The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-07-27

VeT kAl -seh.
There was = professor came to
our house thu other day. A pro
lessor is a kind OF man who wears
spectaclss upon the top of his head
and takes suntf snd doesn talk
English very plain. | believe pro-
fessors come from somewhere near
Germany, and l wish this one had
staid in his own country. They live
mostly on cabbage and such, and
Mr.. Travers says they are dread
full fierce, and that when they are
not at war with other people, they
fight among themselves and go on
in the most dreadful way.
This professor that came to see
father didn't look bit fierce, but
Mr.. TraVers says that was just his
deceitful way, and that if we had
had a valuable old bone or a queer
kind of shell in the house, the pro-
lessor would have got up In the
night and stOlen it and killed us all
in our beds; but Sue said it was a
shame, and thst the Professor was
a lovely old gentleman, and there
wasn't the least harm in his kissing
her.
Well the Professor was talking af-
ter dinner to father about balloons,
and when he saw | was listening, he
pretended to be awfully kind, and
told me how to make fire balloon,
and how he'd often made them and
sent them up in the air; and then
he told about man who went up
on horseback with his horse tied to
a balloon; and father SAID: "Now
listen to the Professor, Jimmy, and
improve your mind while you've got
a chance"
The next day Tom Maginnis and
l made a balloon just as the Profes-
sor had told me to. 1t was made
out of tissue-paper, and it had a
sponge soaked full of alcoRol and
when you set the alcohol ON fire the
tumefaction of the air would send
the balloon morn mile high. We
made it out in the barn, and thought
we'd try it before we said anything
to the folks about it, and then sur
prise them by showing them what
beautiful balloon We had, and
how we'd improved oar minds.
just as 1t was all ready, Sues cat
came into the barn, and | renem-
bered the horse that had been tied
to \ balloon, and told Tom We Il see
if the balloon would take tile cat
up with it.
So we tied her on with whole
lot of things SO she would hang un-
der the balloon without being hurt
a bit, and then we took the balloon
into the yard to try it. After the
alcohol had burned a little while
the balloon got full of air, and pres
emily it went slowly up. There
wasn't a bit OF wind, and, when it
had gone up about twice as high as
the house it stood still.
You ought to have seen how that
cat hOwled; but she was not thing
compared with Sue when she came
out and saw her beloved beast. She
screamed to me to bring her that
cat this instant you good for moth
cruel little wretch, won't you catch
it when father comes home.
Now ia like to know how
could reach cat that was u hun
dred feet up in the air, but that's
all the reaSonHbleness that girls
have.
The balloon dIdn stay up long
1t began to come slowly down, and
when it struck the ground, the way
that cat started on a run for the
BARN, and tried to get underneath it
With the balloon all on fire behind
Ter, was something frightrul to see
BY the time l could get to her and |
;ut her out lot Of hay took fire |
md began to blaze, and Tom ran
or the fire engine, crying out,
Fire" with all his might.
The tiremen happen TO be at the
ngine house, though they're gener
lily all over town, and nobody can
ind them when there is fire
hey brought the engine in
our JAIu III ABOUT ~
minutes, and just as Sue and the
ook and had put the fire out.
'ut that didn't prevent the fire
len from working with heroic
ravery, as our newspaper said after
ard. They knocked in our din
lg-room windows with axes, and
CURED about a thousand hogs
eads of water into the room before
e could make them understand
nat the fire was down in the barn,
nd had been put out before they
anne.
This was all the Professors fault,
nd it has taught me lesson. The
ext time anybody wants me to i'm
rove my mind I'll tell him he ought
} be ashamed of himself