- In the days of King Arthur, there lived a sorcerer who entertained the royal court of Camelot with miraculous fes of magic.

Come with us now to the secret room of Merle the Magic.

- Welcome.

Welcome once more to my secret room here at Camelot.

A young round table member, his name is, oh, young.

Jimmy Martin recently became a, a member of the round table, asked me if I would do a trick with some flowers.

Now, I'm not very good at flower tricks, but you know, a magician traditionally usually shows a hat.

Now this hat is an empty hat.

In fact, it's always empty because I wear it myself.

It has to be empty.

We're going to place a little wand over it like this and just tap the hat twice and watch what happens.

Now I'm afraid that wand isn't powerful enough.

I better use another wand, just a little bit larger wand, young Master Martin.

And this time we'll wave it one more time and say the magic word fiddly.

Die fiddly.

D. Magic flowers materialize for me.

My wand seems to be in trouble.

Let's try it again.

Oh, it collapsed completely.

Would you take this wand, George?

Have you got a really, really big wand?

Really big.

This should work.

Young Master Martin.

We'll try it one more time.

One more time for good luck.

Funny acoustics in this room.

I better get rid of the wand altogether and try this by a real magic blow.

Very gently.

And what do you think happens?

Well, if I blow just right, all these are nice smelling flowers.

That's a pretty one.

A few more and some more.

I think I shall give these to the ladies of the royal court, and I'll keep this one for George.

We'll give this to him a little bit later on.

But before I do, I have a very special task to perform.

You know, don't you?

Right.

We have to address the mighty sword Excalibur.

And let's say those magic together.

Let's say 'em together.

Here we go.

Fiddly, die fiddly.

D, magic sword.

Rise for me.

And the magic word, my gracious.

That's the smallest word we've ever had.

SUN pronounced son.

I'm not talking about the son in a family, a father's boy or a mother's boy.

That's spelled SON.

I'm talking about SUN.

Yes, the kind of sun we see in the sky.

And it is huge.

Is the, is the sun in the sky?

Well, it's so huge.

Remember we talked about the moon once?

Well, if I were to draw the sun, I couldn't even get it all on this paper.

It's very hot and it radiates heat constantly.

Now, over here, just to show you the difference in size, this, if the sun is that large, the earth would look about that large.

That's how large the earth would be around, which rotates the moon.

And how large do you think the moon would be?

Much smaller.

Yes, the moon would be about that big.

So the sun is huge.

Do you remember how, how big the moon is?

How far across, how big the diameter is?

2000 miles.

The earth is 8,000 miles, four times larger than the moon and the sun is some 800,000 miles in diameter.

Quite a bit of difference, isn't there?

The moon goes around the earth in that manner, and the earth goes around the sun.

If the son could talk, I imagine this old fellow would have many, many stories to tell.

I, I drew a picture of a son.

We talk about a man in the moon, but we know that neither can talk.

You might try drawing a little ventre que doll this way and make it talk yourself after this one talks.

If it does, you'll be able to see exactly how it works.

Come very closely now, and look at this man I made.

And you'll see something strange about him.

Can you talk?

Will come on.

Say something.

How do you think he talked?

Don't, don't tell.

I'm going to tell you.

See, we have a little rubber band for a mouth right across here, and a white thread goes down here.

So when I pull the thread like this, I didn't want you to see it first.

He can talk now.

The first thing we learned to say is, hello.

Say hello.

Oh, no, no, not hello.

Oh, hello.

Gee, it's easy.

You, I like to talk.

Well, you can make yours your figure talk too, by just making a little rubber band mouth across like that.

Paint in a circle and you'll have a talking doll or a talking sun as the case may be.

I think if we go to the round table, you can perhaps even see better how huge the sun is in comparison to the moon and to the earth.

Now, this round table is fairly large, isn't it?

Pretty good size.

You see how big a round that is?

It's about four feet.

That would be the sun.

If we were to make an equal proportion.

I have here a little seed from some kind of a flower.

I don't know what it is.

That would be the earth.

And over here, the tiny head of the pin, that would be the moon.

Quite a bit of difference, isn't there?

I'm going to put the seed right here for a moment.

And you know, sun is very essential to our health.

Flowers need it, animals need it.

Sun makes us grow up to be big and strong, boys and girls.

And if you don't have sun, you won't be very healthy.

Of course.

Too much sun can be bad also.

So we can't stay out in the sun to excess, but it makes the grass grow.

It makes the flowers grow.

And speaking of flowers, as I started to tell you, I have some flowers and been out in the sun in King Arthur's garden.

