diately the verse is finished, the singers,
stooping down so that their heads disappear from view, thrust up their
arms and wave them about, the effect being that of a row of people
standing on their heads. The chorus is thus sung. Then they pull down
their arms and put up their heads again and sing the next verse.

The Dancing Dwarf

This is a very amusing illusion and easy to arrange. All the players
but two are sent out of the room and these stand behind a table. One
stands close to the table, his arms in front of him so that the
fingers rest on the table. Boots, or stockings and shoes, are put on
their arms and a long dark cloak is thrown over the shoulders of the
first player covering the one behind him. The one behind furnishes the
arms by thrusting his out in front. The little feet resting on the
table show from the folds of the cloak and give the appearance of a
dwarf. The players are then called back and the dwarf, whose face
should be disguised, performs any feat that they ask for--he sings a
song, or makes a speech or prophesies the future of any one who
desires it, always ending with a wild dance performed by the arms and
hands of the other person. The light should be turned down somewhat
and the audience should be straight in front of the table to keep the
illusion at its best.

[Illustration: THE DANCING DWARF]

Charades

"Charades" can be written in advance and carefully rehearsed, but in
this book we are concerned more nearly with those that are arranged a
few minutes (the fewer the better) before they are performed. As a
rule a word of two or three syllables is chosen, the syllables are
first acted, then the whole word, and then the audience guess what it
was. Sometimes the word is brought in, both in its complete form and
in its syllables; and sometimes--and this is perhaps the better
way--it is acted. Thus, if the word were "Treason," one way would be
to make the acts themselves anything that occurred to you, merely
saying "Tree" with some distinctness in the first; "Son" or "Sun" in
the second; and "Treason" in the third. The other and more interesting
way would be to make the first act relate to tree-felling or tree
planting, or, say, a performance by Mr. Tree; the second to a son or
the sun; and the third to some treasonable situation, such as, for
example, the Gunpowder Plot. On account of the time which is occupied
in preparing and acting it is better to choose two-syllabled
words--whi