Out in the grove the Japanese lanterns were lighted and Great Aunt Charlotte was passing out trays of food to several girls in white who were serving. Muffs pulled her mother’s hand.
“Not now, dear,” Mrs. Moffet said in a strange voice. Then she walked swiftly away leaving Muffs there with Mary and Tommy.
“She didn’t stay for the ice cream!” they exclaimed all at once.
“No matter how grown-up I get,” Mary said, “I’m sure I’ll always stay for ice cream.”
“Shucks! We can go over and talk to the Bramble Bush Man anyway,” declared Tommy. “He didn’t have a chance to explain about the house disappearing.”
“He said magicians don’t explain their tricks.”
105 “But that wasn’t part of the show. Say, Mary! Maybe he made the house disappear the same way he did that trick with you. You promised to tell us.”
“I’d show you,” she said, “only I don’t know how to get in there under the stage now that the table is closed up again.”
“What do you mean?” asked the other two.
Mary stood stock still and spoke7 in a mysterious voice that made her secret seem even greater than it was:
“There’s a hiding place inside the table. You remember how thick the top was? Well, there’s a sliding panel8 of thin wood and when I disappeared the panel really slid out from under me and I dropped right into the table.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Muffs.
“Gee!” said Tommy. “How did you get out?”
Mary laughed. “Oh, that was easy. I slid out through the table leg. It was hollow and went down like a tunnel right under the stage. Donald was down there to help make the flowers grow and he wrapped me all up in the roses and pushed us both right up through the stand and through the bottom of the vase——”
“You and the roses?”
“Of course. The thorns9 were all taken off so they wouldn’t scratch me. They did though, just a little,” and she showed them the tiniest scratch on her arm above the elbow.
“Well,” said Tommy after a moment of deep thought, “the house couldn’t have disappeared the way you did, now could it?”
The disappearance10 of the house, they all decided11, was something the Bramble Bush Man alone might tell them. He seemed to be waiting for them there under a tree. He even had extra plates of cakes and as soon as he saw them coming he drew up their chairs and called to one of the girls to bring more ice cream.
106As soon as he
saw them coming he drew up their chairs and called to one of the girls
to bring more ice cream.
“I thought we might have tea together again,” he said. “I wanted to hear how you liked the show.”
The children were all silent for a moment. There weren’t any words big enough for them to tell him how well they liked it. Finally, when Muffs was seated and he had passed the cakes, she asked a question.
“My mother said you gave the show for us. Did you?”
“For you, angel girl, and your delightful12 friends. I did not flatter13 myself to think that your mother would want to watch it.”
“She did!” Muffs told him, “and she kissed the rose you threw down to her and put it in her pocketbook.”
At first Muffs thought maybe she had said the wrong thing because the magician2 looked at her so strangely. It was hard to talk with him. There had been so many things she wanted to ask—where the ends of the earth were, how to make her mother happy and what had happened to his house when it disappeared.
107 Mary and Tommy were asking things. Tommy was even forgetting to eat his ice cream he was so interested in the wondrous14 wise man’s replies. At last he asked about the house but, instead of answering him, the magician began to draw pictures on a little note book that he took from his pocket.
First he drew a large house. The children knew it at once. It was the Millionaire’s House where the headless man lived and, since the headless man was the Bramble Bush Man, it must be the house where he lived also.
Next he drew a tiny house with only one window.
“That’s the house that disappeared!” cried the three children all at once.
“Only,” Tommy added, “you forgot the walk that went up to the window.”
“The walk! The walk! My stars! That was no walk!” exclaimed the magician. “That was only a plank15 that the moving men placed there so that they could move in my big table without carrying it up three flights of stairs.”
“How could there be three flights of stairs in such a tiny house?” asked Mary.
Without a word, the magician began drawing another picture. It was a picture of the side of the house and now the children knew the secret.
“You see,” he explained, “it’s a trick house, although I swear when I bought it I had no idea that it would ever fool anybody. I just wanted a bigger lawn so I chose a house built back into the side of a hill. It’s a steep hill. You must know that if you climbed down it. So the house is only one story high where the hill cuts into it and three stories high where it faces the road.”
108So the house is
only one story high where the hill cuts into it and three stories high where
it faces the road.
“And we ran away without looking!” exclaimed Muffs, “because we were so scared.”
“You’re not afraid of me now, are you?” he asked gently.
“No. That is, only a little because you’re wondrous wise and I’m—I guess I’m afraid to ask you some of the questions I wanted to. You see, you might think the earth hasn’t any ends because it’s round but I know it does have ends because my father went there.”
“Have you been there?” asked Tommy who was just about ready to believe anything.
“I live there,” replied the Bramble Bush Man.
“Then that path did lead to the ends of the earth just like you said, Muffins, only your father wasn’t there.”
109 “It’s just as well,” she returned with a grown-up air. “He was a cranky man anyway and the Bramble Bush Man is nice.”
“I’m glad you think so.” He held out his hand. “Let’s shake on that. I think you’re nice too.”
But the children thought he was shaking goodbye to them. They had almost forgotten to thank him for his magic. Then, when they did remember, he surprised them by turning the tables and thanking them for theirs.
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1
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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2
magician
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| n.魔术师，变戏法的人，术士 | |
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magicians
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| n.魔术师( magician的名词复数 )；巫师；术士；施妖术的人 | |
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refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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6
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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7
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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8
panel
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| n.面，板，专门小组，控制板，仪表盘 | |
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9
thorns
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| （玫瑰之类植物的）刺( thorn的名词复数 )； 棘刺； 带刺的树； 荆棘 | |
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10
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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12
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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13
flatter
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| v.向...谄媚，奉承，使高兴，使感到荣幸 | |
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14
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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15
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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