ntly through an open window a
crust would fly, and with this buried in his hat he would be off.

Only among the poor would he hobble about. He never ventured up the hill
where the better people lived; and it is perhaps for this reason that he
was seldom disturbed.

* * * * *

To himself Silly Peter was monarch of the air. In his own distorted mind
he was master of all creatures that flew. Worldly cares he left to
those who had inherited worldly material; as for himself, he was
concerned only with the aerial strata and with the feathery creatures
thereof. Nobody wanted it; so he acquired it as he acquired the cast-off
hat that he wore. He fathomed it, tasted it, drank it, navigated his
creatures through it, and even fanned life into it by flapping his bony
arms.

He understood the air and the sky, and it all belonged to him. Every
atom of sky that poured itself over the village of M---- belonged to
Silly Peter. It seemed as though he purposely limped lightly over the
ground that was foreign to his nature; for he was captain and master of
the sky.

II

"We must first loosen the ground," said a petty officer. "If the soil is
too hard, then the action will drag. And quick action and a brisk finish
always make for a better picture."

"Hey, you!" commanded the Captain. "Go get another shovel and help dig."

While two soldiers stood digging in a rectangular plot in the
market-place, the camera-men had set up and were adjusting a motion
picture apparatus. Twenty-five feet away stood six soldiers leaning on
their rifles talking and laughing.

"Enough digging!" shouted the Captain. "Turn the loose earth back into
the pit." The soldiers obeyed.

"Are you ready?" he said as he turned to the camera-men.

"All ready," came the reply.

"Now," said the Captain winking maliciously to two of his men. "You run
around and pick me up a beggar."

The soldiers started off, pushing their way through the sheepish crowd
and into a side street. After walking a few hundred paces one remarked
to the other: "When you don't need them, a hundred are upon you. When
you want them--the devil take it."

At last they came upon Silly Peter and decided that he would answer.

"Come along, boy; the Captain wants you," they said, taking hold of his
arms.

"Let me go!" The boy struggled. "I did nothing."

"Come along, you fool!"

They brought Silly Peter to the square, placed him on the spot that
smelled