An Adventure in the Upper Sea: A 15-Minute Tale of Terror

Book excerpt: I am a retired captain of the upper sea. That is to say, when I was a younger man I was a balloonist. Naturally it is a hazardous profession, and naturally I have had many thrilling experiences. The most thrilling, or at least the most nerve-racking, is the one I am about to tell you. Before you can understand what happened, I must first explain a bit about the nature of the hot air balloon that is used for parachute jumping. If you have ever witnessed such a jump, you will remember that as soon as the parachute was cut loose the balloon turned upside down. It emptied itself of its smoke and heated air, flattened out and fell straight down, beating the parachute to the ground. Thus there is no chasing a big deserted bag for miles and miles across the country, saving much time, as well as trouble. This maneuver is accomplished by attaching a weight, at the end of a long rope, to the top of the balloon. The aeronaut, with his parachute and trapeze, hangs from the bottom of the balloon. His weight keeps it right side down. When he jumps, the weight attached to the top immediately drags the top down. The bottom, which is the open mouth, goes up, and the heated air pours out. The weight used for this purpose on the “Little Nassau” was a bag of sand. Imagine my horror, when I discovered a child hanging from the bag at 100 feet above the ground! Find out what happens to the child in this 15-minute adventure! Ages 8 and up. Educational Versions Include exercises designed to meet Common Core Standards. LearningIsland.com believes in the value of children practicing reading for 15 minutes every day. Our 15-Minute Books give children lots of fun, exciting choices to read, from classic stories, to mysteries, to books of knowledge. Many books also work well as hi-lo readers. Open the world of reading to a child by having them read for 15 minutes a day.