“I am teaching myself to become a magician,” Byron
announced.
“Indeed,” replied Shelley.
“And how are you Doing that?”
“Observe!” Byron declared.
He produced a white rat, and three brightly colored strings
of green, red, and blue.
“This is my rat; I call him Keats. I have educated Keats so that the ingestion of each string
triggers a previously-trained habit,” Byron explained. “For instance—the dancing habit!” he cried,
and fed Keats the green string, whereupon the rat immediately began to do an Irish
jig.
When Byron pulled the green string out, he cried: “The
somersault habit!” and fed Keats the red string, at which point the rat began
to do forwards and backwards somersaults across the floor.
“And the sitting habit!” Byron said, pulling the red string
out and feeding Keats the blue string.
The rat gobbled up the string and immediately sat on its haunches and lowered its head into its forepaws
like a miniature human lost in thought.
“That is all quite Remarkable in its own Way,” Shelley
admitted, “but these so-called Habits of yours are not Magic. What this tiny Creature is doing is simply
the end Result of Discipline and Practice.
That does not make you a Magician.”
“Of course I’m a magician,” Byron declared, grabbing the end
of the blue thread sticking out of Keats’ mouth. “Watch me pull a habit out of my rat.”
Copyright 2015 Matthew J Wells
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