ck it
grows!"

The kite was made of a large silk handkerchief fastened to a
perpendicular stick, on the top of which was a piece of sharpened iron
wire. The philosopher examined it carefully.

"What if you should receive a spark from the cloud, father?" asked the
young man.

"I would then say lightning was electricity, and that it could be
controlled, and that human life might be protected from the
thunderbolt."

"But would not that thwart the providence of God?"

"No, it would merely cause a force of Nature to obey its own laws so as
to protect life instead of destroying it."

The sky darkened. The sun went out. The sea birds flew inland and
screamed. The field birds stood panting on the shrubs with drooping
wings.

A rattling thunder peal crossed the sky. The wind began to rise, and to
cause the early blasted young fruit to fall in the orchards. The waves
on the Delaware curled white.

"Let us go to the cattle-shed," said Father Franklin. "I have been
laughed at all my life, and do not care to have my neighbors tell the
story of my experiment to others if I should fail."

The two went together to the cattle-shed on the green meadow.

The wind was roaring in the distance. The poultry were running home, and
the cattle were seeking the shelter of the trees.

The cloud was now overhead. Dark sheets of rain in the horizon looked
like walls of carbon reared against the sky. The lightning was sharp and
frequent. There came a vivid flash followed by a peal of thunder that
shook the hills.

"The cloud is overhead now," said Franklin.

He ran out into the green meadow and threw the kite against the wind.

It rose rapidly and was soon in the sky, drifting in the clouds that
seemed full of the vengeful fluid.

At the termination of the hempen cord dangled the key, and the silk end
was wound around the philosopher's hand.

The young man took charge of a Leyden jar which he had brought to the
shed, in which to collect electricity from the clouds, should the
experiment prove successful.

The cloud came on in its fury. The rain began to fall. Franklin and his
son stood under the shed.

The air seemed electrified, but no electricity appeared in the hempen
string. Franklin presented his knuckle to the key, but received no
spark.

What was that?

The hempen string began to bristle like the hair of one electrified. Was
it the wind? Was it electricity?

Benjamin Franklin now touched the key with thrilling emo