and extended it toward my
confederate, who shrank back with disgust.

"Well," I said, "if you won't have it, I'll eat it myself." And so
saying, I put it into my mouth and munched it up, amid the cries of
surprise and horror of the assembled party. Two old maids insisted on
looking into my mouth to see whether it was not concealed there.

Having soaked a piece of thread in common salt water, tie it to a small
finger-ring. When you apply the flame of a candle to the thread it will
burn to ashes and yet sustain the ring.

A DIFFICULT CIRCLE TO JUMP FROM.

Take a piece of chalk, and ask, if you make a circle, whether any boy
standing in it thinks he can jump out of it. As soon as one proposes to
do so, bring him into the center of the room, draw a circle with the
chalk around his jacket, and say, "Now jump out of it!"

AN IMPOSSIBLE WALK.

Ask one young lady in the company whether she thinks, if she clasped her
hands, she could walk out of the room. On her saying she could, request
her to pass her arm round the leg of the table or piano, join her hands,
and walk away.

THE HAT TRICK.

Fill a small glass with water, cover it with a hat, and profess your
readiness to drink it without touching the hat. Put your head under the
table, make a noise, as if drinking, rise, and wipe your lips. The
company, thinking you have drunk the water, one of them will certainly
take up the hat to see. As soon as the hat is removed, take up the glass
and drink its contents. "There!" say you, "you see I have not touched
the hat."

THE INCOMBUSTIBLE THREAD.

Wind some linen thread tightly round a smooth pebble, and secure the
end; then, if you expose it to the flame of a lamp or candle, the thread
will not burn; for the caloric (or heat) traverses the thread, without
remaining in it, and attacks the stone. The same sort of trick may be
performed with a poker, round which is evenly pasted a sheet of paper.
You can poke the fire with it without burning the paper.

AN IMPOSSIBLE JUMP.

Take a ruler, or any other piece of wood, and ask whether, if you laid
it down on the ground, any of the company could jump over it. Of course
one or two will express their readiness to jump over so small an
obstruction. Then lay the ruler on the ground, close against the wall,
and tell them to try.

A DIFFICULT LOAD TO CARRY.

Take a piece of wood, such as a lucifer match, and say to one of the
company, "How long do you think it would