er.

"The aeroplane was in sections in them boxes and crates. Nate and
Augustus and the professor got out the sections and fitted 'em together.
The buildin's on Ozone was all joined together--first the house, then
the ell, then the wash-rooms and big sheds, and, finally, the barn.
There was doors connectin', and you could go from house to barn, both
downstairs and up, without steppin' outside once.

"'Twas in the barn that they built what Whiskers called the 'flyin'
stage.' 'Twas a long chute arrangement on trestles, and the idea was
that the aeroplane was to get her start by slidin' down the chute, out
through the big doors and off by the atmosphere route to glory. I say
that was the IDEA. In practice she worked different.

"Twice the professor made proclamations that everything was ready, and
twice they started that flyin' machine goin'. The fust time Dixland
was at the helm, and him and the aeroplane dropped headfust into the
sandbank just outside the barn. The machine was underneath, and the
pieces of it acted as a fender, so all the professor fractured was his
temper. But it took ten days to get the contraption ready for the next
fizzle. Then poor, shaky, scart Augustus was pilot, and he went so deep
into the bank that Nate says he wondered whether 'twas wuth while doin'
anything but orderin' the gravestone. But they dug him out at last,
whole, but frightened blue, and his nerves was worse than ever after
that.

"Then old Dixland announces that he has discovered somethin' wrong in
the principle of the thing, and they had to wait while he ordered some
new fittin's from Boston.

"Meanwhile there was other complications settin' in. Scudder was kept
busy providin' grub and such like and helpin' the niece, Olivia,
with the housework. Likewise he had his hands full keepin' the
folks alongshore from findin' out what was goin' on. All this flyin'
foolishness had to be a dead secret.

"But, busy as he was, he found time to notice the thick acquaintance
that was developin' between Augustus and Olivia. Them two was what the
minister calls 'kindred sperrits.' Seems she was sufferin' from science
same as he was and, more'n that, she was loaded to the gunwale with
'social reform.' To hear the pair of 'em go on about helpin' the poor
and 'settlement work' and such was enough, accordin' to Nate, to make
you leave the table. But there! He couldn't complain. Olivia was her
uncle's only heir, and Nate could see a rainbow of pr