Then Ariel and Titania, Prospero, and the Witch made a magic--they
were a mighty quartet, you see. John suggested that they were really
the “Biggest Four.” They waved their wands and lifted their hands, and
Caliban helped with a mighty “Wow!” Then in came Puck and the other
fairies bearing a huge iron kettle, with a ladle sticking out of the
top. From the kettle rose a cloud of smoke and a sweet smell that made
Caliban sneeze. The fairies put the kettle in the middle of the room,
and the four magicians waved their wands over it, and moved slowly
about it singing,--
“Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire, burn, and cauldron, bubble!”
When the spell was finished, the smoke died away, and the Witch stooped
over and ladled something out, which she threw into the fireplace.
“Now, come, everybody!” she cried in a cracked voice, “and dip pot-luck
out of the magic kettle.”
One by one the guests came and helped themselves to a ladleful of
pot-luck. The “luck” turned out to be a tissue-paper package tied
with red ribbon. In each package was a little present. Sometimes the
children did not get an appropriate gift; but then they could “swap.”
Shylock, who was one of the biggest boys, drew a Japanese doll, which
he exchanged for a jack-knife that had fallen to the lot of a little
girl-fairy. Cleopatra drew a conductor’s whistle, and Hamlet had a
beautiful bow of pink hair-ribbon; so they made a trade. The Ghost
was made happy with a jews-harp, and the Ass secured a fan; while fat
Falstaff made every one roar with laughter by unrolling from the great
bundle of tissue paper, which he had carefully picked out, a tiny
thimble.
After this they danced and played games, and made the roof of Aunt
Nan’s old house echo with such sounds as it had not heard for many
years. Shakespeare characters flitted from room to room, up the stairs
to the attic and down to the cellar, in a joyous game of hide-and-seek.
And nobody said “Don’t!” or “Careful!” or “Sh!” This was a night when
Dream-People had their way undisturbed.
Then they all went out into the dining-room and had supper--sandwiches
and chocolate and cake and ice-cream. And they all voted that they
liked Shakespeare very much, and that they ought to celebrate his
birthday every year.
Nobody wanted to go home, of course. But in time, mere ordinary fathers
and mothers and big sisters and big brothers, in ugly, common clothes,
came and dragged away the Shakespeare people, one by one. When they
had all, as Prospero said, “melted into air, into thin air,” when even
Titania had waved her wand and disappeared with a kiss on Ariel’s
cheek, this happy Spirit and Prospero and the Witch, Puck and Caliban,
were left alone in front of the library fireplace.
“Wasn’t it a lovely party!” cried Puck.
“I am sure Aunt Nan would have been pleased,” said the Witch, looking
up at the portrait over the mantel.
“Just think what a happy time she has given us; dear Aunt Nan!” said
Ariel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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