n, one by one, he tossed the rings up and they vanished in mid-air
before her very eyes.

"How did you do that?" she cried, enchanted.

He laughed and produced the big, white Persian cats, changed them into
kittens, then into birds and butterflies, and finally into a bowl full of
big, staring goldfish. Then he picked up a ladle, dipped out the fish,
carefully fried them over an electric lamp, dumped them from the smoking
frying pan back into the water, where they quietly swam off again,
goggling their eyes in astonishment.

"That," said the girl, excitedly, "is miraculous!"

"Isn't it?" he said, delighted as a boy at her praise. "What card will
you choose?"

And he handed her a pack.

"The ace of hearts, if you please."

"Draw it from the pack."

"Any card?" she inquired. "Oh! how on earth did you make me draw the ace
of hearts?"

"Hold it tightly," he warned her.

She clutched it in her pretty fingers.

"Are you sure you hold it?" he asked.

"Perfectly."

"Look!"

She looked and found that it was the queen of diamonds she held so
tightly; but, looking again to reassure herself, she was astonished to
find that the card was the jack of clubs. "Tear it up," he said. She tore
it into small pieces.

"Throw them into the air!"

She obeyed, and almost cried out to see them take fire in mid-air and
float away in ashy flakes.

Face flushed, eyes brilliant, she turned to him, hanging on his every
movement, every expression.

Before her rapt eyes the multicolored mice danced jigs on slack wires,
then were carefully rolled up into little balls of paper which
immediately began to swell until each was as big as a football. These
burst open, and out of each football of white paper came kittens,
turtles, snakes, chickens, ducks, and finally two white rabbits with
silly pink eyes that began gravely waltzing round and round the room.

"Please stand up and shake your skirts," he said.

She rose hastily and obeyed; a rain of silver coins fell, then gold, then
banknotes, littering the floor. Then precious stones began to drop about
her; she shook them from her hair, her collar, her neck; she clenched her
hands in nervous amazement, but inside each tight little fist she felt
something, and opening her fingers she fairly showered the floor with
diamonds.

"Can't you save one for me?" he asked. "I really need it." But when again
she looked for the glittering heap at her feet, it was gone; and, search
as she might