with a long white beard, sitting in a room with black
furniture and curtains.

And he said something to them in a very strange language which they
couldn't understand.

And Jackie Tar stepped forward and said:

"Please, kind magician, we have come to find the motheranfather of
Jackie and Peggs. Will you be good enough to help us?" And even as he
was speaking a great cloud spread through the room and floated toward
the ceiling. In a minute the cloud became thinner, so you could see
through it, and at once trees and a house were seen.

"It's Jackie and Peggs' garden," said Sweetclover in a breathless
whisper. "Look!"

And sure enough there was the garden just as they left it, and Jackie
and Peggs were playing with Kernel Cob and Sweetclover just as they
did on that day they were blown away by the storm.

"It's us! It's us!" cried Sweetclover, and as she spoke Peggs came and
put the parasol over them and the storm arose that carried them away
toward the sky. Then the cloud disappeared, and the vision was gone.

"It's the strangest thing I ever saw," and Kernel Cob rubbed his eyes
and pinched himself, but he had to admit that he had not been asleep
and dreamed it.

[Illustration]

And the Magician led them into another room through a black curtain,
and this new room was blacker than the first one, and they held hands
so they wouldn't become separated.

In the middle of the room was a great crystal globe which stood upon a
low table, and the Magician went to it, and, waving his hand above it,
said something which sounded like "Alla ballaboo." And at once the
globe began to glow as though there were a fire inside of it.

Then the light began to fade until the globe looked like a ball of
milk.

Again the Magician waved his hand above it and a picture began to show
itself upon its surface, like when you develop a photograph plate in a
dark room.

First the trees, and then a little hut and snow, lots and lots of
snow, and then a man with a shovel and a pick on his shoulder, and
then a woman and they were roughly dressed.

And the man in the picture began to pick the ground, and the woman
took the shovel, and they worked and worked. Presently, the man
stooped down and picked up what seemed to be a stone, and he showed it
eagerly to the woman and she trembled with excitement and the stone
glowed.

"It must be gold," said Jackie Tar.

"They're gold miners."

"But who are they?"

"I've got it!" cried Kerne