- In the days of King Arthur, they lived in Camelot, a source who entertained the royal court with miraculous feet south, magic high above the castle walls, the ancient meets with members of the magic round table.

Come with us now to the secret room of - You are looking at 1, 2, 3, 4, half dollars, half dollars that I'm going to use for an opening trick that I think you might enjoy.

And I'd like to specifically dedicate this trick to our many, many friends in Pennsylvania.

I have one, one letter in particular, oh, we receive letters from York, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Hershey.

But this one says, dear Merlin, my mother is writing this note for me.

I'm six years old and enjoy watching your program very much.

My good deed for the day was returning a lost kitten to its home.

It was a very cold day and I walked one half hour to the kitten's home to return him to his owner.

Signed Ricky Plowman.

Now the matter comes up.

My mother write a letter for me.

Why?

Certainly she may and she may tell of your good deed and I'll be happy to receive either a letter from you or from your mother.

Well, Ricky, I congratulate you on your good deed.

You'll receive your magic wand and your membership card very soon.

You're perhaps wondering why I started with a half dollars today.

Well, for this reason, many people think that magic has to be ornate.

Very elaborate that you need Chinese decorated equipment and red and gold and many fancy colors.

This isn't true at all.

Some of the very best magic is done with items that you'll find around your home, such as these, these four half dollars.

And I hope that you will learn how to do magic with little, close, intimate, domestic items you might find around your house, such as half dollars or a handkerchief or a sugar cube.

And we'll be doing tricks with common objects from time to time to encourage you to go to the library and get books on magic to deal with this sort of thing.

A half dollar is worth how much?

50 cents, right?

And how many half dollars in a dollar.

Two.

Naturally.

Right.

And how many quarters are in a half dollar?

Two quarters and a half dollar.

That's right.

And how many dimes?

Five dimes make 50 cents.

Let's just check these four half dollars and be sure.

Be sure how many I have 1, 2, 3, 4, half dollars, which I'll place in my left hand.

Nothing in my right hand.

Now this is a solid round table, right?

Okay, I'm gonna put my empty right hand under the round table right in the center, right here.

And then I'll hit my hand against the table.

And you see what happened.

One half dollar went through the tabletop.

Shall shall we try it again?

Alright, let's try it again.

That leaves 3 1, 2 and three half dollars, which I'm going to put in my left hand.

Now I'll place one half dollar under the table and I hope this trick works.

If it doesn't, I'll be very embarrassed.

I hope now that we only have two, right?

Another one went through.

So we now have one, two beneath the table and one two over here on this side.

That didn't go through that spot yet.

All right, let's see if we can do it one more time.

1, 2, 3, and four.

Place these two beneath the table and try it again.

Oh, I just felt it.

Leave my hand.

1, 2, 3 to go.

One left.

Are you watching?

Very good.

1, 2, 3.

You wanna look again?

Alright, three.

And now we have through the table, 1, 2, 3.

And didn't go, did it?

Oh, I know.

My left hand is getting a little tired.

It's not as strong as my right hand.

This hand is much stronger and I think it has, oh, a much greater force to it.

The right hand.

So I'll put these three beneath the table once more.

It doesn't work.

I'm in big trouble.

Listen, and I think you'll hear it go through the table.

Four and a half dollars, 2, 3, 4, right through the table.

Incidentally, speaking of Pennsylvania, wonderful state, you know after whom it was named?

Well, it was named after William Penn.

The first part of the name Penn is named after William Penn.

And Veni is from the Latin word, wood or forest.

And William Penn was born in 1644 and he died in 1718.

A mighty fine state.

And thank you all.

The fans from Pennsylvania, we'll try to keep you happy with these little tricks from time to time.

Tricks we think you might enjoy time now.

For what?

What do we do now?

No, not the magic sketchpad.

It's time now to make the the mighty sword.

Exce rise.

So let's, let's say those magic words together.

Alright, good.

Here we go.

Fiddly, die fiddly D, magic sword rise for me.

And the magic words today on the theme blade of the sword are animal habits.

Animal habits.

Well, there are many types of animals on this wonderful earth of ours.

But I'm going to talk about, I'm going to talk about fish first of all, and I think I'll, we haven't used the magic chalkboard for a while.

First I'm going to talk about a fish known as, oh, it's only about that long.

