A Remarkable Sight

1       I almost didn’t look up into the sky that early March morning in 1843. I was too focused on looking for our missing cow. It was a bright day, but chilly. My hood was up and my head down as I tried to both keep warm and spot Maizie’s hoof tracks in the half-frozen ground.

2 Maizie was a reliable milker, but she was as sneaky as an escape artist. I don’t know how she got out this time, but she did. I had been tracking her since a little past sunrise, up and down the hillsides for miles. Tired and hungry, I sat down on a log. From my skirt pocket, I pulled out the slab of bread Mother had tucked there for my breakfast.

3       The sun felt good on the back of my cloak, and soon I was warm enough to take off my hood. I shut my eyes, shook my long hair free, and tipped my head back to enjoy the feeling. When I opened my eyes again, expecting a clear blue sky, what I saw instead caused me to slide off the log and cower behind it.

4       A great ball of light was moving through the sky! It was as bright as the moon at midnight and so big that the hand I held up did not block it from view. It had an immensely long tail that reached nearly to the horizon. So slowly did it move that I ceased feeling afraid and became curious instead. Where had it come from? I realized that it must have been too close to the sun’s bright light for me to see it sooner. And of course, I had been looking down at cow tracks.

5       Searching my mind for what this strange body could be, I decided it must be a comet. I remembered hearing stories about those glowing orbs and their blazing tails. Some say they signal the end of the world. But the world is still here after some number of comets, so that can’t be true. Some say that a few years ago, the famous Davy Crockett actually danced with a comet, wearing it out before it could do any damage. That would have been a sight to see!

6       I found Maizie eventually and led her back to the barn, but the comet lingered for days. Scientists were very interested in it and believed it might even come back, but not for a long, long time. In the meantime, there may be other comets. The heavens are so beautiful and filled with such wonders. It is good to look up, for you never know what you might see. I have often thought this on star-filled nights. Now I know to look up in the daytime, too.

News from Above

1 “Are you going out to the Fergusons’ place tomorrow?” Albert asked his friend Harvey as they walked home from school together.

2 “Why, what’s happening there?” Harvey responded.

3 Albert stopped abruptly. “Haven’t you heard?” he asked in amazement. “An airplane is going to deliver the mail.”

4 “Oh, come on,” scoffed Harvey, “what kind of fool do you think I am? No airplane is going to fly over this county, never mind landing in the Fergusons’ field.”

5 The two boys trudged on in silence until Albert asked, “Have you ever seen

an airplane?”

6 “Nope,” replied Harvey, “but I’ve seen tons of pictures. My uncle cuts them out of the city newspapers for me and sends them with his letters. But when I look at those pictures, I don’t see how airplanes even get off the ground without breaking into a million pieces. They look too flimsy to carry a person, let alone heavy cargo.”

7 The boys soon reached the place where their routes split, so they said goodbye and headed their separate ways.

8 The next morning, Albert woke up thinking about airplanes. After quickly doing his chores, he jogged the two miles to the Fergusons’ farm. There he found a crowd of onlookers buzzing like a swarm of bees, frequently looking up at the sky. People were buying lemonade from the Ferguson kids, who knew a good opportunity when they saw it.

9 The crowd heard the airplane before they saw it. Then over the trees it came, looking just like the pictures, and circled above their heads. The plane wobbled a bit as the pilot took one hand off the steering and leaned over in his compartment. He sat back up holding a large sack, which he released from the window of the plane. Everyone cheered as the sack plunged to earth, then shrieked as it burst on impact. Letters and postcards scattered everywhere, and the bystanders ran to gather them up.

10 When things began to calm down, Mrs. Thornton from town asked Albert if he would be seeing Harvey soon. “There’s a letter here from his uncle. Too bad he didn’t come today; he missed quite a show.”

11 Albert thought the “show” would only have strengthened Harvey’s doubts about airplanes. Albert, on the other hand, couldn’t wait for the day when he could look up and see airplanes crossing the sky all the time.