MAGIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 23 (Supplement)

MAGIC.

Once upon a time, ever so long ago, there lived a great magician who knew* all the magic that there was to know in the world. He knew what made the sky blue and the sunset red and why the stars twinkled at night. He knew how to make liowers grow in desolate places, ho.,- to find water in the desert, ami how to tame the birds and blasts and tishc- so that they would come at his call. He could nrako tree* talk and lountanis >:ng, could turn atones into rabbits and squirrels and little things of that kind. He could build yen a fairy palace in a night, or dry n|> a river fur you in the nKnii.nu. or transplant you to the farthest oncLs of the world in a moment of time. He knew. too. how to bring forth dragons ai.d terrible monsters fiom the depths of the sea. how to chansre men and women into trees and rocks, how to bring lire out of a. mountain, ami rain down ruin and desolation upon the land. but he did not verv oiten do any of these unpleasant things. l-\>r lie was a good magician as well as a great one. and he liked best to do kind and cheerful things and to make people happy. In fact, his chief fault was that lie was too good-natured, for he tried to make lite too eas>v for evervbody. as you shall hear. One of his greatest pleasures was in granting peoples wishes. With his magic powers, of course. lie was casilv able to do this. f.e would wander through the world, disguised as an old beggar man. And whenever he heard anybody wish some innocent wish—a child for a toy. a young maid for a blue gown, a housewife tor a new set of pots and pans, or a poor working man for a good dinner—he would drop a tiny grain of magic into the palm of the wisher's "hand and say: ! '"Wishes come true, my friend!" And sure enoitgh. whatever it was that the person had wished for ahvavs did come true. \\ ell. of course, people soon began to put two and two together, and they guessed that the old beggau man must be a magician in disguise. Thev be°an ti> look out for his coming, and as soon as they caught sight of him thev vrould sa_v to each other: "Here com.- the IVdlar of Wishes! Kow, then, what can we wish for!" And they all began to wish as hard as th"y could and say their wishes aloud, in the hone that, the magician would drop a gram of his magic into the palms of their bands and tell their wishes to come true. The magician was busy enough, I 'an tell you, granting all the wishes. He was so busy that he hadn't time to fake in what were all the wishes that he was granting, and soon things beiran to get into a dreadful state. It Isn't really very good for people to have all their wishes granted, you know. And the people to whom the magician gave his magic grains began to grow lerriblv lazy. The men ,would »av to themselves: ' W hat is the sense of working so hard for our daily food when we can r ct ., a £ o<xl dinner just by wishing for it?"' And they began to leave off tilling the fields and sowing the corn. The housewives no longer bothered about taking care of fheir pots and pans when they knew that they could get a fresh set, just as good or even better, whenever they wished. The maidens had so many new gowns that thev never troubled to mend their old ones, and the childien had so many toys and sweets that tliev were quite spoilt and grew cross and discontented and disagreeable as children do sometimes—and°grownup people as well—when thev have everything in the world that they are wanting. At last things grew so bad that even the magician began to notice what a lot of harm his magic was doing. People were all so idle and quarrelsome, children so peevish and sickly. Xo work was being done. The fields were overgiovn with weeds, the shops were empty of goods, everything was going to rack and mm. The poor old magi° cian was dreadfully distressed. "Dear, dear! I* shall have to stop making wishes come true," he said. So, instead of going about the world disguised as a beggar man, he put all his magic into a big sack and shut it up in his barn and stopped at home. But the people had all grown so used to having their wishes granted by this time that they took it as a matter of course, and they weren't going to let him stop at home in peace as easily as that. They found out where the ma<ncian lived and came and threatened him. "Grant us our wishes again!" they cried. "If you do not we will kill you and help ourselves to the magic that lies in the sack in your barn." «rm? ea **'.^ ear » dear!" said the magician. This will not do. I must take the ( magic far away where nobody can find it. If these poor fools should get hold of it there is no knowing what mischief they may not work." So he conjured up a flying carpet and, seating himself upon it with his sack of magic, he flew ever and ever and ever bo far away, right up to the moon, and there he Jives to this very day. But now let me tell you a secret. There is still a little magic left in the world. The magician did. not know it, but there was a tiny, tiny hole in the bottom of the sack where a mouse had begun to gnaw it. And some of the grains of magic dropped through the hole and rolled off the edge of the flying carpet and fell down to the earth while the old magician was living up to the moon. That is why it is still possible for wishes to come true, especially on a bright, blue, sunshiny sort of day. "Cheer up, my boy," said the doctor kindly, to little Reggie who had tumbled and sprained his hand, "in soon make your hand quite better." "And then shall I be able to play the violin?" "Why, of course, my boy!" t "Oh! How wonderful!" cried little . Reggie, "I never could before."