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Up in the Air

UCH fun boys find a Kite. It looks very well, but the quesin flying their tion is whether it will go up. Very nice Kites. And that looking Kites have been known to come is not all; there is down, and, by their ignominious fall, a great deal of fun proved that it is one thing to be called in making them. a Kite and another thing to fly as a Kite Little Kites that should. are bought may You see that this Kite has not only a do for very little proper shape, but it has some ornaments, people, but a good too. There is the picture of a bird, yet I sturdy boy, who scarcely think it is so life-like as to make wants the right the swallows or the sparrows think it is sort of a Kite, is one of their number. The boys are eviwilling to roll up dently well pleased with their efforts. his sleeves and Probably each has an ownership in the make it. And Kite; one-fourth belongs to each boy. when a boy has Yet if they were to attempt to make a had a little experi- division all the sport would be spoiled. ence, he can make This plainly shows that by co-operation as good a Kite as and doing things in concert results can any one, can bal- be gained which could be obtained in no ance it properly, other way. "In union there is strength." and can fly it It would amuse you if you could see towards the clouds. There is one thing the interest that the Japanese take in he cannot do; he may be what people flying Kites. And the funny part of it is call a blower, but he cannot make the that it is the men who do the most of the wind blow. He can take advantage of Kite-flying, while the children look on, the wind when it does blow, and so his which is the exact reverse of what we do Kite may be a success. And do you know in our country. They have the funniest that there is a deep principle and truth kinds of Kites, and show a great deal of stated in saying that one can take advantage of the wind that blows. These boys you see have been making ingenuity in getting them up. Everybody has them, and they are so cheap that even the beggars can have Kites to fly. They are of all sizes and shapes; you neat little sum for the painting alone. can buy a plain Kite a few inches square, The Japanese understand the trick of "IS IT NOT A BEAUTY?" or you can get one as large as the side of flying a Kite without a tail, and they do a house, and covered all over with dragons it by the arrangement of the strings, and other things that sometimes cost a which is quite different from ours. On the other hand, some of their Kites will large bird that I mistook it for one, and have a whole line of strings hanging the delusion was kept up by a smaller down as ornaments, and sometimes it one that seemed to be getting away from looks as if the Kite were anchored by the other. + means of these extra cords. They make "The large one imitated the movements their Kites so large that three or four men of a hawk to perfection, and it was some are needed to hold some of them; and minutes before I could understand that it there is a story that a man who one day was nothing but a combination of sticks tied the cord of a Kite to his waist was and paper and cords, instead of a real live taken up in the air and never heard of bird. It rose and fell, and every few again. And there is another story of a moments it swept down and seemed to man in the country who had a Kite that be trying to swallow the little one out of he harnessed to a plough, and when the sight. I never should have supposed wind was good he used to plough his such an imitation possible, and was thorfields by means of it. But the story does oughly convinced that the Japanese must not explain how he turned the furrow be very fond of Kite-flying if they give it when he reached the end of the field. the study necessary to bring it to such a Perhaps he had an accommodating wind state of perfection." that shifted at the right time.

People do not go up in the air on Kites, Says a traveller: "The first Kite I saw but you could go up five miles or more in in the air in Japan was so much like a la balloon.