom to say. A kid who had been applauding and whistling would have to have a coconut for a head to say he wasn’t satisfied and wanted his money back. But I could tell by how excited they looked as they left the barn that they were all more than satisfied. Tom waited until everybody had left except Frankie and me and then counted the money in the cigar box. He had five dollars and forty cents. He gave me the quarter he had promised. But all that money made me a little greedy I guess.

“That pays me for collecting admissions and introduc-ing you,” I said. “Now how about paying me for acting as your assistant? That ought to be worth another quarter.”

“You’ve got cabbages in your head,” Tom said. “By rights I should make you pay me for letting you be my assistant. There isn’t a kid in town who wouldn’t have jumped

at the chance to be my assistant and get to see the show free.”

I knew he was right. “That is a lot of money for putting on a magic show,” I said. “But I’ll bet the kids would pay even more to see how you did all those tricks.”

“I thought about doing just that,” Tom said. “But my

great brain said No.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Yeah, why?” Frankie said.

“If I showed the kids how the tricks were done,” Tom said, “they would know they had been tricked by sleight of hand. And knowing they had been tricked, some soreheads among them would start yelling I’d swindled them and de-mand their money back. But-as long as they think I performed the tricks by magic none of them can claim they were

swindled.”

“But you were just putting on a magic show,” I said.

“I’ll bet none of the customers at the Salt Lake Theater

claimed Murdock the Magician had swindled them and demanded their money back.”

“Murdock the Magician and I are two different people,”

Tom said. “He is a professional magician. I’m a fellow who must watch his P’s and (?’s with everybody just waiting to

catch me backsliding.”

“How about showing Just Frankie and me how you did

the tricks if we promise never to tell?” I asked.

“And also us,” Papa’s voice made us all turn around.

“We waited until everybody had left.”

We hadn’t heard Papa, Uncle Mark, Mr. Smith, and Mr.

Huddle enter the barn.

“I’m sorry,” Tom said as he hugged the cigar box with

both hands, “but I can’t.”

“If you are worrying about me making you refund the

admission money forget it,” Papa said. “You put on a good show, and it was worth every penny you charged to see it.”

“In that case,” Tom said, “I’ll show you.”

He put down the cigar box and picked up the box of kitchen matches and the candle in its holder from behind the box table. He set the candleholder down. Then he pushed the box of kitchen matches half open. He picked up the red handkerchief and rolled it up into a ball and placed it in the opposite end of the open box of matches-

“I never let the audience see this end of the box of matches where the red handkerchief is hidden,” Tom said. “And after I removed a match with my right hand I pushed the matchbox closed which forced the rolied-up handkerchief into the palm of my left hand. I palmed the handkerchief in my left fist.”

“I guessed that much,” Papa said. “But the other two tricks baffled me.”

Tom removed the high silk hat he was still wearing and placed it upside down on the box table. He got the shoe box and placed it sideways on the table. He removed the lid and lifted out the white handkerchief, holding it by two corners.

“I only let the audience see one side of the handkerchief,” he said. Then he crossed his arms and turned the handkerchief around. “The audience never saw this side.”

Up close I could see a piece of white thread sewn to the top hem of the handkerchief and an egg hanging just below the middle of the handkerchief on the other end of the thread.

“I know you are wondering about the egg,” Tom said. “But it is just an empty shell-I used a needle to punch a hole in each end. Then by blowing softly on one end I was able to blow the contents inside the shell out the hole on the

other end. Then I took some white glue and pasted the end of the thread to the top of the eggshell.”

Tom turned the handkerchief around so we couldn’t see the eggshell. Then he laid the handkerchief over the plug hat just as he had done before the audience.

“The trick is to lift up the handkerchief by the two corners opposite the ones I was holding when I put it over the hat,” he explained. He took hold of the two opposite corners and lifted them up. “You can see that leaves the eggshell lying on the bottom of the hat. Then by holding the opposite end of the handkerchief from where the thread is sewn to the hem, and taking hold of the brim of the hat, I can show the eggshell in the hat to the audience-I know from that distance they can’t see the white thread against the white silk lining inside the hat.”

Tom placed the hat back on the table and covered it with the handkerchief. “Now the trick is when I pick up the handkerchief I take hold of the two earners where the thread is sewn to the hem.” He took hold of the two comers and lifted up the handkerchief. “Holding it this way to put it back in the shoe box the audience can’t see the eggshell on

the opposite side.”

Papa shook his head as Tom put the handkerchief and eggshell back in the shoe box. “Sounds simple when you know how it is done,” he said- “Did you make up that dialogue about Henrietta? It was funny and clever.”

“No,” Tom admitted. “Some of it I remembered Murdock the Magician using. I just made up that part about letting Mamma make stewed chicken out of Henrietta.”

Don Huddle picked up the steel bar from the table- “As a blacksmith who works with metal,” he said, “I thought that last trick was the best of all. But I can’t for the life of

me figure out how you did it.”

“It was easier than the egg trick,” Tom said. “I got two identical bridle rings from Mr. Stout at his saddle and harness shop. While J.D. was letting the audience examine the steel bar I pretended to blow my nose.”

Tom removed his handkerchief and blew his nose and then returned it to his pocket. He then showed us a steel ring he had palmed under the thumb of his right hand.

“That is how I got the duplicate ring into my right hand,” he said. “When J.D. handed me the steel bar I slipped the duplicate ring over it while the audience was examining the other steel ring. Then I slid the ring to the middle of the bar covering it with my fist.”

Mr. Huddle scratched his chin. “How did you get rid of the other ring?” he asked.

“When I put my left hand under the bandanna handkerchief,” Tom said, “I palmed the other ring. And when I drew my hands and the bandanna away from the steel bar, I laid the bandanna on the box table. Then I used my handkerchief to wipe sweat from my forehead and put the other ring in my pocket.” ‘

I had a question to ask. “How did you make the ring spin on the steel bar?”

“By jerking the bandanna handkerchief away quickly,” Tom answered.

Mr. Huddle shook his head. “You had me-completely buffaloed on that one, Tom,” he said. “Thanks for showing me how it was done. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep nights trying to figure it out.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Tom said. “In my next magic show I’m going to saw J.D. in half.”

“Oh, no, you aren’t,” Papa said. “We will leave the saw-

ing of people in halt to the professional magicians-I don’t want you practicing any dangerous tricks with your brother. And just to make sure you don’t, I think you should leave well enough alone and forget about any more magic shows. We will all keep your confidence and not reveal how you did the magic tricks today. But this is the end of your career as a magician. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Papa,” Tom said,

I didn’t blame Tom for looking plumb disgusted as Papa, Mr. Smith, Mr. Huddle, and Uncle Mark left the barn.

“Papa is such a worry wart at times,” he said. “I saw Murdock the Magician saw a woman in half. It is Just an illusion and it tells how to do it in my magic book.”

“Put me down as a worry wart too,” I said. “The day I let you practice sawing me in half I’ll have onions growing’ out of my head instead of hair.”

“But I .told you it is just an illusion,” Tom said.

“I don’t care what you call it,” I said. .”I’m not a fellow who is going to take a chance of having his hips and legs running around this barn looking for the rest of his body because the trick doesn’t work.”

Frankie began laughing. “That would be lunny,” he said.

“You call that funny?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Frankie said. Then he bent over and began running around inside the barn yelling, “Where’s the rest of my body?”

That made Tom and me both laugh.

The fellows began pestering Turn so much wanting to know how he did the magic tricks, he had to tell them a lie to stop it. He said Murdock the Magician had taught him magic and he had promised never to reveal how it is done.

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