It's known as a grunion, G-R-U-N-I-O-N. And this is a picture of a grunion.

Have you ever heard of a grunion?

Next I'm going to show you a picture of, well, this is a salmon egg.

It's about as large as a, as a green pea.

And when that salmon egg becomes a full grown fish, this is a chinook salmon.

It's that large.

Okay, we're gonna talk about a gron up here and a fish that grows that large 20, 24 pounds, about three feet long, just from that little egg.

We're going to talk about the, the habits of these fish and how they travel without either a, a compass or a clock.

It's most amazing.

First, the gron, G-R-U-N-I-O-N. And the only place that they lay eggs are in Southern California around Long Beach.

When on a particular day when the moon is full, a full white silvery moon misrepresents the water coming over the beach.

When the moon is full at high tide, the little gron will come out here and wait for the wave that goes the farthest in.

Now if the tide raises, and that's the highest point, the gron just knows without a clock or a compass to come in on that wave.

And she lays her eggs in the sand and the male runion fertilize them.

And then the second wave that comes in takes them back out to sea.

Two weeks later with the new moon, another wave comes in at high tide, just the right height uncovers the eggs, washes away the sand, and releases a tiny fish to swim away.

And then they do that all over again.

How the gron knows the specific minute, second, and hour to lay her eggs at the high of the tide.

I'll never know.

It's a, it's one of the mysteries of nature.

She must have a special clock or a compass only God only knows, and it's one of the many, many mysteries still not uncovered.

I want to tell you very briefly about the mystery of that large chinook salmon that I showed you the salmon again without a clock or a compass.

The tiny salmon egg is hatched in Alaska.

I'm talking now about the Pacific salmon.

This is in fresh water and this tiny little fish swims down the stream out to the ocean, which is now salt water each hardly and develops until the salmon weighs.

The chinook salmon weighs about oh, 20, 24, even as much as 60 pounds, and it's 36 inches long.

And then at a specific day, I don't know how it knows, but it decides I'm going back home and lay my eggs.

How a salmon can find the exact little stream in Alaska from when it came.

I'll never know.

But it swims back up there all the way upstream to the place from when it was born.

From when it came, the female lays her eggs and the male salmon fertilizes them.

And then shortly thereafter, the male dies.

A remarkable story.

The mysteries of God's creatures and how they navigate around the world.

Someday, we'll talk about birds and how they, they migrate and butterflies.

It's an equally interesting story.

Right now I have something of interest for you.

It's another trick with an item that you'll find around your house.

I still have these half dollars, so I'd better better clear them away first, do you know what, what sugar is?

Well, I'm told in the 20th century you have sugar cubes.

A cube has how many sides?

A cube has six sides.

It has four sides all around.

1, 2, 3, 4.

It has a top and it has a bottom.

We're gonna take four sugar cubes and place them in a square.

This is the square.

Alright, now I'm gonna concentrate on them just for a moment.

Just for a brief moment.

Touch each one like that.

This is a Chinese trick by the way.

We say Poco chino, poco chino.

Nothing happens until I cross my hands and say, poco Chino, do you know what happens?

Two cubes.

Jump to one corner again.

Poco Chino, cross hands.

Poco Chino.

Now we have two on the top.

If it worked one way, perhaps it'll work in reverse.

Maybe you have your little magic wand to help me.

Poco Chico one went back, didn't it?

Poco Chico one, two, and two make four.

This is the story of the mystic sugar cubes.

One was taught to me by an old, old Chinese magician named sinc.

But it just shows that you can do very interesting little magic tricks with items that you'd find around the house.

And if you're tired, of course, after performing the trick, I'm told, these are delicious.

You can just eat the show, saves a lot of time and energy and prepares you for another trick.

Be much better if instead of eating sugar or candy, if I, if I ate an apple instead, right?

One more reminder, and let me remind you very quickly, remember to join the round table to join round table.

What do you do?

Do you remember?

Well, to join this magic round table in King Arthur's court, you would write, see that pen there with Merlin's name?

Write to Merlin.

And where would you write?

You would write to Merlin in care of this station.

Tell me of the good deed that you have done and I'll be happy to send you your membership card and your magic wand.

I think I'll finish eating my meal now and I'll I'll see you later.

Goodbye now.

Goodbye.

Oh, these are delicious.

Merlin was produced in the studios of Ohio University Television, Athens, Ohio.