SEEDS WILL DANCE in a glass of ginger ale or other carbonated beverage. Drop several grape, apple, or lemon seeds into the glass. They sink and remain at the bottom until carbon dioxide bubbles become attached and buoy them up to the top. There, some of the bubbles break away, and the. seeds sink again-only to repeat the performance while the bubbles last.

ILLUSION is the secret of the balancing stunt shown below. To your friends, you appear to be balancing the glass of water on the edge of the card. Really, though, you have the glass off center on the card so that more of it extends at the back than at the front-and you hold the back on your upraised forefinger.

WHAT BRAND DO YOU PICK? Even if you don't smoke, you can do this trick. Have several of your friends lend you a cigarette, each a different brand. Then blindfold yourself and have the cigarettes passed to you by an assistant who calls the name of each as he hands it over and you drop it into a bowl. Stir them around to mix them; then have your assistant call out the brand of one. You can pick it unerringly from the bowl despite your blindfold! How? It's really simple. Prearrange with your assistant the brand he will ask you to pick, and when he hands that cigarette to you, squeeze it just enough so that you can tell it later by feel.

YOU CAN READ MINDS by putting two cards from a deck in your pocket surreptitiously. Take three more from the deck and have a friend select one mentally. Put the three in your pocket, remove the two already there, and return them to the deck without showing the faces, saying that you now have in your pocket the selected card. Have your friend name his card, and produce it for him! You have, of course, memorized the order of the three held.

MAGIC BALLOONS OBEY COMMANDS given after a few gestures that may be recognized by science students but will mystify others. The gestures consist of rubbing your woolen coat sleeve a few times on one or both of the balloons! If you rub both, they receive the same electrical charge and repel each other; if you rub only one, they stick together. The trick works best on a dry winter day.

NAMING A COIN placed under a cup while your back is turned is easy if you have an assistant to work with you. He simply turns the handle in a prearranged direction- right, left, toward you, or away from you-to indicate the denomination of the coin! The trick may be worked even more subtly and effectively by having the different positions of the handle vary only slightly, such as pointing to different articles of tableware or to figures in the design of the tablecloth. Don't repeat the trick too often.

A SODA-POP CANNON that goes off with a bang and recoils like a real gun will amuse your friends after dinner. Pour half an inch or so of vinegar in a soda bottle and lay it across two round pencils that form the gun carriage. Wrap half a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in a piece of a paper napkin for a charge and insert it in the neck where tilting will slide it into the vinegar. Then put in a cork medium tight. Jolt the charge into the vinegar and hold your breath! As the vinegar soaks through the paper, carbon dioxide gas is generated, and in a few seconds the cork will fly out with a loud report, while the recoil will cause the bottle to roll back realistically on the pencils.

ONE WAY TO MAKE MONEY is to make four coins appear where there were only three before. You need a table without a cloth and-yes, four coins! Put three coins in view on the table, show your empty hands, and then brush the coins off while holding one hand under the edge to catch them. This hand will come up with four coins to the surprise of your friends if you are adept in loosening the fourth coin from under the edge of the table where it has been stuck with a dab of soap or gum.

YOU CAN PICK A MARKED COIN from a hat with your back turned and without ever seeing it! Place half a dozen coins of the same denomination on the table, have someone mark one while your back is turned, and let him pass it around so all in the group may inspect it. How can you tell it without looking? Simply by its change in temperature! Handling by your friends will make it warmer than the other coins. If the room temperature is normal, the difference can be detected very quickly.

LET YOUR FRIENDS in on this one-for a time! Hold a handkerchief by opposite ends, drop one end, and stroke it briskly several times. Now grasp the lower end and let the other go-and the handkerchief will stand upright. Many of your friends will be able to do likewise. But they can't imitate you when your handkerchief stands out horizontally or when it bends backward and forward as you beckon-unless, like you, they have a length of piano wire hidden in the hem!