f _over a million
copies_! This is truly amazing to me, and again, as in the past, I thank
my many young friends for their cordial reception of what I have written
for them. I trust the present story will interest them and prove of
benefit.

Affectionately and sincerely yours,

ARTHUR M. WINFIELD.

THE ROVER BOYS IN THE AIR

CHAPTER I

THE BOYS AND THE BIPLANE

"Fo' de land sakes, Massa Dick, wot am dat contraption yo' boys dun put
togedder back ob de bahn yesterday?"

"Why, Aleck, don't you know what that is?" returned Dick Rover, with a
smile at the colored man. "That's a biplane."

"A biplane, eh?" repeated Alexander Pop, the colored helper around the
Rover homestead. He scratched his woolly head thoughtfully. "Yo' don't
mean to say it am lak a plane a carpenter man uses, does yo', Massa
Dick? 'Pears lak to me it was moah lak some ship sails layin'
down,--somethin' lak dem ships we see over in Africy, when we went into
dem jungles to find yo' fadder."

"No, it has nothing to do with a carpenter's plane, Aleck," answered
Dick, with a laugh. "A biplane is a certain kind of a flying machine."

"Wat's dat? A flyin' machine? Shorely, Massa Dick, yo' ain't gwine to
try to fly?" exclaimed Aleck, in horror.

"That is just what I am going to do, Aleck, after I have had a few
lessons. I hope to fly right over the house, just like a bird."

"No! no! Don't you try dat, Massa Dick! You'll break yo' neck suah!
Don't yo' try it! I--I can't allow it nohow--an' yo' aunt won't allow it
neither!" And the colored man shook his head most emphatically.

"Now, don't get excited, Aleck," said Dick, calmly. "I won't go up until
I am sure of what I am doing. Why, don't you know that flying in the air
is getting to be a common thing these days? Tom and Sam and I bought
that biplane in New York last week, and a man who knows all about flying
is coming out to the farm to teach us how to run it. After we know how
to sail through the air we'll take you up with us."

"Me!" ejaculated the colored man, and rolled his eyes wildly. "Not in a
thousand years, Massa Dick, an' not fo' all dat treasure yo' dun brung
home from Treasure Isle! No, sah, de ground am good enough fo' Aleck
Pop!" And he backed away, as if afraid Dick Rover might carry him off
then and there.

"Hello, Aleck!" cried a merry voice at this moment, and Tom Rover came
into view. "Want to take a sail through the clouds for a change?"

"Massa Tom, am yo'