Of course, I was nervous when I got to Miranda’s house on Friday afternoon.

But Clem was nowhere to be seen.

“Humphrey, my mom sent Clem to Gran’s house for the weekend so he wouldn’t bother you,” Miranda announced.

That made me feel MUCH-MUCH-MUCH better.

“I have a lot of work to do this weekend,” Miranda said as she set my cage on her desk. “And I need your help.”

“I’m ready!” I squeaked.

“First, I have to look like a magician,” Miranda said.

She disappeared into her closet.

When she came out again, she was wearing a black jacket with long sleeves and a tall black hat.

“Ta-da!” she said.

“I’m Magic-Miranda now.”

I always call her Golden-Miranda because of her golden hair. But she looked like Magic-Miranda with the hat on.

Miranda pulled a small table covered with a black cloth to the center of her room. There was a big box on the table.

“This is my magic table,” she said.

She opened the box and pulled out a wand. “Every magician needs a magic wand.”

“Of course,” I agreed.

Next, Miranda put the box on the floor and brought over a stack of books. After she put them around the edge of the table, she opened my cage and gently took me out.

She set me in the middle of the books so I wouldn’t fall off.

Then she said, “Humphrey! What have you got in your ear?”

“In my ear?” I squeaked. “Nothing!”

Like all hamsters, I store food in my cheek pouches. But I don’t put anything in my ears.

She reached one hand toward my ear. “Why, look!” she said. “It’s a dime!”

She held up a small silver coin.

“Eeek!” I squeaked.

It didn’t seem possible.

Hamsters don’t have much use for money.

And my ear is much too small to hold a dime!

Miranda stroked my back with her finger and laughed. “Don’t worry, Humphrey,” she said. “It wasn’t really in your ear. It’s a trick.”

That made me feel a LOT-LOT-LOT better.

“My uncle Wally used to pull coins out of my ear when I was little,” she said. “When I got older, he taught me the trick.”

“How do you do it?” I asked.

“I had the coin hidden in my hand the whole time,” she said.

She did the trick again. This time, she showed me how she hid the dime between her fingers.

“It takes a lot of practice to learn a magic trick,” Miranda explained. “I probably tried this a hundred times.”

Wow! That’s a lot of practice.

“You can help me with the next trick,” she said.

She took out a deck of cards.

She shuffled them several times and told me, “This is to make sure the cards are all mixed up.”

Miranda set the deck of cards in front of me and spread them out facedown. “Pick a card,” she said. “Any card.”

I moved forward a few steps and sniffed one of the cards. It didn’t have much of a smell, so I moved along.

One of the cards smelled a little bit like berries. I don’t know why a card would smell like berries. Maybe someone was playing a card game and eating berries at the same time.

I headed for the berry-smelling card and sniffed some more. Yum!

Miranda picked up that card. She held it so I could see the front but she couldn’t. “This is the card you picked. Remember it,” she said.

The card had a 6 in one top corner and an upside-down 6 in a bottom corner. And there were six red hearts in the middle.

“Got it?” Miranda asked.

I squeaked.

She put the six of hearts back with the other cards. “I’ll cut the deck,” she said.

I watched carefully as Miranda moved sections of the deck around. I tried to figure out where my card went, but the backs of the cards all looked alike.

Then Miranda spread the cards on the table faceup.

A few seconds later, she picked up a card and said, “Here’s your card.”

It was my card—the six of hearts!

How did she do that?

“It’s not magic,” she said. “There’s a secret to it.”

I begged her to tell me the secret, but I guess all she heard was SQUEAK-SQUEAK-SQUEAK.

Miranda reached down into the box and pulled out a paper cup.

While she held the cup in one hand, she pulled a small wooden bead out of her box.

“Now I’ll show you how to make a bead disappear,” she said. “Watch closely.”

“I will!” I squeaked.

Miranda dropped the bead into the cup. Then she picked up her magic wand and waved it over the cup.

“Abracadabra, abracaday. Make the bead go away,” she said.

She set the wand back on the table and turned the cup upside down.

But the bead didn’t tumble out! Where could it have gone?

“There’s no bead in the cup,” Miranda said. Then she reached into her pocket. “Because the bead is here.”

She pulled the bead out of her pocket.

She really was Magic-Miranda!

“Wow!” I squeaked.

Miranda bowed. “I really shouldn't tell you how I did that,” she said. “Magicians are supposed to keep their tricks secret.”

I was disappointed until Miranda added, “But since you’re going to be my assistant, I’ll tell you.”

Oh, it was a clever trick!

First, there were two matching beads. One of them was in her pocket the whole time!

Second, there was a hole in the bottom of the cup, which she had hidden from me. When she dropped the bead into the cup, it fell through the hole and into her hand. When she turned the cup upside down, that bead stayed in her hand.

Then she put her other hand into her pocket to get the second bead. It looked as if the bead had magically moved.

It was a very tricky trick!

Miranda showed me more tricks.

She made a pencil stick to her hand without anything holding it on!

She made a spoon bend and then brought it back to its shape.

I couldn’t figure out how she did those things, and she didn’t tell me.

Late in the afternoon, Miranda’s mom came in to see how we were doing.

“Miranda, I hope you haven’t worn Humphrey out,” she said. “After all, this is his day off from school.”

“He’s going to be my assistant,” Miranda said.

“That’s a good idea,” her mom said. “But please don’t make Humphrey disappear.”

Miranda smiled. “I won't. I’m going to make A.J. disappear!”

“NO-NO-NO!” I said.

I was pretty sure that Miranda would get in a lot of trouble if she made A.J. disappear.

What would his family think?

Miranda put me back in my cage and set up a new trick.

In front of her was an upside-down glass and a piece of paper made into a tube.

She showed us that the tube was completely open inside.

Next, she held up a photo. “Here’s A.J.,” she said. “This was taken at his birthday party.”

Miranda put the photo on the table. “And now I’m going to make him disappear.”

She placed the paper tube over the glass so we couldn’t see the glass at all. Then she put the glass on top of the photo so we couldn’t see it anymore.

Miranda slid the glass across the table. “Presto-chango.”

I still couldn’t see the photo because it was under the glass.

She tapped the glass with her magic wand two times.

“And now you’ll see . . .” Miranda pulled the paper tube off the glass. “No more A.J.”

I could see the glass, but the photo of A.J. was gone!

Miranda’s mom clapped her hands. “Wonderful! Now can you bring him back?”

Miranda nodded. She put the paper around the glass and slid it across the table.

“Hocus-pocus!” Miranda said. She tapped her wand two times and lifted the glass.

The photo was back!

Miranda was REALLY-REALLY-REALLY magic!