Page 213 - Adventures in shadow-land

they hadn't passed a very good examination in

magic- One young gentleman upon whom he
had thought he could certainly depend being told

to make himself invisible, which is a very difficult
problem, had made a mistake, used the wrong

formula, and by accident transformed the whole
Board of Examiners, who were not expecting any
such thing, into cuttle-fishes. There was dread­

ful confusion for a few minutes, for the student
couldn't remember how to turn them back again,

and as the spell could not be undone by any one
else, the members of the board got all tangled up
together, while the professor, in an awful temper,

was trying to teach the young man the right for­
mula.
But they were all undone at last, only there was

one immensely wealthy old merman who was never
quite sure in his mind that he had got back his

own proper curly fish's tail, and not that of some
other gentleman, so that all the rest of his life he

was in a puzzle as to at least half his personal iden-
tity. This incident so vexed him that he did not
give anything to the college funds, as he had fully

intended. This circumstance and a few other ac-