Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-07-18
A Pleasing Experiment.

Every time / try to improve my mind
with science / resolve that l will never
do it again, and thenI always go and
do il. Science is SO dreadfully tempting
that you can hardly resist it. Mr.. Trav-
ers says that II anybody once gets into
the habit of being scientific person
there is little hope that he will ever re-
form, and he says he has known good
men who became habitual astronomers,
and actually took to prophesying wealth
er, all because they yielded to the
temptation TO look through telescopes,
and to make figures on the blackboard
with chalk.
was reading a lovely book the other
day. II was all about balloons and
parachutes. A parachute is thing
you fall out of balloon with. 1t Is
something like an open umbrella, only
nobody ever borrows it. If you hold a
parachute over your head and drop out
Of balloon, it will hold you up so that
you will come down to the ground so
gently that you won't be hurt the least
bit.
/ told Tom Maginnisl about it,
and we said we would make para
chute, and jump out of the sec
ond-stofy window with 1t. II
Is easy enough to make one, for all you
have to do is to get big umbrella and
open it wide, and hold on to the handle.
Last Saturday afternoon Tom came
over to my house, and we got ready TO
try what the book said was "a pleasing
scientific experiment"
We didn't have the least doubt that
the book told the truth. But Tom
didn't want TO be the first To jump out
OF the window--neither did land we
thought we'd give Sues kitten chance
to try parachute, and see how she
liked it. Sue had an umbrella that was
made of silk, and was Just the thing to
suit the kitten. 1 knew Sue wouldn't
mind lending the umbrella, and as she
was out making calls, and 1 couldn't
ask her permission, / borrowed the
umbrella and the kitten, and meant to
tell her all about it as soon as she came
home. We tied the kitten fast to the
handle of the umbrella, so as not TO hurt
her, and then dropped her out of the
window. The wind was blowing tre-
mendously hard, which supposed was
a good thing, for it is the air which
holds up q parachute, and of course the
more wind there is, the more air there
is, and the better the parachute will
| stay up.
| The minute we dropped the cat and
the umbrella out of the window the
wind took them and blew them clear
over the fence into Deacon Smedley's s
pasture before they struck the ground.
This was all right enough, but the para
chute didn't stop after it struck the
| ground. 1t started across the country
about as fast as horse could run, hit
ting the ground every few minutes and
then bouncing up into the air and coming
down again, and the kitten kept claw
ing at everything, and yowling as il
she was being killed. BY the time Tom
and could get down stairs the umbrel-
Ia was about quarter of a mile Off.
We chased it till we couldn't run any
longer, but we couldn't catch IL, and
the last we saw of the umbrella and the
cat they were making splendid time
toward the river, and I'm very much
afraid they were both drowned.
Tom and l came home again. and
when we got q little rested we said we
would take the big umbrella and try
the pleasing scientific experiment.; at
least | said that Tom ought to try it,
for we had proved that little silk um-
brella would let kitten down to the
ground without hurting her, and of
course great big umbrella would hold
Tom up all right. / didn't care to try
it myself, because Tom was visiting
me, and we ought always to give up ouI
own pleasures in order 70 make our Wis
itors happy
After while Tom said he would dc
ii, and when the wind blew hard he
jumped.
1t is my opinion, now that the thing
is all over, that the umbrella wasn't
large enough, and that if Tom had struck
the ground he would have been hurt.
He went down awfully fast, but
by good luck the groccr's man
was just coming out of the kitch-
en- door as Tom came down, and
he lit right on the mans head. 1t is
wonderful how lucky some people are,
for the grocer's man might have been
hurt If he hadn't happened to have q
bushel basket half full of eggs with him,
and as he and Tom both fell into the
eggs, neither of them was hurt.
They were just getting out from
among the eggs when Sue came in with
some of the ribs of her umbrella that
somebody had fishcd out of the river
and given to her. There didn't seem
to be any kitten left, for Sue didn't
know anything about it, but father and
Mr.. Maginnis came in few minutes
afterward, and / had to explain the
whole thing to them.
This is the last pleasing scientific
experiment" / shall ever try. don't
think science is at all nice, and, besides,
/ am awfully sorry about the kitten
Johnny BroUn," in Harper's Young
People.