get into the hopper, and be ground
down to a proper size." He hissed out the word size, drawing it as long
as his breath would hold.

I didn't know what his words meant until a lady with a red parasol went
round behind the Pantoscopticon and climbed to the top. After looking
down at the rattling wheels of the machinery a moment, she jumped into
the hopper, just as the Panjandrum came round again to the word
"s--i--z--e." I looked into the machine and had the satisfaction to see
this lady come out, not in pieces as I expected, but looking just as she
did when she went in, except that she was reduced to rather less than an
inch in height. Her parasol was a mere rose-leaf for size--about as big
as a silver three-cent piece. A gentleman with a white hat, whom I had
seen walking through the museum with this lady, and who seemed to be her
husband, stood looking into the peep-holes when she came out. He cried:

"Hold on, Amanda, and I'll go with you to see about the rainbows and the
pot of gold."

But the little lady with the red parasol didn't seem to hear him, she
only walked ahead eagerly toward the rainbows. The gentleman with the
white hat rushed up the stairs and leaped into the hopper without a
moment's pause, and the Great Panjandrum Himself, seeing that the man was
in a hurry, turned the crank twice as fast as before. The gentleman was
caught in the wheels and sent a-whirling. When he came to the bottom,
properly reduced, the speed of the machinery was such that he was thrown
out with a shock and his white hat, about the size of a doll's thimble,
fell off, so that he had to pick it up, crying out as he did so:

"Hold on, Amanda, and I'll go with you."

The little lady with the red parasol seemed to hear him this time, for
she turned her head long enough to say something, but she kept walking
briskly forward, either because she couldn't help it, or more likely for
fear somebody else would get the pot of gold which, as everybody knows,
lies at the end of a rainbow. However, by running, the little inch-long
gentleman caught up with the seven-eighths of an inch lady, and the two
went along together to find the pot of gold.

Still the Great Panjandrum kept toiling at the crank, while others
plunged into the hopper and came out "ground down to a proper size," as
the Great Panjan kept saying. Presently some of the children who had come
in with me jumped into the hopper and came out about half an inch in
length. The ot