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 take you to carry this piece of wood into the next room?” “Half a minute.” perhaps one will reply.  “Well, try, then,” say you; “carry it.”  You then cut off little pieces, and give them to him one by one.  He will soon be tired of the experiment.

TO TURN A GLASS OF WATER UPSIDE DOWN WITHOUT SPILLING ITS CONTENTS.

Fill a glass carefully, place a piece of paper on the top, place your hand on the paper, and tilt the glass round sharply, when it will be found that the pressure of the air upward on the paper will retain the water.  The glass may then be held by the bottom.

Health and Home says:  I want to tell you of something very funny to do, if you have a little brother or sister who does not mind dressing up and standing still for a few moments.  My aunt showed me how to do it the other day, when sister Nelly had a birthday party.  We took little brother Tommy out into the library and stood him upon a high wooden stool, and dressed him up very finely in mamma’s clothes.  The stool made him so full that the dress was of just the right length.  Then Uncle Ned, telling him to stand straight and firm, carried him, stool and all, into the parlor.  I wish you could have heard the girls and boys laugh!  He had such a comical look—­with his tall body and little round face—­just like some of those French Parian figures.  One little girl handed him a fan, and then it was too funny to see the tall lady fan herself affectedly with her very small, dimpled hands.  All the boys and girls just shouted.—­Young People.