Did you ever have an idea strike you so sudden that it made you dizzy? Well, I was struck with one so quick that it made me snicker, and I pulled my new chum away and told him how we would get supper and a place to sleep, and that was to go into the woods near where the people were looking up into the air, and when a balloon went over, after it got good and dark, we could set up a yell, as though murder was being done, and when the crowd came to see what was the matter, he could say we fell out of a balloon, and landed in a tree and squirmed down to the ground.
Well, I didn’t want to lie, but my chum, who had once been in a Reform School, did not care so much about lying, so he was to do the talking and I was to be deaf and dumb, as though the fall from the balloon had knocked me silly.
Well, when we saw a light in the sky over us and the people were going wild over thinking they saw a balloon, we began to scream like wild cats, and groan like lost souls, and yell for “help, help.” When the people came on the run, and when they found us with our clothes torn, and our hair standing on end, and our eyes bulging out, and my chum, the old liar, said when we were leaning over the basket of the balloon to see what town we were passing over, we fell out in a tree, and we were so hungry.
Well, the way those good people swallowed that yarn was too comical, and they picked us up and took us into a house. A pussy woman got me under her arm and said “Poor dear, every bone in his body is busted, but I saw him first, and I am going to have him mended and keep him for a souvenir,” and I hung my legs and arms down so I would be heavy, and she dragged me to the house. All I said was, “pie, pie, pie,” and she said I was starving for pie, and when they got us in bed, with nice night shirts on, they crowded around us and began to feed us, and we took everything from soup to mints, and went to sleep, and the last thing I heard was balloon talk, and the woman who drew me in the shuffle said, “The ways of Providence are past finding out,” and as I rolled over in bed I heard my chum in another bed say “You can bet your sweet life,” and then the people began to go away, talking about the narrow escape of those dear boys, and my pussy fat lady held my hand and stroked my aching stomach until long after midnight, and then she tip-toed off to bed.
I spoke to my chum and said, “Did it work out all right?” and he groaned and said, “Gee, but I et too much, I otter have saved some of it for breakfast,” and then we went to sleep in nice feather beds instead of those beds at the orphanage made of breakfast food.
CHAPTER III.
The Boy Escapes from Orphan Asylum—The Boy and His Chum Had Red Letter Days—The Boy Is Adopted by New Friends.