The show was over. The Bramble Bush Man had left the stage saying very
briefly that magicians don’t explain their tricks and thanking the
people for watching him. Then Mrs. Tyler called out something about
refreshments being served in the grove and, in almost no time, the hall
was empty.
Out in the grove the Japanese lanterns were lighted and Great Aunt
Charlotte was passing out trays of food to several girls in white who
were serving. Muffs pulled her mother’s hand.
“There’s the Bramble Bush Man and he’s standing all alone. Let’s go
over and talk with him.”
“Not now, dear,” Mrs. Moffet said in a strange voice. Then she walked
swiftly away leaving Muffs there with Mary and Tommy.
“She didn’t stay for the ice cream!” they exclaimed all at once.
“No matter how grown-up I get,” Mary said, “I’m sure I’ll _always_ stay
for ice cream.”
“Shucks! We can go over and talk to the Bramble Bush Man anyway,”
declared Tommy. “He didn’t have a chance to explain about the house
disappearing.”
“He said magicians don’t explain their tricks.”
“But that wasn’t part of the show. Say, Mary! Maybe he made the house
disappear the same way he did that trick with you. You promised to tell
us.”
“I’d show you,” she said, “only I don’t know how to get in there under
the stage now that the table is closed up again.”
“What do you mean?” asked the other two.
Mary stood stock still and spoke in a mysterious voice that made her
secret seem even greater than it was:
“There’s a hiding place inside the table. You remember how thick
the top was? Well, there’s a sliding panel of thin wood and when I
disappeared the panel really slid out from under me and I dropped right
into the table.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Muffs.
“Gee!” said Tommy. “How did you get out?”
Mary laughed. “Oh, that was easy. I slid out through the table leg. It
was hollow and went down like a tunnel right under the stage. Donald
was down there to help make the flowers grow and he wrapped me all up
in the roses and pushed us both right up through the stand and through
the bottom of the vase----”
“You and the roses?”
“Of course. The thorns were all taken off so they wouldn’t scratch
me. They did though, just a little,” and she showed them the tiniest
scratch on her arm above the elbow.
“Well,” said Tommy after a moment of deep thought, “the house couldn’t
have disappeared the way you did, now could it?”
The disappearance of the house, they all decided, was something the
Bramble Bush Man alone might tell them. He seemed to be waiting for
them there under a tree. He even had extra plates of cakes and as soon
as he saw them coming he drew up their chairs and called to one of the
girls to bring more ice cream.
[Illustration]
“I thought we might have tea together again,” he said. “I wanted to
hear how you liked the show.”
The children were all silent for a moment. There weren’t any words big
enough for them to tell him how well they liked it. Finally, when Muffs
was seated and he had passed the cakes, she asked a question.
“My mother said you gave the show for us. Did you?”
“For you, angel girl, and your delightful friends. I did not flatter
myself to think that your mother would want to watch it.”
“She did!” Muffs told him, “and she kissed the rose you threw down to
her and put it in her pocketbook.”
At first Muffs thought maybe she had said the wrong thing because the
magician looked at her so strangely. It was hard to talk with him.
There had been so many things she wanted to ask--where the ends of the
earth were, how to make her mother happy and what had happened to his
house when it disappeared.
Mary and Tommy were asking things. Tommy was even forgetting to eat
his ice cream he was so interested in the wondrous wise man’s replies.
At last he asked about the house but, instead of answering him, the
magician began to draw pictures on a little note book that he took from
his pocket.
First he drew a large house. The children knew it at once. It was
the Millionaire’s House where the headless man lived and, since the
headless man was the Bramble Bush Man, it must be the house where he
lived also.
Next he drew a tiny house with only one window.
“That’s the house that disappeared!” cried the three children all at
once.
“Only,” Tommy added, “you forgot the walk that went up to the window.”
“The walk! The _walk!_ My stars! That was no walk!” exclaimed the
magician. “That was only a plank that the moving men placed there so
that they could move in my big table without carrying it up three
flights of stairs.”
“How could there be three flights of stairs in such a tiny house?”
asked Mary.
Without a word, the magician began drawing another picture. It was a
picture of the side of the house and now the children knew the secret.
“You see,” he explained, “it’s a trick house, although I swear when I
bought it I had no idea that it would ever fool anybody. I just wanted
a bigger lawn so I chose a house built back into the side of a hill.
It’s a steep hill. You must know that if you climbed down it. So the
house is only one story high where the hill cuts into it and three
stories high where it faces the road.”
[Illustration]
“And we ran away without looking!” exclaimed Muffs, “because we were so
scared.”
“You’re not afraid of me now, are you?” he asked gently.
“No. That is, only a little because you’re wondrous wise and I’m--I
guess I’m afraid to ask you some of the questions I wanted to. You see,
you might think the earth hasn’t any ends because it’s round but I know
it does have ends because my father went there.”
“That’s right,” said the Bramble Bush Man, “it does have ends. The ends
are mighty lonesome too.”
“Have you been there?” asked Tommy who was just about ready to believe
anything.
“I live there,” replied the Bramble Bush Man.
“Then that path did lead to the ends of the earth just like you said,
Muffins, only your father wasn’t there.”
“It’s just as well,” she returned with a grown-up air. “He was a cranky
man anyway and the Bramble Bush Man is nice.”
“I’m glad you think so.” He held out his hand. “Let’s shake on that. I
think you’re nice too.”
But the children thought he was shaking goodbye to them. They had
almost forgotten to thank him for his magic. Then, when they did
remember, he surprised them by turning the tables and thanking them for
theirs.