es with his
hand and peer and point steadily up towards the sky and occasionally
take a peep at the audience and see the boys and girls also looking up
through the roof at the kite. The writer has so caught them at it many
a time.] Then John looked down to see how much string he had left,
and he let out more and more, and when he looked up at the kite again
he didn't look at it at all--because he could not see it. It was out
of sight! But he knew it was up there all right for he _felt it
pull_!

"Now, I guess this kite story is a fable, because in fables kites can
talk as well as the boys who fly them. So when the kite got up so
high, the story says that it began to want to talk, and as there was
nobody up there to talk to, it began to talk to itself, and here is
what it said:

"'My! but ain't I high today? Never got so high in all my life
before. How beautiful the world looks below me! How beautiful the sky
looks above me! Dear me, I can't be so very far from the man in the
moon! I have often heard of him, but have never met him. Gee! I wish
that boy would let go of that string; if he would, I'd go up and shake
hands with the man in the moon and ask him how he is. I just hate to
be _held down_ all the time. I heard Harry say, the other day,
that he didn't went to be tied to his mother's apron string, and that
he'd like to be his own man.' Yes, and I'd like to be my own kite,
too, and then I'd show these boys where I'd go.' And the more the kite
thought of being 'held down,' the madder it got and finally it said,
'If that boy don't let go of that string, I'll _break it_--that's
what I'll do, and I'll go on up to the moon, now see if I don't!' And
with that, the kite gave a sudden jerk--and--_snap went the
string_!

"And what do you think, children--did the kite reach the man in the
moon? Not much it didn't!' It began to act crazy and silly and drunk
all at the same time! And it wobbled, and wobbled and stumbled and
tumbled and finally it fell in the dirt, battered and broken like
that! [Detach your drawing, reverse it and reattach it to the drawing
board; add the lines to complete Fig. 127.]

[Illustration: Fig. 127]

"Now boys, why did the kite fall, when the string broke? Because the
very same _string_ which had _held it down_ was the very same
_thing_ which _held it up_! And now listen--don't you boys
and girls get as silly as the kite was. Don't you jerk, and pull and
tug at your mother's apron string and tr