Racine, Wisconsin

Printed in U. S. A.

JOE STRONG, THE BOY WIZARD

CHAPTER I
JOE SOLVES A PUZZLE

“How did he do it? That’s what I’d like to know.”

“So would I. It sure was a queer trick all right—and it looked so easy, too.”

“Well, I’ve tried to guess, but I can’t. The more I think of it the more I believe that the professor really is a magician, in a certain way.”

“Pooh! It couldn’t be anything like that! It was just a trick, like all the others he did. But I’d like to know how to do it.”

Four boys sat under the shade of a big willow tree in a grassy meadow on the bank of a stream. They were earnestly discussing something, the import of which may be gathered from their talk.

“I tried to do the trick after I got home last night,” confessed Harry Martin.