"But I don't know if I can make them come back. We'd better try it on something else. Dishes cost money."
As always, Myra Willoughby had to admire the wisdom of her nine-year-old son. She would not have had such foresight herself. He always did.
"You can try it on Blanche Manners' cat outside there. Nobody will care if it disappears except Blanche Manners."
"All right."
He put the disappearer to his eye and blinked. The cat disappeared from the sidewalk outside.
His mother was interested. "I wonder how it works. Do you know how it works?"
"Yes. You take a beer can with both ends cut out and put in two pieces of cardboard. Then you blink."
"Never mind. Take it outside and play with it. You hadn't better make anything disappear in here till I think about this."
But when he had gone his mother was oddly disturbed.
"I wonder if I have a precocious child. Why, there's lots of grown people who wouldn't know how to make a disappearer that would work. I wonder if Blanche Manners will miss her cat very much?"