He’d fly through the air with the greatest of ease,
A daring young man on the flying trapeze.
“Where have I heard that before?” another boy groaned. For all that, they sang it with gusto.
“‘Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main,’” came next.
Then the boy from Kentucky started:
“‘The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home—’”
His voice broke on the second line. Sally swallowed hard, but they sang it through to the end.
“Ioway! Ioway!” shouted the boy from the midwest. “That’s where the tall corn grows.”
They all laughed, but when the strains of “Swanee River” came rolling out, they were in a mellow mood once more.
When they arrived at the field they found a captive balloon straining at its ropes. Beneath it hung a platform and at the very center of the platform was a round hole.
“That,” said Sally, “is the famous hole in the sky.”