It was a bright sunny afternoon, and I was so happy to be outside. My friends and I had gathered on the hilltop not far from our home to enjoy the gentle breeze and sunshine. There was a great excitement in the air for today we were flying a kite! Yes, a beautiful kite of ours that I had made all by myself, with a lot of glitter, bright cloth, and clever ideas.
“Isn’t it pretty?” I asked my friend Gray the kitten, who was sitting beside me. I had fastened a ball of twine to the tail of the kite, and was going to let him fly it.
“It is lovely,” Gray replied, looking at it admiringly, “but I don’t know whether I can make it fly. Kites are so contrary.”
“Oh, yes, you can,” I said encouragingly. “There’s plenty of breeze, for the tree-tops are swaying from side to side. Only keep a little to the right, as I’ve put a big policeman at the tail of the kite to keep it from drifting too far.”
“All ready!” cried a dozen voices at once. “Now let the kite out slowly!”
And one by one the kittens disentangled the string, while a chorus of excited cheers arose as the huge kite began to rise: a startlingly big monster it looked, while at the distance of forty yards it was so tiny that only a person with very sharp eyes could see it.
So the Kitty army despatched brigade after brigade across the intervening space, until it looked as if ten flying batallions had marched into the blue kingdom of the sky. But there was still room, for the wind was still blowing gently and steadily.
But now came a stupid-looking tradesman, with a big, short ladder, and two other men with poles, to help him. Seems he meant to wash or do something to his windows, which were just opposite our kite. You should have heard our exclamations of horror; and with one impulse, my friends and I rushed toward the spot to prevent disaster.
“Oh, dear!” exclaimed dear Tom. “Now we shall all have to march down to the barber’s place.”
And I suppose we shall have to pay them well for cutting our tails.”
“Oh, we’ve done our best,” sighed Gray, “but I suppose there’s a fatality about a kite.”
But here a gust of wind came blowing toward us, making the trees all bend down before it, and before we well knew what had happened, the others had turned tail and made off with the kite and string, and did some great injury to the tradesman’s head and persons.
My friends gray and black and the others ran after them, and tried to take them prisoner; while Jerry, our huge friend, was bending down to rest himself, and said, drawing out a big handkerchief to wipe his brows:
“Was, was, was, where did that kite go, though? It’s very windy—was, was; but it’s going to rain, I believe, was.”