CHAPTER XXIII Stage Magic
“Nothing must keep your mother from attending the magic show with us,”Judy told the children when they reached home.
Little else was said about it.
“A secret is more fun,” Penny whispered. Both children knew now that themagician was their young uncle Paul.
There were so many secrets that Judy was afraid the children’s motherwould suspect their plans. But she was too busy with plans of her own topay much attention to them. The very next day she found employment inthe Roulsville variety store and declared that she would soon repay Judyand Peter for all their kindnesses.
On the same day, which was Monday, Penny and Paul started in school,taking the bus at the main road and attending the school where Judy oncewent.
Wednesday finally came, the day of the magic show. Since there was noschool the next day, Thursday being Thanksgiving, the children couldstay up a little later in the evening. Penny was all excited.
“You just wait, Mommy!” she cried. “You’ll see I’m not making it up. Themagician can even make wishes come true.”
“Wear your prettiest dress, Mom,” Paul suggested.
“Very well,” she agreed, “but I don’t want to meet this magician. Youknow how I feel about strangers.”
Judy did not tell her the magician was no stranger.
Judy and Peter arrived with Horace and Honey to find the Browns’recreation room already crowded. Rows and rows of chairs were lined upbefore the stage. The front row was reserved for the club members. Pennyand Paul joined them.
“There’s room for you, too,” Ricky whispered.
“Thanks,” Judy whispered back.
They were all seated before she realized Helen Riker was not with them.“Where’s your mother?” she whispered across to Paul.
“She’s back there somewhere,” he replied. “Her face got awfully whitewhen she saw him.”
Judy knew Paul meant the magician.
“I guess it’s all right,” she began uncertainly, “as long as she can—”
She was interrupted by the sound of clapping hands. The heavy velvetcurtain had parted. The magician appeared on the stage smiling andbowing. He had a wand in his hand. As he waved it, flags of all nationsbegan to appear. When the stage was quite filled with them he waved thewand again and every flag vanished.
“This is stage magic,” he announced. “Watch carefully and you maydiscover my secrets.”
After he had done a few more astounding feats with ropes, balls, andboxes, he asked, “Did anyone in the audience wish for a canary bird?”
“I did!” cried Paul, jumping to his feet.
“Will you step up on the stage for a moment?” asked the magician. “Birdscome from eggs, do they not? May I take your handkerchief? I hope youdon’t mind what happens to it,” he continued as he began rolling it intoa ball. Soon the handkerchief was gone and in its place was a round,white egg!
“My handkerchief!” gasped Paul.
Judy could see that this trick had not been rehearsed. She was assurprised as the children were when little Paul reached in his pocket,at the magician’s suggestion, and pulled out a real live canary.
“Where will I put him?” asked Paul as he held the fluttering bird.
“What about a cage?” asked his amazing young uncle. Touching the tablein front of him with his wand, he made a cage appear out of nothing.Another flick of his magic wand and it disappeared.
“Wonderful, isn’t it?” he asked. “As a rule magicians don’t explaintheir tricks, but this is going to be an exception. You’ve seen a magnetattract a pin or a needle. Well, the magnet on the end of the wandattracts the spring that collapses or unfolds the cage, and presto!”
The cage reappeared on the table, and Paul let the bird fly into it.There was a thunder of applause followed by the announcement that a girlcould be made to vanish as easily as a birdcage.
“Let me!” cried Penny, running up on the stage.
CHAPTER XXIV Real Magic
Judy was glad when Helen Riker slipped into the seat Penny had left. Shewas just in time to hear the magician’s announcement that it would bereal magic if he could make all the children’s wishes come true.
“Penny has wished for her father and now she sees a man exactly likehim. Is that right?”
“Oh, yes!” Penny said. “I closed my eyes, and when I opened them therewas my daddy again—”
“You see?” he interrupted. “If I’m not her real daddy, I must be histwin brother. At any rate, the little lady trusts me. Now watch as Imake her disappear.”
Penny climbed up on the long table in front of the magician and wavedgood-bye to the audience. Her mother was watching as if she reallyexpected a miracle. Turning to Judy, she said, “He isn’t going to use ascreen. I’ve seen this trick before, but Paul would be different. He_is_ like Philip—so like him it’s almost uncanny.”
