Read The House with a Clock In Its Walls for Free Online Page B

little bored. He stood there thinking, or “doping off” as Tarby called it.
    He wanted to do something nice for Tarby. Something nice that would really impress him and make him a stronger friend than ever. Maybe he could get Uncle Jonathan to do a magic trick for Tarby. Sure, that would do it. Lewis hesitated a minute, remembering Jonathan saying that he was only a “parlor magician.” The kind that pulled rabbits out of hats and told you what card you were holding in your hand. But then he
had
said that he knew a few tricks that went beyond that. . . .
    Lewis thought some more. Oh, well, Jonathan could probably do it. Anyone who could make windows change their pictures could do what Lewis had in mind. And anyway, Lewis thought that he remembered hearing Jonathan say that he had done such a thing once.
    “Hey, Lewis! I hit the ball out to you about six hours ago. Did you go to sleep?”
    Lewis looked up. “Huh? Oh, gee, I’m sorry, Tarby. Say, how would you like to see my uncle eclipse the moon?”
    Tarby stared at him. “What did you say?”
    “I said . . . oh, c’mon, Tarby, let’s go home. It’s too dark to see the ball. C’mon and I’ll tell you all about my Uncle Jonathan. He’s a real wizard.”
    The two boys walked back under the streetlights, playing catch as they went. Lewis tried to explain about Uncle Jonathan’s magic powers, but he could see that Tarby was not convinced.
    “Boy, I’ll
bet
your uncle can eclipse the moon. I’ll just
bet
he can. He prob’ly sits up in his room drinking beer, and then he goes out in back and stares up at the moon, and boy does it go rround . . . and . . . rraounnd.” Tarby staggered out into the street and rolled his eyes.
    Lewis felt like hitting him, but he knew that Tarby could beat him up, so he just said, “You wanta see him do it?”
    “Yeah,” said Tarby in a sneery voice. “I wanta see him do it.”
    “Okay,” said Lewis. “I’ll ask him tonight. When he’s ready to do it, I’ll let you know.”
    “Gee, I hope I won’t have to wait too long,” said Tarby sarcastically. “I really do want to see Old Lard Guts eclipse the moo-hoo-hoo, moo-hoo-ha. . . .”
    “Stop it. Stop making fun of my uncle.” Lewis’s face was red, and he was almost crying.
    “Make me,” said Tarby.
    “I can’t, and you know it,” said Lewis.
    Tarby went on moo-hooing until they reached thekhaki-colored mailbox at the foot of High Street. This time when they split up to go home, Lewis didn’t say goodby to Tarby. He didn’t even wave. But by the time he was inside the gate at 100 High Street, Lewis had gotten over his mad—more or less—and so he went straight inside to see his uncle. He found Jonathan laying out a game of solitaire on the dining-room table. It was a complicated game called “Napoleon at St. Helena,” and the layout covered most of the ivory-colored oilcloth pad. Jonathan looked up and smiled as Lewis walked into the room.
    “Hi, Lewis! How’s baseball these days?”
    “Getting better, I guess. Tarby helps me a lot. Say, Uncle Jonathan, do you suppose we could do something nice for Tarby? He really is a good friend of mine.”
    “Sure, Lewis. We’ll invite him to dinner. Is that what you mean?”
    Lewis blushed and fidgeted. “Uh . . . well, yeah . . . kind of. Do you think that maybe after dinner we could . . . uh, that is,
you
could . . . eclipse the moon for him?”
    Jonathan stared at him. “Did I tell you I could do
that?
”
    “Yes. Remember, one night when you were bragging . . . er, talking to Mrs. Zimmermann about whether earth magic was stronger than moon magic? You said that a moon wizard could eclipse the moon any time he felt like it, and that you were a moon wizard.”
    Jonathan smiled and shook his head. “Did I say that? My, my, how I do run on. Let me see, I do seem to recall eclipsing the moon one night in 1932. That was during a picnic out at Wilder Creek Park. I remember the