I reckoned he couldn't
fall complete, fur where his feet was tied would
likely hold even if his knee come straight--but
he would die mebby with his head filling up with
blood. But finally he made a squirm and raised
himself a lot and grabbed the rope at one side of
the bar. And then he reached and got the rope
on the other side, and set straddle of her. And
jest as he done that the wind ketched the balloon
good and hard, and she turned out toward Lake
Erie. It was too late fur him to pull the rope
that sets the parachute loose then, and drop onto
the land.
I rushed out of that schoolhouse yard and down
the street toward the lake front, and run, stumbling
along and looking up. She was getting smaller
every minute. And with my head in the air look-
ing up I was running plumb to the edge of the
water before I knowed it.
She was away out over the lake now, and awful
high, and going fast before the wind, and the doctor
was only a speck. And as I stared at that speck
away up in the sky I thought this was a mean world
to live in. Fur there was the only real friend I
ever had, and no way fur me to help him. He had
learnt me to read, and bought me good clothes,
and made me know they was things in the world
worth travelling around to see, and made me feel
like I was something more than jest Old Hank
Walters's dog.
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