“Penny’s gone!” cried Judy, but nobody heard her because at the sametime exclamations of surprise went up from everyone else in theaudience. The table top was empty. The magician had made the little girlvanish right before their eyes.
“That,” he announced, “was a trick which Penny herself will explain toyou as soon as I bring her back. I have to say a few magic words first.They may be familiar to someone in the audience.”
And he began to chant, “Rama! Rama! Sita! Rama! Arise, daughter of Sitaas lovely as a rose.”
Holding his wand over a large, empty vase that stood on the table, hecontinued to chant mystic phrases as first a bouquet of roses and thenPenny herself came up, smiling through the roses.
“A real girl and real roses!”
“And a real daddy,” she chirped. “Isn’t that real magic?”
Clapping hands answered her as the magician began throwing the roses.Helen Riker caught one, and held it in her hand.
“It will make up for everything I lost, unless—Judy!” she askedsuddenly. “Who were those boys who came in with him? I saw them togetherin the store, too. He’s not married, is he? I couldn’t—”
Judy told her the Dran family were only caretakers for young Uncle Paulas her family had been caretakers for old Uncle Paul.
“He said he likes children around him,” Judy finished.
“I can see that. Oh, I’m so happy. We don’t need those little idols,Judy. We’re going to have each other.”
“See, Mommy!” Penny announced, returning to her chair and cuddling intoher mother’s lap. “Didn’t I tell you he could make wishes come true?”
Soon after that, the curtain was drawn and the magician did not appearagain in spite of all the clapping. Now the club members gathered aroundPenny. She began to explain in a mysterious voice just the way she hadrehearsed the disappearing trick. “There’s a hiding place under thestage. You remember how thick the table top was? Well, there’s a slidingpanel of thin wood—see! And when the panel slid out from under me, Idropped right into the table and disappeared.”
“How did you get inside the vase?” several voices questioned.
Penny laughed.
“That was easy. I slid through the table leg. It was hollow and wentdown like a tunnel under the stage.”
“I was there,” Wally spoke up proudly. “I pushed up Penny and the rosesthrough the table and through the bottom of the vase. It was a neattrick. I only wish—”
“What?” everybody asked when he paused.
“I wish my father’s pocketknife would turn up like Penny did,” he saidruefully. “Pop’s mad at me. I borrowed it to play with, and dropped itin the hay in your barn, Judy.”
“You did?” Judy asked. “When was this?”
“Saturday morning,” he replied. “I was going to look for it, but Rickychased me out of there. We’d had a fight. He said, ‘Don’t look for it!’I was going to come back and hunt around later, but he kept chasing meout, and yelling, ‘Run!’
and I was scared. He can throw knives, thatRicky! He’s—”
“Wait a minute,” Judy stopped him. “He has a knife, but have you everseen him throw it?”
“N-no,” Wally admitted. “He can throw a lasso, though.”
“We know that.” Judy smiled at Peter, and from the way he smiled backshe knew that he too had guessed the solution of the mystery of thetalking tree. It had been Ricky’s voice all the time, but he hadn’t evenknown it himself.
The curtain suddenly parted and there stood Helen Riker and the magicianon the stage together.
Running up on the stage, Judy whispered something to the magician andthen turned to the audience.
“Weather permitting,” she announced, “a play will be given in our grovethe day after Thanksgiving. I hope you will all be there to see it. Themagician will direct it. I can’t promise for certain, but I believe hewill accomplish the amazing feat of making a tree talk.”
She had no dinner to prepare the following day, as there would be afamily gathering around her parents’ table. The Rikers were invited butpolitely refused.
“We’ll be having our own Thanksgiving at Paul’s house,” Helen Rikersaid, and added impulsively, “Oh, Judy! Aren’t you happy for us?”
“I certainly am,” Judy said warmly, and meant it.
“Rama has rescued me,” Helen said, “as he rescued Sita in the‘Ramayana.’ Friday you shall see it.”
