Daisy the Duck stood at the water’s edge, looking up at the great blue sky above.
“O dear, O dear,” she sighed. “I do wish I could rise in the blue sky even a little way above the green trees and above the flowers that bloom so near the water’s side. I do wish I could fly above them all!”
“But you cannot, Daisy,” said her friend Charlie the Chipmunk. “All ducks can do is to swim on the water and walk about in search of food, or waddle around the barnyard where they live.”
“I know that is all that ducks can do,” Daisy said, “but my heart longs to fly far above the trees and above the bright flowers that bloom so near the water.”
Daisy’s friend, Charlie the Chipmunk, sat on a low branch of a tree above her head. “I wish you could,” he said, “and I will help you. You shall ride on my back and we’ll climb a high tree and see what the world looks like far above the trees.”
But Daisy shook her head. “I do not wish to climb up. I want to fly up into the blue sky above the tree-tops.”
And then Charlie the Chipmunk brightened up and said, “I’ll invent a flying machine for you, so that you can fly way above the trees and see the world far away.”
“But all the other birds have wings to use when they wish to rise high up in the air,” said Daisy.
“Oh, that is a little matter,” said Charlie, who was bright and quick and loved to invent new things. “If I can make a flying machine, wings will not be necessary. What shall we make it from? I see plenty of great maple wings, but they are too stiff and hard to climb with your feet. However, they may be left out. Do you know about paper?”
“Yes, indeed,” said Daisy. “All hunters put their wild ducks to keep fresh in paper clothes. Just keep them a few days, and their skin and bones become soft and the ducks feel well.”
“Then we will make our flying machine of paper,” said Charlie. “I will go at once and find some. You stay just where you are.”
Soon after he returned with the paper and a few sticks that would not only make a frame but also strengthen the paper, and then he went to work. He made a framework of sticks that were fastened together with twine (tight, smooth cord) at the corners. Then he covered the framework with sheets of white paper, using soft mud to fasten the ends. Then he sharpened the tip of a stick and passed it through the middle of the flying machine. Lifting it by this stick, he said, “Now, Daisy, climb on top!”
Daisy was so glad! She climbed up to the top and sat still as a mouse while Charlie, holding her up, climbed to a tall tree that stood close at hand. Up and up they went until their heads were above the very highest branches of the tree.
Charlie put the stick through the tip of the framework deep enough so that it would not slip out, but where Daisy could not touch it or come to any harm. By means of a strong piece of twine he regulated the wings so they could be lifted and lowered.
“Now then,” he said, as they stood on the highest branch of the tree holding their breath, “I’m going to send you sailing away.”
As Daisy flew through the air she flapped the wings, and as they caught the air they helped to lift the machine. Up she rose in the air while Charlie, holding the stick of the flying machine, stood on the branch of the tree and cried with delight, “Oh, look at her! Oh, look at her!”
But Daisy was sailing through the air with the greatest ease. The wind, too, was blowing gently, and this also helped make her flying easy.
The whole pond looked like a great silver plate, round and bright. The woods around it looked green and shady, waving their arms and fingers with excitement. The little farmhouses looked like boxes, and the barn where the ducks had their home looked only like a box for fodder (something for animals to eat).
Now Daisy soared higher yet, above the tree, far above the flowers that were blooming so close to the water’s edge, way, way out over the fields till she came to a great mountain. And there she sat, resting in Charlie’s flying machine.
Charlie climbed down from the tree and rested for a few days till he felt as bright and chipper as ever again, keeping a close watch for a big black cloud that had been following Daisy and trying to see her lost in the wide blue sky.
When Charlie felt as bright and well as ever he climbed to the top of the tree again, made a rope of twine to fasten to the end of the stick of the flying machine, and then, climbing down, set off by land and water to his home.
A few days later Daisy was seen once more sailing through the air, laughing and calling in the greatest delight, “Oh, this is a lovely place. This is a lovely place. I do love this fine, big world!”
No one knew where Daisy flew, or how she flew, but at last she was heard of again, as she returned in a very bad storm all tattered and torn about her.
She landed one day on the pond, but in less than an hour she was off again. Everyone kept a sharp lookout for a lost duck, but that was the last news of Daisy. However, the whole pond and all the people living around it grew to love Charlie the Chipmunk dearly, for they never wearied of hearing and telling how deftly (skillfully) he had made a flying machine for his friend Daisy.