Beyond the orchards and great trees the majestic Delaware rolled in purple splendor, dotted with slanting sails.
Nature was at the full tide of the year. The river winds swept over the meadows in green waves, where the bobolinks toppled in the joy of their songs.
It had been a hot morning, and billowy clouds began to rise in the still heat on the verge of the sky.
Benjamin Franklin sat amid the vines and roses of his door.
"William," he said to his son, "I am expecting a shower to-day. I have long been looking for one. I want you to remain with me and witness an experiment that I am about to make."
Silence Dogood, or Father Franklin, then brought a kite out to the green lawn. The kite had a very long hempen string, and to the end of it, which he held in his hand, he began to attach some silk and a key.
"When I was a boy," said Franklin, "and lived in the town of Boston by the marshes, I made a curious experiment with a kite. I let it tow me along the water where I went swimming. I have always liked flying kites. I hope that this one will bring me good luck should a shower come."
"What do you expect to do with it, father?"
"If the cloud comes up with thunder, and lightning be electricity, I am going to try to secure a spark from the sky."
The air was still. The cloud was growing into mountain-like peaks. The robins and thrushes were singing lustily in the trees, as before a shower. The men in the cornfields and gardens paused in their work.