I'm having one
of them contraptions made."
"What contraptions? Oh, Ezra!"
"An airship," he answered. "I'm going to have one, and win a twenty
thousand dollar prize from the government. Then I'll go into the
airship business and sell 'em. I'll get rich, Samantha!"
"Oh Ezra! Do you mean to say you're goin' in for any such
foolishness as that?"
'Tain't 'foolish!"
"'Tis so! And--and are you--are you goin' to go up in one of them
things--them airships?"
"Well, I reckon I might. It's my machine, and I'm not going to let
them aviary fellers monkey too much with it unless I'm on board.
They might bust something, and want me to pay for it. Yes, I reckon
I'll do some flying myself."
"Ezra Larabee!" cried his horror-stricken wife. "Be you plumb
crazy?"
"I hope not, Samantha."
"But goin' up in an airship! Why it's flyin' in the face of
Providence!"
"Well, it'll be flying in the air, at the same time," he chuckled.
Clearly this was a different Uncle Ezra than his wife had ever
known. She sighed.
"The idea!" Aunt Samantha murmured. "Goin' up in an airship.
You'll fall and be killed, as sure as fate."
"That's what I was afraid of first," said Uncle Ezra, "and I didn't
want to go into the scheme. But this young feller, Lieutenant
Larson, he proved to me different. They can't fall. If your engine
stops all you got to do is to come down like a feather. He used
some funny word, but I can't think of it now.
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