SIZZLING HOT ⇾
“Mmm—mm!” exclaimed Licorice Stick, as if a hot frankfurter had actually been produced by this ingenious card trick.
“Then you go along a little way,” said Pee-wee, “till you come to another good place, maybe a fence or something, and you tack up the next one and right underneath it you tack up the next one; always take the next one off the top of the pile, see?
ICE CREAM
⇽ COLD AND COOLING
Pee-wee repeated, holding the next two cards up. This palate tickling sleight-of-hand seemed like a miracle to the smiling, astonished messenger.
Pee-wee seemed a kind of magician summoning up luscious concoctions with a magic wand. The fifth and sixth cards were held together for a moment and lo, Licorice Stick listened to the mouth-watering announcement that peanut taffy was sweet and delicious.
No “sperrit” of Licorice Stick’s acquaintance had ever cast a spell like this. They had called in weird voices but they had never contrived a menu before his very eyes.
He went forth armed with the hammer and tacks and a pile of mysterious cards, a little proud but trembling a little, too. There was something uncanny about this; he would see it through but it was a strange, dark business. He shuffled along the road, peering fearfully into the woods now and again when suddenly a terrible apparition appeared before him. He stood stark still, his eyes bulging out of his head, his hands shaking and cold with fear....