Judy did see it. The story was all that she had hoped it would be—andmore. Old Uncle Paul was there to watch it. He had been cleared of thecharge of arson when Peter and the police caught the three men who hadstolen Sita from Helen. The thieves also admitted having set fire to thehouse by accident when they went back to search for the jade.
The magician, taking the part of Rama, was also the narrator. Evil,according to the ancient story, reigned supreme until the god of life,Vishnu, and his wife were born as Rama and Sita. Prince and princess,they were fated to meet and marry.
Helen Riker, in a green dress, was beautiful as Sita. The children tookthe parts of the monkeys who rescued her, but the strangest character inthe whole play was the demon Ravana. The part of the many-headed monsterwas taken by the talking tree! When Sita was kidnaped, she sat in itslower branches chanting her mystic “Rama! Rama! Rama! I seek thee withinme and my senses are sealed.”
After the rescue, the magician, as Rama, was supposed to slay themonster and restore the powers of virtue to the earth. Each time hepierced the tree with his arrow, Judy, hiding in the barn to be thevoice of Ravana, called out, “Too late!” But the last time she spoke theancient words of wisdom, “Learn by my example! Do selfless deeds atonce!”
And almost at once she was back in the grove presenting old Uncle Paulwith his two precious jade statues. He took them both, fondled them amoment and then, with tear-moist eyes, said, “They complete the Rikercollection. Put it in the museum, Paul. Let other people look at it. Letthem learn by my example.”
“Never,” Judy told Peter later, “have I felt so sorry for anyone. He’san old man and an unhappy man in spite of his wealth. He can’t have verymany more years to live.”
“Be thankful,” Peter said, “that he has lived long enough to do this onegenerous act. People will remember him for his jade collection longafter they have forgotten even his monument. Someone—if I were Horace Icould quote him exactly—said, ‘The best thing to do with a life is tospend it for something which outlasts it.’ And whether he intended itthat way or not, that’s what Paul Riker has done.”
“I see,” Judy whispered. “Does love outlast it?”
Peter’s answer was a kiss. They both knew it did. They were quiet,sharing a wonderful moment together. Then Peter broke the spell bysuggesting that Judy go with him to the barn.
“Honey’s still here. We must show her how the tree talked if Horacehasn’t already told her. It works just like the pipes in that statue,doesn’t it?”
After much persuasion, Honey consented to stand beside the hollow treewhile they showed her how it had all happened.
“Don’t be scared,” Judy told her. “We may sound a little spooky.”
“I don’t doubt it,” she replied.
When they had climbed to the hayloft they stood directly under thelittle window that looked out over the grove. The hollow branch justoutside it acted like a speaking tube and carried their voices outthrough the hole in the tree as they chanted:
“_You’re standing beside the talking tree, But the voices you hear are Peter and me-ee!_”
Judy knew how hollow their voices must sound to Honey. A moment latershe was racing toward the barn.
“So that’s it!” she charged. “You two spooks can haunt the grovewhenever you want to by hiding in the hayloft and talking out thatlittle window.”
Now she was convinced that the superstition had started when someone inthe barn had accidentally frightened Horace.
“He’s so silly,” she said fondly, “but I can’t help loving him for it.And isn’t it wonderful how things have turned out for Mrs. Riker and themagician?”
“It certainly is,” agreed Judy. “He gave her a ring just the way Ramadid in the story. But, best of all, the collection is saved for futureRamas and Sitas. It’s nice to know what’s expected of the ideal man andwoman, isn’t it? Peter,” she asked abruptly, “am I your ideal?”
“You’re my Judy,” he replied, “and that’s even better. What was it yousaid about every day beginning a new mystery?”
“It’s the way I feel about life,” Judy explained to Honey. “It’s myphilosophy, my Judyana, or whatever you want to call it. Go down to thegrove and the talking tree will tell you.”
“No, thanks,” Honey said with a laugh. “I’ve been meditating the matter,and my Honeyana tells me I’ve had enough. The next time I letter a sign,Judy, it will be for Dean Studios, not for anyone like you.”
Transcriber’s Notes
--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.
--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.
--In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)
The Trail of the Green Doll Page 24
