"I think it was," answered the Professor, who was a very kind, genial gentleman. When they reached the hotel the Professor gave Merry a silver quarter. Then he said, with a laugh, "I think you've earned something more;" and he took from his pocket two sky-blue complimentary tickets. "Bring your mother, if she'll come," said he.
But Merry's mother shook her head at sight of the sky-blue tickets; and it was little Jack Hennessey whom one of them carried into enchanted land—little Jack, who might otherwise as well have wished for a trip to the moon.
How funny and fine it all was! How Merry held his breath, and clapped his hands, and laughed aloud, by turns, in his excitement, to see his friend the Professor pick eggs by the dozen from Mr. Colley's hat; and follow the eggs with feathers enough for a bed; and send Mr. Quipp's watch into Deacon Wilson's pocket, to the great discomfiture of the Deacon, and the great enjoyment of everybody else; and perform all manner of impossible feats with the ease of a veritable magician! And to cap the climax of his delight, Merry heard again the small voice which had spoken to him from the portmanteau—only now it was the very gruff voice of a very sleepy landlord whom the Professor was vainly trying to arouse.
Oh, it was wonderful! and Merry rehearsed it so faithfully to his mother that she declared it was much better than seeing it herself with not half the trouble. And he went over it all again in dreams, and his mind was still full of it when he ran up to the hotel next morning to carry the Professor's portmanteau to the station. The Professor, walking along beside him, and looking down at Merry's face, laughed to see the unfeigned admiration in the black eyes.
"Why don't you get up something of the sort," he asked, "and ask the boys round five cents a-piece to go in? I used to earn a good many dimes that way when I was a youngster." And when they reached the station, and found that the train was not in, the Professor emphasized his advice by one or two simple lessons in sleight-of-hand. "Now all you need is practice on that," said he. "Here's my train. Good-by. Be a good boy, and take care of your mother." And that was the last of Professor Wagner.
But it wasn't the last of the Professor's idea, which grew and grew until it filled Merry's head completely, and ran over at his lips when he stopped to expend the precious thirty-five cents at Mr. Quipp's counter on his way home. And Mr. Quipp, who might not have been altogether disinterested, said:
"You'd better tidy up my place overhead, Merry, and use that for your fandango. I've been wantin' it cleared out this good while."
Well, I haven't space to tell you of all the doings in all the days that followed—how Merry, after having obtained his mother's consent to a trial of his project, went to work with Jack Hennessey and one or two other boys; how he soon became well skilled in a few simple sleight-of-hand performances; how Mr. Quipp's place was tidied up, and a little platform arranged at one end, after the Professor's model; how at length the boy public came to understand, by means of an immense placard printed in burnt cork, that Merry Andrew would give an entertainment, to include speeches, recitations, sleight-of-hand tricks, and ventriloquism, in Mr. Quipp's chamber, on the night of April 1; that the admission price would be five cents for boys, and ten cents for grown folks, and that if anybody was not satisfied he should have his money back.
Everybody was interested, for Merry was well liked by everybody in town; and when the first night of April came, there were not a few people in the little room over Mr. Quipp's shop.
Merry's heart jumped into his throat, choking him, and bringing the tears to his eyes, when he stood on the little platform behind the lamp which Mr. Quipp had loaned for the occasion. But he went bravely through with his simple performances—with the ring trick, and the magic coin trick, in which a big copper could never be found when looked for, but turned up in the most unexpected places. Then there were speeches, some funny and some otherwise. Then there was more sleight-of-hand. And how everybody laughed when Merry, having gained a great deal of courage, borrowed Mr. Colley's hat, and pulled out of it a pair of stockings, a bunch of feathers, a green silk handkerchief, and several other things.