Two Little Women. Wells Carolyn
she said I was the meanest girl in Berwick, because I wouldn't tell her the answer to an algebra example. And I couldn't, because Miss Haskell had made us all promise not to tell the answers to anybody – she wanted everybody to do them without help."
"Seems to me you did the right thing," and Tad looked at Grace.
"I didn't know that," said Grace. "I wasn't at school the day Miss Haskell said that."
"Then you couldn't be expected to know," said Tad; "now, it's just as I said, a boy would fight it out with another boy, and he might punch his head, but the matter would be understood and straightened out, and not sulk for two weeks over it."
"I didn't sulk," said Grace.
"Well, you two sillies didn't speak to each other, – it's about the same thing. Now will you be good! Will you kiss and make up?"
"I will," said Maisie May, heartily, and she flung her arms round Grace, and gave her a most friendly kiss, which was as heartily returned.
"Bless you, my children!" said Tad, dramatically. "Now don't let me hear of your quarrelling again! Are you mad at anybody, Dolly?"
"No, sir, thank you; but if I am, at any time, I'll come to you for a peacemaker."
"Oh, look who's here!" cried Lollie, spying a strange figure walking across the lawn.
The group joined the others and found themselves invited to take a seat in the rows of chairs which were lined up in front of an interesting-looking table.
They did so, and soon all present were seated in breathless anticipation of what might happen.
The tea tables had been whisked away, and at the door of the tent the stranger stood, – a table in front of him.
He was a magician, and the tricks he did held his young auditors spellbound.
Turning back his coat sleeves to prove he was concealing nothing, he would take a large sheet of white paper, and with a swift movement twirl it round into a cornucopia. This was, of course, empty, and shaking it about to prove its emptiness, he then held it upright, and invited Dolly to look into it. But he held it so high, that she had to stand on tiptoe to peep in. However, she caught a glimpse, and it seemed to her there were pink flowers in it.
Then the magician asked Dotty to peep in. She peered over the edge, and just as she exclaimed, "Why, it's full of flowers!" he overturned it on her head, and she was showered with lovely pink rosebuds made of tissue paper!
"Where did they come from?" cried everybody, as they scrambled to pick them up. "The cone was empty! Where did he get them?"
But the magician only smiled, and went on with his other tricks.
"Has any one a gold watch?" he asked.
Not many of the boys had gold watches, but Lollie Henry exhibited with pride one that his grandfather had given him on his birthday.
"May I borrow it?" said the magician; "ah, thank you," and he took it before Lollie had really consented.
"Now, a silk hat. Much obliged, sir," as Mr. Fayre provided the hat.
"Now, my young friends, we'll make an omelet. Two eggs, somebody, – please?"
Nobody had any eggs, and the magician seemed nonplussed. "What, no eggs in all this well-dressed crowd? Incredible! Ah, come here, little girl!" He caught Genie, who was running about. "Why, here is an egg in the big bow of your hair-ribbon! And here is another in the other bow! What a strange place to carry eggs! Did Mother send you to the store for them?"
"No, sir," said Genie, looking in amazement at the unmistakable eggs the man had evidently found in her ribbon. "I should think they would have dropped out sooner!"
"I should think so too," returned the magician; "lucky for me they didn't, or I could not have made the nice omelet I'm about to concoct."
He set the silk hat on the table, laid the watch and eggs beside it, and then called for a cup of milk.
Somehow or other Mrs. Fayre had that all ready and handed it to him with a smile.
"Good!" said the magician; "now we'll to work! I suppose many of you girls know how to make an omelet, so you must look sharp and see that I do it right. First, we'll break the eggs and whisk them up."
He broke the eggs right into the silk hat, and stirred them with a fork and then poured in the milk slowly, stirring all the time.
"Something else goes to an omelet," he said, trying to think; "ah, yes, some sort of an herb. Ah, I have it! Thyme! Well, well, Mr. Fayre, do you raise thyme in your kitchen garden? No? What a pity! But, luckily, I have time right here!" He took up Lollie's watch. "Ah, just, the thing!"
He threw the watch in the hat, and began to beat it with his heavy fork.
He looked anxiously in the hat. "Wants to be crushed," he said; "can't get the flavour of time unless it's crushed. Ah, here we are!" and he picked up a kitchen poker that had appeared from nowhere in particular.
With that he beat and pounded and banged the watch, and then with a big spoon, he dipped up spoonfuls of the mixture and let it run back into the hat. The children could distinctly see the bits of brass or steel wheels and springs, and even fragments of the gold case.
Lollie looked a little sober, but said no word of fear for his watch's safety.
"Now, we'll cook it," said the magician, and he poured the "omelet" into a bright, clean frying-pan.
"Where's the fire?" he asked, holding the pan high aloft, and looking all about.
"There isn't any," said Mr. Fayre; "you didn't tell me to provide a fire."
"You should have known enough for that!" shouted the magician, as if in anger. "Well, as we have no fire, of course, we can't make our omelet. So take back your things."
From the frying-pan he poured a cup of clear milk, which he gave to Mrs. Fayre. Then he took out of the same pan two eggs, which he handed to Genie, intact and unbroken. Then he hesitated, saying, "What else did I borrow?"
"A watch!" "A gold watch!" cried a dozen voices.
"Oh, yes, to be sure!" and the magician, smiling, passed the pan to Lollie, and there on its clean, shining surface, lay the gold watch, absolutely unharmed.
Such a clapping of applause! for many of the young audience had been forced to believe that the watch was utterly ruined.
That closed the entertainment, and soon after that the young guests went home.
"How do you s'pose he did it?" Dolly asked of Dotty, as they sat in the swing, talking over the party.
"Oh, it's easy enough," returned Dotty. "They don't really break up the watch, you know."
"Of course I know that! But how do they do it? What becomes of the broken eggs and all?"
"I don't know, but I've seen magic tricks before and they always bring everything out right somehow!"
CHAPTER VI
ROLLER SKATING
The day after the party the two girls sat as usual in the big swing talking things over.
"I like that boy with the funny name," said Dotty; "the one they call Lollie. Such a silly name for a boy!"
"Yes; such a dignified name as Lorillard ought not to have such a silly nickname. But he's always called Lollie. He is a nice boy, but I like Joe Collins better."
"Yes, he's funny and makes you laugh all the time. But those twin boys are the nicest of all. What funny names they all have. Tod and Tad!"
"How do you like the girls?"
"The Rawlins girls are nice and Celia Ferris. But I like you best, Dolly, and except for parties I don't care so much about a crowd. Let's go roller skating."
"Oh, no; let's sit here and swing; it's too hot to skate."
"Pshaw! come on. You're too lazy for anything. You just sit around and do nothing and that's what makes you so fat. Get your skates and I'll race you around