Читать книгу Water Wizardry - Arthur Wellesley Pain - Страница 12

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The soup in this case is represented with water, and you can use the same glass; it should be about half full of water. Lay a piece of nice shiny cardboard on the top of it—a piece about eight inches square is large enough—and on the cardboard and exactly over the glass stand a cork. On the top of the cork balance a tangerine orange. Now, if you give a sharp knock to the cardboard with your right hand the cardboard should go skimming away, taking the cork "off the premises" with it, and the tangerine should drop into the water.

This feat appears to be very difficult, but it is not; the weight of the tangerine helps you. When you can do the trick every time with one glass you can try it with two glasses—using a larger piece of cardboard, of course—and then three glasses, and, finally, four. It is not so easy then.

This feat is often performed on the stage, but eggs—or, rather, imitation eggs—are used in place of the tangerines, and the trick in that form is difficult because the eggs are light. Don't follow up your stroke when you are hitting the cardboard away. Just give it a sharp knock and bring the hand to a standstill with a jerk. Look around you before you do the trick; otherwise, you may hurt somebody with the flying piece of cardboard. To avoid any accident of this kind get a friend to stand a little to the side of your table so that he may catch the cardboard.

When the trick is performed on the stage a tea-tray is generally used, and the raised edge of the tray adds considerably to the difficulty of the trick.