and when he had
learned this himself, he taught other boys how to swim safely and
easily.

One day he was flying his kite on the shore. His imagination had wings
as well as the kite, and he followed it with the eye of fancy as it
drifted along the sky pulling at his fingers.

It was a warm day, and the cool harbor rippled near, and he began to
feel a desire to plunge into the water, but he did not like to pull down
his kite.

He threw off his clothes and dropped into the cool water, still holding
his kite string, which was probably fastened to a short stick in his
hand.

He turned on his back in the water and floated, looking up to the kite
in the blue, sunny sky.

But something, was happening. The kite, like a sail in a boat, was
bearing him along. He was the boat, the kite high in the sky was the
sail, between the two was a single string. He could sail himself on the
water by a kite in the sky!

So he drifted along, near the Mystic River probably, on that warm
pleasant day. The sense of the power that he gained by thus obeying a
law of Nature filled him with delight. He could not have then dreamed
that the simple discovery would lead up to another which would enable
man to see how to control one of the greatest forces in the universe. He
saw simply that he could make the air _work_ for him, and he probably
dreamed that sometime and somewhere the same principle would enable an
inventor to show the world how to navigate the air.

The kite now became to him something more than a plaything--a wonder. It
caused his fancy to soar, and little Ben was always happy when his fancy
was on the wing.

There was a man named Jamie who liked to loiter around the Blue Ball. He
was a Scotchman, and full of humor.

"An' wot you been doin' now?" said Jamie the Scotchman, as the boy
returned to the Blue Ball with his big kite and wet hair. "Kite-flying
and swimming don't go together."

"Ah, sirrah, don't you think that any more! Kite-flying and floating on
one's back in the water do go together. I've been making a boat of
myself, and the sail was in the sky."

"Sho! How did that come about?"

"I floated on my back and held the kite string in my hand, and the kite
drew me along."

"It did, hey? Well, it might do that with a little shaver like you. What
made you think of that, I would like to know? You're always thinkin' out
somethin' new. You'll get into difficulties some day, like the dog that
saw the moon in the well