everything being ready, he boarded the car and turned on the power.
The machine immediately broke through the massive substructure upon
which it was builded, and sank out of sight into the earth, the
aeronaut springing out barely in time to save himself.

"Well," said he, "I have done enough to demonstrate the correctness
of my details. The defects," he added, with a look at the ruined
brick-work, "are merely basic and fundamental."

Upon this assurance the people came forward with subscriptions to
build a second machine.



The Angel's Tear



AN Unworthy Man who had laughed at the woes of a Woman whom he
loved, was bewailing his indiscretion in sack-cloth-of-gold and
ashes-of-roses, when the Angel of Compassion looked down upon him,
saying:

"Poor mortal! - how unblest not to know the wickedness of laughing
at another's misfortune!"

So saying, he let fall a great tear, which, encountering in its
descent a current of cold air, was congealed into a hail-stone.
This struck the Unworthy Man on the head and set him rubbing that
bruised organ vigorously with one hand while vainly attempting to