Presto Digi, the Magician
"And now, if you like, we will be pleased to have you visit some of our
houses," said Mr. Bowko, the Mayor, in a friendly tone.
"But we can't!" exclaimed Twinkle. "We're too big," and she got up
and sat down upon the bank, to show him how big she really was when
compared with the prairie-dogs.
"Oh, that doesn't matter in the least," the Mayor replied. "I'll have
Presto Digi, our magician, reduce you to our size."
[Illustration: MR. BOWKO, THE MAYOR]
"Can he?" asked Twinkle, doubtfully.
"Our magician can do anything," declared the Mayor. Then he sat up and
put both his front paws to his mouth and made a curious sound that was
something like a bark and something like a whistle, but not exactly
like either one.
Then everybody waited in silence until a queer old prairie-dog slowly
put his head out of a big mound near the center of the village.
"Good morning, Mr. Presto Digi," said the Mayor.
"Morning!" answered the magician, blinking his eyes as if he had just
awakened from sleep.
Twinkle nearly laughed at this scrawny, skinny personage; but by good
fortune, for she didn't wish to offend him, she kept her face straight
and did not even smile.
"We have two guests here, this morning," continued the Mayor,
addressing the magician, "who are a little too large to get into our
houses. So, as they are invited to stay to luncheon, it would please us
all if you would kindly reduce them to fit our underground rooms."
"Is _that_ all you want?" asked Mr. Presto Digi, bobbing his head at
the children.
"It seems to me a great deal," answered Twinkle. "I'm afraid you never
could do it."
"Wow!" said the magician, in a scornful voice that was almost a bark.
"I can do that with one paw. Come here to me, and don't step on any of
our mounds while you're so big and clumsy."
So Twinkle and Chubbins got up and walked slowly toward the magician,
taking great care where they stepped. Teenty and Weenty were
frightened, and ducked their heads with little squeals as the big
children passed their mound; but they bobbed up again the next moment,
being curious to see what would happen.
When the boy and girl stopped before Mr. Presto Digi's mound, he began
waving one of his thin, scraggy paws and at the same time made a
gurgling noise that was deep down in his throat. And his eyes rolled
and twisted around in a very odd way.
[Illustration: MR. PRESTO DIGI WORKS MAGIC]
Neither Twinkle nor Chubbins felt any effect from the magic, nor any
different from ordinary; but they knew they were growing smaller,
because their eyes were getting closer to the magician.
"Is that enough?" asked Mr. Presto, after a while.
"Just a little more, please," replied the Mayor; "I don't want them to
bump their heads against the doorways."
So the magician again waved his paw and chuckled and gurgled and
blinked, until Twinkle suddenly found she had to look up at him as he
squatted on his mound.
"Stop!" she screamed; "if you keep on, we won't be anything at all!"
"You're just about the right size," said the Mayor, looking them over
with much pleasure, and when the girl turned around she found Mr. Bowko
and Mrs. Puff-Pudgy standing beside her, and she could easily see that
Chubbins was no bigger than they, and she was no bigger than Chubbins.
"Kindly follow me," said Mrs. Puff-Pudgy, "for my little darlings are
anxious to make your acquaintance, and as I was the first to discover
you, you are to be my guests first of all, and afterward go to the
Mayor's to luncheon."
[Illustration]