great fire!'

"'It isn't a fire, you fool,' said the vulgar fellow; 'it's nothing but
the moon.'

"'The moon! no it isn't,' said the man; 'it is a monstrous great fire.
Don't you see how it blazes up?'

"'It is not a fire, I tell you,' said the vulgar fellow.

"'I tell you 'tis,' said the man.

"'You don't know any thing about it,' said the vulgar fellow.

"'And you don't know the moon from a house on fire,' said the man, and
so passed on.

"A minute or two after this, he met a gentleman driving a team."

"A gentleman driving a team!" said James.

"Yes," said Jonas, "with a frock on. He was tired and weary, having
driven all day. The man asked him if he did not see that house on fire.

"'Ah,' said the gentleman, 'I thought it was the moon.'

"'No,' said the man, 'it is a house on fire.'

"'Well,' said the gentleman, 'I am very sorry if it is. I hope they'll
be able to put it out!'

"So saying, he started his team along, and bade the man good evening."

Jonas then, having finished his story, stepped out of the shed, and
went along towards the barn; Nathan called out after him to say,--

"Well, Jonas, I don't understand how the gentleman came to be driving a
team all day."

Jonas did not reply to this, but only began to laugh heartily, and to
walk on. Nathan turned back into the shed, saying, he did not see what
Jonas was laughing at.

The boys wanted very much to have the question about the balloon
settled; and, after some further conversation on the subject, they
concluded to go in and ask their mother. So they all three went in.
Rollo proposed this plan, and he led the way into the house. He found
his mother sitting in the parlor at her work.

"Well, boys," said she, "have you got tired of your play?"

"No, mother," said Rollo, "but we want to know about balloons: how big
are they?"

"O, some of them," said she, "are very large."

"Ain't they as big as this house?" said James.

"Yes, I believe they have been made as big," said she.

"But, mother," said Nathan, "father told me, his very self, that they
were no higher than my head."

"O no," said his mother; "he said that a man made _one_ which was about
as high as your head; but that was only a little one, for experiment.
When they make large ones, for use, they are as high as this house."

"For use, mother? what use?" said Nathan.

"Men go up in them, don't they, aunt?" said James.

"Not _in_ them, exactly," said his aunt. "They coul