Twelve Stories and a Dream Read Online Free PDF Page A

in a book.
    "And there, dadda, is the Vanishing Halfpenny—, only they've put it
this way up so's we can't see how it's done."
    Gip, dear boy, inherits his mother's breeding, and he did not propose to
enter the shop or worry in any way; only, you know, quite unconsciously
he lugged my finger doorward, and he made his interest clear.
    "That," he said, and pointed to the Magic Bottle.
    "If you had that?" I said; at which promising inquiry he looked up with
a sudden radiance.
    "I could show it to Jessie," he said, thoughtful as ever of others.
    "It's less than a hundred days to your birthday, Gibbles," I said, and
laid my hand on the door-handle.
    Gip made no answer, but his grip tightened on my finger, and so we came
into the shop.
    It was no common shop this; it was a magic shop, and all the prancing
precedence Gip would have taken in the matter of mere toys was wanting.
He left the burthen of the conversation to me.
    It was a little, narrow shop, not very well lit, and the door-bell
pinged again with a plaintive note as we closed it behind us. For a
moment or so we were alone and could glance about us. There was a tiger
in papier-mache on the glass case that covered the low counter—a grave,
kind-eyed tiger that waggled his head in a methodical manner; there were
several crystal spheres, a china hand holding magic cards, a stock
of magic fish-bowls in various sizes, and an immodest magic hat that
shamelessly displayed its springs. On the floor were magic mirrors; one
to draw you out long and thin, one to swell your head and vanish your
legs, and one to make you short and fat like a draught; and while we
were laughing at these the shopman, as I suppose, came in.
    At any rate, there he was behind the counter—a curious, sallow, dark
man, with one ear larger than the other and a chin like the toe-cap of a
boot.
    "What can we have the pleasure?" he said, spreading his long, magic
fingers on the glass case; and so with a start we were aware of him.
    "I want," I said, "to buy my little boy a few simple tricks."
    "Legerdemain?" he asked. "Mechanical? Domestic?"
    "Anything amusing?" said I.
    "Um!" said the shopman, and scratched his head for a moment as if
thinking. Then, quite distinctly, he drew from his head a glass ball.
"Something in this way?" he said, and held it out.
    The action was unexpected. I had seen the trick done at entertainments
endless times before—it's part of the common stock of conjurers—but I
had not expected it here.
    "That's good," I said, with a laugh.
    "Isn't it?" said the shopman.
    Gip stretched out his disengaged hand to take this object and found
merely a blank palm.
    "It's in your pocket," said the shopman, and there it was!
    "How much will that be?" I asked.
    "We make no charge for glass balls," said the shopman politely. "We get
them,"—he picked one out of his elbow as he spoke—"free." He produced
another from the back of his neck, and laid it beside its predecessor on
the counter. Gip regarded his glass ball sagely, then directed a look
of inquiry at the two on the counter, and finally brought his round-eyed
scrutiny to the shopman, who smiled.
    "You may have those too," said the shopman, "and, if you DON'T mind, one
from my mouth. SO!"
    Gip counselled me mutely for a moment, and then in a profound silence
put away the four balls, resumed my reassuring finger, and nerved
himself for the next event.
    "We get all our smaller tricks in that way," the shopman remarked.
    I laughed in the manner of one who subscribes to a jest. "Instead of
going to the wholesale shop," I said. "Of course, it's cheaper."
    "In a way," the shopman said. "Though we pay in the end. But not
so heavily—as people suppose.... Our larger tricks, and our daily
provisions and all the other things we want, we get out of that
hat... And you know, sir, if you'll excuse my saying it, there ISN'T a
wholesale shop, not for Genuine Magic goods, sir. I don't know if
you noticed our inscription—the Genuine Magic shop." He drew