"PA," AND HOW HE WENT UP IN A BALLOON

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9202, 3 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

"PA," AND HOW HE WENT UP IN A BALLOON

[FROM TOE BOSTON YOUTH'S COMPANION.] "One hundred and seventy-seven balloon ascents!" I exclaimed. "Is it possible that a man may so often brave tho terrible grip of gravitation and tho caprico of the winds, and yet survive?"

" Even so," replied the professor, with a smile. " Bub I have a conviction that my time will come at length," he added, a little more gravely. "\ ou know the adage of ' the pitcher that goes too often to the fountain.'"

" What a varied rango of experiences those one hundred and seventy-seven ascents must cover," I ventured to remark. " Yes, indeed ; some were perilous, many were full of hardship, and others had their comical side, in the revelation of the queer traits in human nature which they afforded."

"For instance? one of these latter humorous experiences, if you please," I suggested ; for I felt sure that, if once I could get Professor Kingston to talk, something worth hearing would conic of it. " i should say that my most amusing cxperince, for ib had tho merit of amusing me without making me ridiculous, occurred during one of my earliest ascents," observed the ' professor, after a moment's thought. "it was fully seventeen years a?o ; I was but just turned twenty then, and had associated with me another young man, Mr. Curtis Anderson, since better known as a journalist. But ho was then an enthusiastic aeronaut. Wo were partners one year, and made ten or twelve ascents together in a balloon, ' The Bird of Paradise,' which we then owned. Of course, we were then little more than amateurs in the profession. " We made an ascent from Albany, New York, on the day to which I refer. The ' Bird'was a pretty good-sized old-fashioned gas-balloon, of something more than forty thousand ieet capacity, rigged with the ordinary wicker car and an escape valve in her crown.

" We took up a lot; of sand ballast and food, and meant to make quite a ' fly' of it. We got off the ground in iairly good style, and ai; a height of thirty-five hundred feet struck a north-westerly air current, which took us off over the wild hilly region of Berkshire County, Massachusetts. "My friend Anderson was in favour of crossing over the Berkshire Hills, and getting as far as Springtield, in the Connecticut. Valley; but ominous-looking clouds had begun to form in the south and south-east, and I thought it safer to get down to the bosom of mother earth again. " Discretion is a wonderfully good thing in ballooning. One need not be cowardly, or even unduly timid, to take as few unnecessary risks as may be. The real and inevitable danger of ballooning are enough —certainly they are enough for me ; and the older I grow the more i act on that principle. " Tnere was quite a strong breeze below, near the ground, and we drifted along several mites at a height of four or live hundred feet until we were over the town of B . There we descended cautiously, and at length alighted in a straggling orchard, betore a low weather-beaten house and barn, such as are very common in the rural and hilly parts of Western Massachusetts

" We had thrown out a grapnel attached to a long line, and this ' .anchor,' swinging along as we Hew, caught in one of the old apple trees, caught and held, and the balloon and car came down among the branches of another apple tree loaded with ripe, luscious ' summer harveys.' It made the apples fly, knocked off two or three bushels of the fruit, and broke some of the little limbs and twigs. " There we hung. "Getting down from the tree, we man aged to slide the car off the branches to the ground, and were about to let off the gas from the envelope, when the old farmer came down on us like a hawk on a chicken.

"He was about the ugliest, most illfavoured old fellow I ever saw in my life—a heavy-set man, with a projecting jaw and a keen, evil eye. Out he marched into the orchard, and we saw that he had an old shot-gun in his hands, all loaded and Clipped. We heard him muttering to himseif in a savage undertone, as he crawled between the bars of the orchard fence; and, as ho came towards us, his jaw was set hard, and his eyes were as devoid of kindly feeling as a wolf's. " ' I say, Frank, here conies a tough old biscuit,' Anderson said to me in a whisper. ' Madder than a wet hen, too.'