And these are royal white roses.

And Lady Guinevere said that she would like to have me prepare, just pluck the blooms right off like this and prepare a floral piece for her.

So maybe if I take all of these lovely mm, they smell nice, these lovely white roses off and put them down here, we'll have just what she wants.

There's only one thing that makes me very sad when I remove flowers from a bouquet.

That's the end of that.

There are no more.

And the green looks so sad and so lonely without the white blooms.

Let's try a little magic.

I have a magic wand, the kind that the members of the round table get when they send me a letter telling about their good deed.

You know, if you write to Merlin in care of this station, I will send you a magic wand.

You can become a member of the round table.

So we'll just wave the wand over the green leaves.

And if we're lucky, you might even see some roses appear.

There's some buds that are starting to form and some more.

They're getting larger.

Oh my, I hope they continue to grow.

Look at that.

They're all getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Oh, these are going to be prettier than the white roses.

Look at how large they're becoming.

Isn't that something bigger?

Bigger and bigger and bigger?

Look at that bouquet.

Isn't that a lovely bouquet?

I'll tell you what we'll do.

We'll put the red roses on this corner right here, and the white ones over here next to Sir Echo.

Oh, and speaking of Sir Echo, I almost forgot it's time to talk to him, isn't it?

I hope he's there.

If he's in the vase, I'll wake him up.

If he's in the vase, he'll hold onto my wand and also the vase.

Yes, he's there.

All right.

He holds on very tightly, doesn't he?

We'll wake him up.

Hello?

Down there.

- Hello - Up there.

Say Merlin.

You were, you were talking about the sun.

Well, the sun's awfully important to flowers and growing things, isn't - It?

Yes.

It's very important to sun.

Yes, you're - Right.

Hey, Merlin, do you suppose we could make that seed on your table grow?

Oh, - This seed right here.

That one right - There.

- I'll put it in the flour pot right now.

Okay.

You put the seed right in the flower pot.

Now if we have a little sun, I'll put the sun right up here.

That's over the flower pot.

All right?

That's great.

Yeah.

And a little water.

Water.

Oh, yeah, I'll pour some water in.

Oh, is that enough?

- No, no, that's not enough.

Merlin, you, you know, seed's pretty small.

It needs lots of water.

- Alright, here's some more water.

Oh, did you see it grow?

Oh, I, I I did.

Yeah.

Can we try it again?

Add a little bit more water.

We'll try this one more time.

Oh, okay.

- And again, there's some more.

Water and - Sunlight are very important.

One more time.

All right.

Okay.

Here's some more.

- That's amazing, sir.

Echo.

- Oh gee.

That's the, the prettiest flower I've ever seen.

And it was just because of the sun and the water.

- Yes.

I wonder what would happen if we took the sun and the water away.

I, I, - I don't know - What would happen then.

Do you suppose?

We'll try it.

- Let's try it and see, - Okay, I'll take the sun away and the water away.

And I wonder what'll happen now.

Oh, oh, oh.

The, the flower died.

The flower died.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I I'm so sad that the flowers died.

Merla, here's my handkerchief.

Oh.

Oh, look, now my, you did cry a lot.

Just blow your nose.

You'll feel better.

I am sorry.

We must take care of our flowers in the garden or they'll die.

Isn't that right, sir?

Echo.

- That's right, Merle, - I'm very sorry.

Perhaps next week we can repair the flower and make it like new again.

Shall we try?

Okay, we'll try.

Fine.

See you soon, sir.

Echo.

Goodbye.

Bye.

Merlin.

Don't feel too badly.

No.

Maybe this will make him, maybe this will make him perk up.

This is a triangle that'll reverse itself.

You see that triangle or pyramid?

We turn it upside down.

And again, it's right side up.

We'll try that next time we meet.

See you soon.

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

- In the days of King Arthur, there lived a sorcerer who entertained the royal court of Camelot with miraculous fes of magic.

Come with us now to the secret room of Merle.

The - Welcome.

Welcome.

Once more to my secret room at Camelot.

I'd like, oh, come right in.

Please step right.

There's a chair right there.

Fine.

Relax.

You're ready.

Good.

I have a trick with a, with a handkerchief that I think you'll really enjoy.

I'm going to take the handkerchief and I, I'm doing a trick now.

Chauncey, you're in trouble.

Oh, Chauncey seems to have lost his, his hand.

Is it gone?

You'd lost it.

Maybe we can find something down here.

All right, now it's, you lost this hand too.

Well, let's see if we can find this one.

Very good.

Now what I was going, he lost his finger.

