“Well，” said the Chief Voice. “It’s like this. This island haseen the property of a great magician time out of mind. nd we all are.or perhaps in a manner of speaking， I ight say， we were.his servants. Well， to cut a long story hort， this magician that I was speaking about， he told us o do something we didn‘t like. And why not？ Because we idn’t want to. Well， then， this same magician he fell into a reat rage； for I ought to tell you he owned the island and e wasn‘t used to being crossed. He was terribly downright， ou know. But let me see， where am I？ Oh yes， this magician hen， he goes upstairs （for you must know he kept all his agic things up there and we all lived down below）， I saye goes upstairs and puts a spell on us. An uglifying spell. If ou saw us now， which in my opinion you may thank your ars you can’t， you wouldn‘t believe what we looked like efore we were uglified. You wouldn’t really. So there we l were so ugly we couldn‘t bear to look at one another. So hen what did we do？ Well， I’ll tell you what we did. Wewaited till we thought this same magician would be asleep in the afternoon and we creep upstairs and go to his magic book， as bold as brass， to see if we can do anything about this uglification. But we were all of a sweat and a tremble， so I won‘t deceive you. But， believe me or believe me not， I do assure you that we couldn’t find any thing in the way of a spell for taking off the ugliness. And what with time getting on and being afraid that the old gentleman might wake up any minute.I was all of a muck sweat， so I won‘t deceive you.well， to cut a long story short， whether we did right or whether we did wrong， in the end we see a spell for making people invisible. And we thought we’d rather be invisible than go on being as ugly as all that. And why？ Because we‘d like it better. So my little girl， who’s just about your little girl‘s age， and a sweet child she was before she was uglified， though now.but least said soonest mended.I say， my little girl she says the spell， for it’s got to be a little girl or else the magician himself， if you see my meaning， for otherwise it won‘t work. And why not？ Because nothing happens. So my Clipsie says the spell， for I ought to have told you she reads beautifully， and there we all were as invisible as you could wish to see. And I do assure you it was a relief not to see one another’s faces. At first， anyway. But the long and the short of it is we‘re mortal tired of being invisible. And there’s another thing. We never reckoned on this magician （the one I was telling you about before） going invisible too. But we haven‘t ever seen him since. So we don’t know if he‘s dead， or gone away， or whether he’s just sitting upstairs being invisible， and perhaps coming down and being invisible there. And， believe me， it‘s no manner of use listening because he always did go about with his bare feet on， making no more noise than a great big cat. And I’ll tell all you gentlemen straight， it‘s getting more than what our nerves can stand.”