" Speak him softly/' said I. "We stood still. Up strode our wrathful countryman to within six or eight paces. There lie stopped and glowered at us for a moment ; then gave vent to an unintelligible growl, and roared out, ' Wot yer 'bout ore, any way '• • We have been unfortunate enough to knock off some of your apples,' said Anderson, after giving him "good afternoon;' • but we will pay for them, sir; pay whatever is right.' " 'Sh'd think ye had knocked off some of my apples !' sneered the old chap. •' ' Yes, sir ; we are very sorry,' said Anderson; 'but, as 1 said before, we will settle for the damage done you.' "' Wal, how mueh'll ye pay me : That's the question !' exclaimed the man. " Why, we will pay you your own price, if it is not too outrageous,' Anderson replied. " ' Wal, then, I want thirty-live dollars !' he roared out. ' An' I'll hev it, too,' stamping his foot, 'or I'll hev the cloth of this ere infarnal thing to make up inter shirts, and give the ropes ter the old 'oman fer clozelines !' " ' Really, sir,' said I, ' you cannot mean to charge us thirty-live dollars for what apples we have knocked off Why, man, there are 1100 more than two or three bushels, and you have got the apples yet; the apples are not much injured.' " 'I do not honestly think, sir, that we have done you five dollars damage,' Anderson said ; ' but we'll give you ten to call it square.' | "We might as well have talked to the north wind. "'I won't touch it,' shouted the old fellow, now in a towering passion. ' I'll have what I said ; an' ye won't leave till ye pay it, nuther '.' "He strode along, gun in hand, and planted himself down on the car of the balloon. ''' Here I set,' he said, ' till the money's paid me.' "We had been holding the car fast all this time; our united weight just sufficed to keep it down. There were four bags of ballast still in the car. What to do we hardly knew. The old man was positively malicious. We talked with him for some time, till we both began to lose patience. " He was determined not to stir, and not to let us stir, until he had extorted what he chose from us. There ho sat, and he drew up his legs under him in the car and made himself quite comfortable—grinning at us like an old gorilla, and about as amiably. The grapnel still hung in the tree where it had caught, about a hundred feet off. "Presently Anderson gave me a wink; then quick as a flash he hauled out one of the sandbag and we both let go the car and sprang aside. ,! Up it went. Before old Crusty could get his legs from under him and out of the car he was forty feet in the air. "He set out to drop down, but he was so high that he dare nob do so. Then he gave me a roar. " ' Stop it! stop it! Stop me ! Where are ye goin' to ?' he howled to us. • " But up he went to the whole length of the anchor line, a hundred feet or more, and there he hung and swung and twirled around. " Anderson and I ran to the tree in which the grapnel had caught, and climbing up got it off the limb and took it to the ground. Then we had our friend —as a boy plays his kite aloft.

" The old fellow was pretty plucky, however. He got his gun up, and pointed it at us—cocked.

" 'Ef you don't haul me down I'll shoot ye dead,' he threatened. " ' If you shoot, we shall letgo this hook,' said Anderson, ' and you will go live thousand feet into the air. You will go to the moon old man, sure.'

" He looked up, looked all around he began to get alarmed, and lowered his gun. •'Just then the old lady, his wife, we presumed, came running out, and after her a younger woman. The old lady began to wring her hands and to whimper', when she saw ' pa,' as she called him, up so high. "'0 good boys !'she cried, '0° dear, good boys, for massy sake, let him down ! O pa, how did you get up there V and she

ran first to Anderson, then around to me, and patted us and whined to us, to let pa down. " The younger woman aid not/ say anything, and she acted as if she didn't care a straw whether pa ever got to the earth again or not. We suspected that she might be the old farmer's daughter-in-law. "'He can come down,'Anderson kept saying to the old lady, ' he can come down, inarm, if he will promise to behave himself, put away his gun and do the fair thing.' "But pa wouldn't say a word; lie was obstinate, and wouldn't yield yet. "'Well, what say, pa 2' Anderson at length shouted up to him. ' We've fooled about long enough, and stood about nonsense enough for one day. Now will you put up your gun and be civil, and take a fair price for your apples, or not? I will give you just three minutes to make up your mind in, and if you don't say yes before the three minutes are up, I shall let go this grapnel, and you may go starhunting for all of me.' Anderson took out his watch. " ' Oh, say yes, pa ! Oh, do say yes, pa !' cried the old lady,flying around injan ecstasy of terror. ' Oh, do say yes, quick 1' "Then she almost flew in our faces : it was quite affecting, and made me feel badly. 'He says yes ! He says yes !' she cried. "'I didn't hear him !' said Anderson, with his eyes on the watch. '"Oh, he does ! He did ! He says yes ! don't you pa ? He says it! He said yes !' she screamed. " 'Tell him to put down that gun and hold up his hands then, and be quick about it,' said Anderson. ' Time's most up.' " Down went the gun into the car, and up went his hands. We then hauled pa down. The old fellow was a good deal chopfallen, the most of the bad temper was out of him. " ' Will you take the ten dollars for the apples, now ?' Anderson asked him. But he would not say a word, and started for the house. We handed the old lady a tendollar note, which she had no hesitation in accepting. " After discharging the gas and packing up the balloon, we dragged it out to the carriage road. There 1 watched it, while Anderson went off to find a team. I half expected thao pa would get his gun and take a shot at me. I kept an eye on the house as well as to the balloon ; but I neither saw nor heard from him further."