dimentary rules of metrical composition" instead of infant
classes. She smiled as disagreeably as was possible to such humanly
kissable lips as hers.

"No, is it?" she agreed sweetly. "Witless wight was rather good, I
thought. Wight fits you so well."

"Oh, that!" Johnny turned defensively to a tolerant condescension. "That
wasn't so bad, if it hadn't shown on the face of it that it was just
dragged in to make a rhyme. Do you know what wight means, Miss Selmer?"

Mary V was inwardly shaken. She had always believed that wight was a
synonym for dunce, but now that he put the question to her in that tone,
she was not positive. Her angry eyes faltered a little.

"I see you don't--of course. Used as a noun--you know what a noun is,
don't you? It means the name of anything. Wight means a person--any
creature. Originally it meant a fairy, a supernatural being. As an
adjective it means brave, valiant, strong or powerful. Or, it used to
mean clever."

"Oh, _you_! I hate the sight of you, you great bully!" Mary V ducked past
him and ran.

"I'll help you look it up in the dictionary if you don't know how,"
Johnny called after her maliciously, not at all minding the epithet
she had hurled at him. He went on more cheerfully, telling himself
unchivalrously that he had got Mary V's goat, all right. He began to
whistle under his breath, until he discovered that he was whistling "Auld
Lang Syne," and was mentally fitting to the tune the words: "_Before I
die, I'll ride the sky. I'll part the clouds like foam!_"

He stopped whistling then, but the words went on repeating themselves
over and over in his mind. "And by gosh, I will too," he stated
defiantly. "I'll show 'em, the darned mutts! They can yawp and chortle
and call me Skyrider as if it was a joke. That's as much as they know,
the ignorant boobs. Why, they couldn't tell an aileron from an elevator
if it was to save their lives!--and still they think I'm crazy and don't
know anything. Why, darn 'em, they'll _pay money_ some day to see me fly!
Boy, I'd like to circle over this ranch at about three or four thousand
feet, and then do a loop or two and volplane right down _at_ 'em! Gosh,
they'd be hunting holes to crawl into before I was through with 'em! I
will, too--"

Johnny went off into a pet daydream and was almost happy for a little
while. Some day the Rolling R boys would be telling with pride how they
used to know Johnny Jewel, the wonderful birdman that had his pictu