walk along by my
kite string and keep on going and going and going, and then I'd come to
the place where the kite was and there would be the basket with the doll
in it."

"Yes, that would be nice," said Russ. "But I don't guess they'd go to
the same place. You'd better hold on to your kite."

"I will," agreed Laddie. "I wonder how high we could let our kites go
up?" he went on, as he watched the messengers whirling around the
strings. "How far would they go?"

"They'd go as far as you had cord for," said Russ.

"Could they go away up to the sky?" asked Laddie.

"'Course they could," said Russ.

"The sky's awful far," went on Laddie, looking up at the blue part,
across which the white, fleecy clouds were flying.

"Yes, it's far," assented Russ. "But we could get an awful lot of
string, and let the kites go up."

"Could we do it now?" the smaller boy wanted to know. "I'd like to see
my kite go up to the sky."

"Well, we could do it," Russ said. "But look! My messenger beat yours!"
he suddenly cried. "It's away ahead!"

"So it is," assented Laddie. "Well, anyhow, I've got more of 'em up than
you have."

"Now I'm going to get a lot of cord and send my kite up high," announced
Russ, as he got up from the grass where he was sitting.

"Are you going to take your kite down?" his brother wanted to know.

Russ shook his head.

"I'm going to tie my kite string to a stone," he said. "That'll keep it
from blowing away while I go into the house to get more cord. You watch
my kite while I'm gone."

"I will," promised Laddie. "I'll tie my kite, too."

Russ tied the end of his cord to a heavy stone in the vacant lot near
Aunt Jo's house, in which the boys were flying their kites. Laddie sat
down on the grass, and looked up at the kites, which were like two
birds, high in the air. Russ was gone some little time. It was harder
than he thought it would be to find the right kind of cord. But he had
made up his mind to send his kite up in the air as high as it would go,
and he wanted plenty of string.

Suddenly Laddie, who was watching his own and his brother's kites,
noticed that Russ's was acting very strangely. It bobbed and fluttered
about a bit, and then began to sink down.

"I've got to pull on the cord," thought Laddie. Though he was younger
than Russ he knew enough for this--when a kite starts to come down, to
run with it, or to wind the cord in quickly. There wasn't much room in
the vacant city lot to run, s