" He hissed out the word size, drawing it as long
as his breath would hold.
I didn't know what his words meant until a lady with a red parasol went
round behind the Pantoscopticon and climbed to the top. After looking
down at the rattling wheels of the machinery a moment, she jumped into
the hopper, just as the Panjandrum came round again to the word
"s--i--z--e." I looked into the machine and had the satisfaction to see
this lady come out, not in pieces as I expected, but looking just as she
did when she went in, except that she was reduced to rather less than an
inch in height. Her parasol was a mere rose-leaf for size--about as big
as a silver three-cent piece. A gentleman with a white hat, whom I had
seen walking through the museum with this lady, and who seemed to be her
husband, stood looking into the peep-holes when she came out. He cried:
"Hold on, Amanda, and I'll go with you to see about the rainbows and the
pot of gold."
But the little lady with the red parasol didn't seem to hear him, she
only walked ahead eagerly toward the rainbows. The gentleman with the
white hat rushed up the stairs and leaped into the hopper without a
moment's pause, and the Great Panjandrum Himself, seeing that the man was
in a hurry, turned the crank twice as fast as before.
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