Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-05-20

our ulSIOTtuucS quilt IL 1 WoS
up, l wouldn't get boys into difficulty
by telling them to do all sorts OF things.
There was a professor came to our
house the other day. A professor IS q
kind of man who wears spectacles up on
the top OF his head and takes snuff and
doesn't talk English very plain. be-
lieve professors come from somewhere
neal Germany, and ! wish this one had
staid in his " country. They live
mostly on cabbage and such, and Mr..
Travers says they are d%readfully fierce,
and that when they are not at wal with
other people, they ight among them.
selves, and 90 on in the most dreadful
way.
This professor that came to see father
didn't look q bit fierce. but Mr.. Travers
says that was just his deceitiul way, and
that ii we had had a valuable old bone
or q queer kind of shell in the house, the
professor would have got up IN the night
and stolen it and killed US all IN q
beds; but Sue SAID 1t was u shame. and
that the professor was a lovely old gen.
tleman, and there wasn't the least harm
in his kissing her.
Well, the professor was talking after
dinner to father about balloons, and
when he saw 1 was listening, he pre-
tended to be awfully klud, and told me
how to make a fire. balloon. and how
he'd often made them and sent them up
in the air; and then he told about a man
who went up on horseback with his
horse tied to q balloon; and father said,
Nov listen to the professor. Jimmy
and improve your mind while you've
got a chance"
The ne,t day Tom Maginnls and I
made q balloon just as the professor had
told me to. 1t vas made out OF tissue
paper, and it had a sponge soaked full Of
alcohol and when you set the alcohol
lend the balloon morn q mile high. We
made il out in the barn. and thought
we'd try 1t before we said anything to the
folks about it, and then surprise them BY
showing them what u beautiful balloon
we had, and how we'd improved our
minds. Just as 1t was all ready, Sues
Cat came into the barn, and remembered
the horse that had been tied to a balloon,
and told Tom we'd see If the balloon
would take the cat up with 1t.
So We tired her with a whole lot of
things SO she would hang urder the
balloon without being hurt a bit. and
then we took the balloon into the yard
to try it. After the alcohol had bHrhed
a little while the balloon got full of air,
and presently it went slowly up. There
wasn't q bit OF wind, and when 1t had
gone up about twice az high as the
house, it stood still.
You ought to have seen. how that cat
howled; but she was nothing compared
with Sue when she came out aud saw
ner beloved beast. She screamed to nae
10 bring her that cat this instant you
good-for. nothing cruel little wretch
won't you catch it when father comes
home.
Now I'd like to know how I could
reach q cat that was q hundred feet up
in the AIR, but that's all the reasonable
ness that girls have.
The balloon didn't stay up very long.
It began to come slowly down. and when
it struck the ground. the way that cat
started on a run tor the barn. and tried
to get underneath It with the balloon all
on fire behind her, was something
frightfal to &c.,. BY the time 1 could
get to her and cut her loose. a lot OF hay
took fire and began to blaze, and Tom
ran for the fire engine. crying out
Fire T. with all his might.
The firemen happened to be at the
engine house, though they're generally
ali over town, and nobody al find
them when there is a fire. They brought
the engine nto our yard in about ten
minutes, and just as Sue and the cook
and 1 had put the fire out. But that
didn't prevent the firemen from working
with heroic brav cry, as our newspaper
alterward said. They knocked in our
| dining room windows with axes, and
poured about . thousand hogsheads oil
water into the room before We could
make them understand that the fire was
down by the barn. and had been put
out before they came.
This was ali the Professor s'iault, and
it has taught mt a lesson. The next
time anybody wants me to improve my
mind I'll tell him he ought to be asham-
ed of himself.
1--WE would caution our boy readers in regard
to the terrible results that may come from pour
ing alcohol on burning substa ces.. The flame
will catch the stream as 1t falls, and, mounting
to the bottle, accidents of the most disastrous
Il character NAV eQ6ue.