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

Alright, scissors.

He's going to cut the handkerchief, and then you're going, well, what, 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 dog 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 mastiff to hunt lions is because, well, here is a picture carved in stone.

It's called a, a bar relief.

It's a tablet, a stone done in Assyria 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 MAs this 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 night, had one English mast 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 breezes - 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 in 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.

Jock, sit.

This is sir Jock.

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.

Heal.

Jock, jock.

Sit Jack, come - Sit.

Jack, sit.

Say Jo.

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's 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 him one too?

Yes.

Alright, jock, one more time.

Sit up.

Try it again.

Sit, 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.

And would you like to meet Sir Echo?

Terry Lynn Jock, 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'd be afraid of you.

- No.

Okay.

- Here he is, right here.

That, did you like that Sir?

Eckel?

- No.

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 Eckel 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 Jack again, sir?

- Echo, Merlin.

Get that monster away from me.

I I, I'm getting outta here.

- 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.

Do 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.