e boy. "You
know something about flying, don't you?"

"A little," replied Bill modestly. "I can control the machine on the
field, but I have never been up. There are reasons that keep me from
flying but I hope to some day."

"Well, we learned on an old style Bright," said Ernest. "With a dual
control, you know. You take the same seat you will always occupy, you
follow every movement of the instructor beside you, and you sort of feel
that you are managing the levers all alone, until you sense the tricks
of the machine and learn a few things like rising from the field,
manoeuvering and landing. It is a good deal easier than it is to drive
an automobile."

"That's the way you start at the aviation schools in the Army," said
Frank. "But there you don't have to pay any of this dollar-a-minute
business."

"No," said Ernest, "but in exchange for your tuition you have to join
the Aviation Corps. And now that the war is over, I would rather do
postal work, or ferry or excursion lines instead of hanging around an
Army aviation camp. My aim is to be as perfect a flier as I possibly
can, and then if there is ever any need of another Army Aviation Corps,
why, I will enlist right off. You see your final test qualifies you for
government service if you make good."

"What do you think is the quality a birdman should have most of?" asked
Bill.

"Our instructor used to say a pilot should have courage, skill,
knowledge, aptitude and confidence; but he always went on to say that
all these together amounted to very little unless you have a bushel of
common sense. I think he was right. I had to earn part of my tuition in
the Aviation school because I didn't want to ask my father to pay all
that out for me and get me an airplane beside. That is why I am just
entering school. As long as the war lasted, I thought I ought to be
learning something that would help a bit if they needed me, but it ended
before I got a chance to offer myself, and now I have got to work mighty
hard to make up for the time I spent in the air. That's why I am here. I
want to keep in practice and fly whenever I am not busy with school
work."

He looked critically at the sky.

"It is going to be a wonderful day up there," he said. "Don't you want
to come up, one of you?"

"Frank is going with me," said Jardin.

"Come on then," invited Ernest, smiling at Bill.

"I am sorry, but I can't go up," said Bill, flushing.

"Bill likes to stay on the ground pretty