I have a spare finger.

This is my finger pocket right here.

I'll put a finger right on there.

Now we're all set.

Now I'm gonna do my trick.

What?

Oh, you wanna do the trick with a handkerchief?

It's my very good handkerchief.

The only one I have.

You take good care of it.

All right, scissors.

He's going to cut the handkerchief.

And then you're going, well, what, what you, what are you doing?

You cut it and make a hole in it, then what?

Magically he's gonna put it back together again.

I, I, I hope, I wonder if he can do, it's cutting a hole outta the center.

Well, this, what are you gonna do with the sinner all and make it all come back together again?

Isn't that wonderful that he put my handkerchief back together again?

I think we should give Chauncey a big hand.

We should.

We should scold you.

That's what we should do.

You put a hole in my handkerchief.

Well, if you did that to my handkerchief, you better give me yours in exchange.

I'm going to give Chauncey the holy handkerchief and I'll have the good one.

You better practice some more Chauncey.

Don't you think that's fair?

That I keep the good handkerchief and oh, another hole in the hanky?

I think Chauncey needs a lot more practice.

He certainly does.

Well, one thing that doesn't take any practice at all, and that is saying the magic words to the mighty sword Excalibur, you know what we say, don't you?

Well, let's say it together.

Here we go.

Fiddly, die fiddly.

D magic sword rise for me.

And the magic word today is DOGS, which spells dogs.

You know, dogs are a man's best friend in Alaska.

They used dogs to pull sleds in the Alps.

They used dogs to save men who were lost in the mountains.

In England, we use dogs to guard the castle.

Dogs, I think, really are a man's best friend.

If you take good care of them.

They come in all sizes, big sizes and little sizes.

I've drawn a sketch or two of some dogs.

I've drawn a sketch here of the world's largest dog, this male dog, I won't tell you his name right away, but it weighs 200 pounds.

It's called an English mastiff.

He looks so sad.

His brows are wrinkled and he always looks like he's going to cry.

He has four wrinkles in his forehead.

And do you know this tiny dog underneath a huge English mastiff, one of the smallest dogs in the world.

It's a chihuahua, a Mexican dog.

Yes.

It only weighs a few pounds.

Small as it is.

They're used or used to be used for hunting in Mexico.

Packs of chihuahuas could chase and catch deer.

And the mastiff, the huge English mastiff was used in the Roman arena to fight men.

They'd put an English mastiff in the arena and they'd put an opponent that is a, another one against whom he could fight.

And usually the English mastiff would win.

Win the fight.

Yes.

And they also used him to hunt lions.

The reason I know they used the English master to hunt lions is because, well, here is a picture carved in stone.

It's called a, a bar relief.

It's a tablet of stone done in asy 2,500 years ago.

And this is an English mastiff carved right in the stone.

Look how he's pulling on that rope.

He's tugging very hard and he's going lion hunting.

Here's his master holding the rope very tightly.

And over here is someone carrying some hunting equipment.

This is just part of a huge stone carving done of the English Mastiff.

And of course, right here in England, as I told you before, we use the Mastiff to guard the castle, the English Lord, the bearer.

And the duke or the king has masti all around his castle, and even in the forest to prevent people from stealing his deer.

They call them deer poachers.

This is a mastiff all ready to go to battle.

Doesn't he look ferocious with a, with the spikes against his collar?

See these steel spikes jutting out from the collar.

And when the, when the knights went to the holy land, they took the mast with him.

Each knight had one English mastiff to help protect him and fight with him.

Very strong and courageous dogs kind and gentle to their masters, but ferocious if anyone would try to hurt their master, the one who owned them.

Now, there's a little girl here at Camelot, and she's the daughter of our blacksmith.

Her name is Terry Lynn.

And she likes English masters very much.

I'm going to get a handkerchief because she told me that she wanted a pet.

Terry Lynn, are you Here's Terry Lynn, would you stand right over here by the mighty Sword Excalibur?

Terry Lynn, would you like a pet?

- Yes.

- What's that?

- Yes.

- All right.

I'm going to turn this handkerchief on both sides and watch.

Oh, that's my thumb, isn't it?

Try it again.

It still looks like my thumb, but I, I don't think it really, it's wiggling terribly.

- Not a fish.

Merlin.

- Don't.

Don't you like a fish?

- No, I want a dog.

- Oh, a dog.

Well, I'll get rid of the fish then.

I thought you'd like a fish to put in your little aquarium, the little pool that you have.

You want a dog?

All right, we'll try to get you a dog from the magic handkerchief.

