“Oh, yes,” she promised them. “I told you I’d come back only you couldn’t guess in a million years how I’m going to do it.”
STAGE MAGIC
Muffs was glad when her mother slipped into the empty seat that Mary had left. She looked beautiful with her face turned up toward the stage. She wasn’t paying any attention to Muffs, only to the Bramble Bush Man standing there in the blue shadows. Mary stood beside him. Muffs had always thought of Mary as a big girl but now she looked very, very small. Could people shrink, Muffs wondered. Could they grow so small they couldn’t be seen and then grow big again? Alice in Wonderland did but, of course, that was only a story. Muffs couldn’t think of any other way that a girl could disappear. She wiggled and turned in her seat. It was impossible for her to sit still when she was so excited.
Oh! Mary was climbing up onto the long table! The Bramble Bush Man was telling her to lie down!
“It doesn’t hurt to disappear, does it, Mary?” he was asking.
Mary laughed and said, “Of course not,” in a very happy voice. Nobody seemed worried. Even Muffs’ mother who had been afraid sat there watching just as if she felt sure everything would be all right.
“He isn’t going to put up a screen the way most magicians do,” she said almost to herself. “He would be different. The dear man!”
