"I hope you will make us each a pair, papa," said Katie, "whenever your own are finished."
To this request her parent vouchsafed no notice, but continued to expound with increased animation with one hand, as he held up a pinion in the other.
"Roger Bacon, the greatest genius the world has seen since Archimedes, was confident that it was possible to make instruments for flying, and that a man with wings, sitting in the middle thereof and steering with a rudder, may pass through the air. I quote from his Opus Magnus, which he wrote in the form of a letter, to that enlightened prelate, Pope Clement the Fourth!"
If anything had been needed to convince Helen and her cousins of the practicability of the matter in question, the mention of Roger Bacon was sufficient; and Mr. Sheridan, noting the expression of reverent attention on their faces, was kindled to still greater enthusiasm.
"Bacon was a marvellous man! it is true that he indulged in chimerical notions with regard to prolonging life, and placed some confidence in astrology, yet the imputation on his character, of a leaning to magic was totally unfounded. He studied languages, logic, and mathematics; his information was exhaustive, his premises sound, as in the case in point," waving his hand dramatically towards the table. "And now, my children, I will attach these wings to my shoulders, in order that you may be convinced of their extraordinary value, and of the amazing dignity which they impart to the human body! Dido, light another candle. No,—no assistance is required,—I can adjust them myself."
Helen and her cousins, looked on with breathless interest, whilst Mr. Sheridan deftly arranged and strapped on the apparatus. Then he held himself erect before them, and commenced to pace up and down a cleared space at the end of the room, and as he paced to and fro, he continued to expound as volubly as ever, on the importance of his prodigious discovery.
If any cool-headed, matter-of-fact persons had happened to climb the ivy, and look in through the shutterless window, and "discovered" the room dimly lit by two candles (placed on the ground), the gray-robed figure with trailing wings, lecturing with outstretched hands to a group of eager-eyed girls,—they would have unhesitatingly declared, that they were witnessing the exploits of the inmates of some private lunatic asylum.
"My dear children," continued Malachi in an impressive tone, "in me you see, the instrument of introducing a discovery that will be of untold benefit to all mankind—wherever the wind blows, it will carry the name of Malachi Sheridan. Of course aerostation is as yet in its infancy," tenderly stroking one of his pinions as he spoke, "but everything must have a beginning. Look at railways; they had their origin in an ordinary domestic kettle, and behold they now cover the face of the globe; this invention has to do with air, and like that element, is—sublime! I have made an exhaustive study of air currents; there are certain places where there is a continual brisk movement in various directions! these will be the termini, the junctions of departure, the same as Waterloo or Euston—but again let me not take you out of your intellectual depth.—See how easily the apparatus works," he exclaimed, pulling a small cord; and it became evident, that he could extend or compress, his huge appendages at will. Now they towered above his head—now they spread out—and now they collapsed, with marvellous facility.
"Night is the only time, in which I can as yet venture abroad," he said regretfully, "and there is something unsympathetic in the chill atmosphere after dusk, that is discouraging to aerial attempts. Would that I could go forth in full daylight, and spread out my pinions to the sun!"
"If you came into the garden, when Andy was at his dinner, you might manage it easily, papa.—We will keep guard at the gate," said Katie, the ever practical.