John Fitzgerald GB 06 Return of by Return of the Great Brain Page A

made us all turn around.
    “We waited until everybody had left.”
    We hadn’t heard Papa, Uncle Mark, Mr. Smith, and Mr.
    Huddle enter the barn.
    “I’m sorry,” Tom said as he hugged the cigar box with
    both hands, “but I can’t.”
    “If you are worrying about me making you refund the
     
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    admission money forget it,” Papa said. “You put on a good show, and it was worth every penny you charged to see it.”
    “In that case,” Tom said, “I’ll show you.”
    He put down the cigar box and picked up the box of kitchen matches and the candle in its holder from behind the box table. He set the candleholder down. Then he pushed the box of kitchen matches half open. He picked up the red handkerchief and rolled it up into a ball and placed it in the opposite end of the open box of matches-
    “I never let the audience see this end of the box of matches where the red handkerchief is hidden,” Tom said. “And after I removed a match with my right hand I pushed the matchbox closed which forced the rolied-up handkerchief into the palm of my left hand. I palmed the handkerchief in my left fist.”
    “I guessed that much,” Papa said. “But the other two tricks baffled me.”
    Tom removed the high silk hat he was still wearing and placed it upside down on the box table. He got the shoe box and placed it sideways on the table. He removed the lid and lifted out the white handkerchief, holding it by two corners.
    “I only let the audience see one side of the handkerchief,” he said. Then he crossed his arms and turned the handkerchief around. “The audience never saw this side.”
    Up close I could see a piece of white thread sewn to the top hem of the handkerchief and an egg hanging just below the middle of the handkerchief on the other end of the thread.
    “I know you are wondering about the egg,” Tom said. “But it is just an empty shell-I used a needle to punch a hole in each end. Then by blowing softly on one end I was able to blow the contents inside the shell out the hole on the
     
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    other end. Then I took some white glue and pasted the end of the thread to the top of the eggshell.”
    Tom turned the handkerchief around so we couldn’t see the eggshell. Then he laid the handkerchief over the plug hat just as he had done before the audience.
    “The trick is to lift up the handkerchief by the two corners opposite the ones I was holding when I put it over the hat,” he explained. He took hold of the two opposite corners and lifted them up. “You can see that leaves the eggshell lying on the bottom of the hat. Then by holding the opposite end of the handkerchief from where the thread is sewn to the hem, and taking hold of the brim of the hat, I can show the eggshell in the hat to the audience-I know from that distance they can’t see the white thread against the white silk lining inside the hat.”
    Tom placed the hat back on the table and covered it with the handkerchief. “Now the trick is when I pick up the handkerchief I take hold of the two earners where the thread is sewn to the hem.” He took hold of the two comers and lifted up the handkerchief. “Holding it this way to put it back in the shoe box the audience can’t see the eggshell on
    the opposite side.”
    Papa shook his head as Tom put the handkerchief and eggshell back in the shoe box. “Sounds simple when you know how it is done,” he said- “Did you make up that dialogue about Henrietta? It was funny and clever.”
    “No,” Tom admitted. “Some of it I remembered Murdock the Magician using. I just made up that part about letting Mamma make stewed chicken out of Henrietta.”
    Don Huddle picked up the steel bar from the table- “As a blacksmith who works with metal,” he said, “I thought that last trick was the best of all. But I can’t for the life of
     
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    me figure out how you did it.”
    “It was easier than the egg trick,” Tom said. “I got two identical bridle rings from Mr. Stout at his