There it is.

A hot dog.

Not a hot dog.

Merlin.

Why?

I can put it between two buns and put some mustard on there.

Wouldn't that be nice?

- No.

I want a real dog that barks and breathes - A barking dog.

Well, you know, Chauncey, the clown has a new trick and maybe he could produce a dog for you.

I hope it comes out better than the handkerchief.

Here's Chauncey.

Now this is Terry Lynn Chauncey.

He's going to make something magically come outta that basket by blowing the magic fife.

Does that look like a mastiff?

Maybe that's a dog's tail.

No.

Well, I'm gonna just grab this in case it is a dog's tail.

And you wanna hold the end of this?

Thank you, Chauncey.

I wanna see what's in here.

Maybe this is a here Chauncey.

I'll give you the end of this.

And the fact, I'm gonna give you the basket too, because Terry Lynn, the rope comes out of the bottom.

You help me pull on this rope.

What do you think you're going to get?

Keep pulling, keep pulling.

Keep pulling.

What do you think that is?

A dog.

That is a big dog.

Sit.

That is a big dog.

And if you can make this dog obey you, he will be partly yours.

Partly yours, and partly mine.

Because this is Sir Jacque.

And he, he guards the castle.

He's an English mastiff.

Did you know that?

Yes.

Jacque.

Sit.

This is Sir Jacque.

I wonder if you went over there.

You could make him, make him perhaps come to you.

Do you think that would be possible?

I'm gonna take this strong steel chain off and maybe Jock will come to you.

Heel jock, jock.

Sit.

- Jack, come sit.

Jack, sit.

Say, Jack, come sit.

Jack, - Sit.

Can you do it once more and make him lie down over there, - Jack?

Come sit.

Okay.

Lie down.

Lie down.

That good dog.

- Well, that is very good.

Isn't that good?

Jock?

You've been a very good dog.

And I'm going to reward this dog with something.

Do you think I should give him a reward?

Jock, come.

Jock, sit.

Stay.

Come over here.

Terry.

Lynn, you can watch.

Sit, stay.

Would you like to give one too?

Yes.

Alright, jock, one more time.

Sit up.

Try it again.

Sit it, stay, stay.

Here it is.

Jock.

I lost a finger.

I lost a couple that way last week doing this trick.

Jock, would you like to meet Sir Echo?

Would you like to meet Sir Echo?

Terry.

Lynn Jacque, I want you to meet a friend of mine, see if he's here.

Hello?

Down there.

- Hello Up there.

Say Merlin.

- Yes.

- May I see Sir Jacque?

- Yes.

This is Sir Jock.

Here he is.

- Yeah.

Hello, sir.

Jock, you don't think he'll be afraid of me, do you?

Oh, - No.

I don't think he'll be afraid of you.

- No.

Okay.

- Here he is, right here.

That Echo.

Did you like that, sir?

Echo?

- No.

I, I I I didn't like that very much.

Merlin.

- I didn't either.

You know, I think Jock is a little bit afraid of Sir Echo because he's not used to that noise down there in the vase.

Is he?

You said you would like to feed him one time.

I wonder if he'd lie down with all this food around Jock.

Lie down.

Lie down, jock.

Lie down.

Lie down.

Now.

We'll see how quick he gets up.

Now we'll let him meet.

Sir.

Echo, would you like to see Jock again, sir?

Echo, - Merlin.

Get that monster away from me.

I I, I'm getting outta here.

What?

- I don't think he likes Jock.

Do you, do you know what this is Terry?

This is a thinking cap right here.

Yes.

And this is a magic wand.

Anyone who wants to join the magic round table, Terry Lynn can do so by writing to Merlin care of this station, telling me the good deed they did.

And then they'll get a magic wand.

Hold the magic wand, honey.

And maybe you can solve this puzzle right here.

Here's a puzzle.

You stand here and look up at the puzzle.

I'm going to do.

Just stay there because all your friends wanna look at you out there.

See?

Fine.

Now this is the puzzle.

You know what a puzzle is?

The puzzle is to take one from four, four minus one and get five.

You can't do that.

I'm gonna have you put the thinking cap right on your head.

Put the thinking cap right on your head.

That's it.

Do you have the answer?

Well, if I drew a square like that, that's a square.

Terry Lynn, that has four corners.

1, 2, 3, and four.

Right now, if I take one corner off like this one from four and I now have how many corners?

Look, Terry Lynn.

1, 2, 3, 4, and five corners.

So one from four does leave.

Five.

Let's say goodbye to our friends.

Let's do our bow like Merlin does.

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