Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/372

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334
SYLVIE AND BRUNO CONCLUDED.

not fly away! It is——in short, or perhaps, more correctly, at length——an Elephant. You will observe——." Here he beckoned to the Gardener to come up on the platform, and with his help began putting together what looked like an enormous dog-kennel, with short tubes projecting out of it on both sides.

"But we've seen Elephants before," the Emperor grumbled.

"Yes, but not through a Megaloscope!" the Professor eagerly replied. "You know you can't see a Flea, properly, without a magnifying-glass——what we call a Microscope. Well, just in the same way, you ca'n't see an Elephant, properly, without a minimifying-glass. There's one in each of these little tubes. And this is a Megaloscope! The Gardener will now bring in the next Specimen. Please open both curtains, down at the end there, and make way for the Elephant!"

There was a general rush to the sides of the Pavilion, and all eyes were turned to the open end, watching for the return of the Gardener, who had gone away singing "He thought he saw an Elephant That practised on a Fife!"