hey all heard a
sound which went

"Boom-er-oom, a boom-er-oom!
A boom! boom! boom!"

It sounded as if some one was playing an immense bass-drum, a long way
off, and playing very slowly.

"Listen!" Puck's father explained. "It is time we were off; there are the
cannon again, outside of the city."

And so that very afternoon they left Paris. Can you guess how? Not by the
railway, or by boat, or by omnibus, or by any ordinary means of travel.
Guess again--something queer this time. Not perched on the back of a
dromedary, or sent by express labeled "This side up with care, C. O. D.,"
or telegraphed, or shot through the air in a bomb-shell, though the last
is something like it. Yes, you are right now; they _did_ go by balloon.

There were Puck and his father and his mamma, and an accomplished aeronaut
to guide the balloon, which was one of the best kind, and, as the
professor said, perfectly easy to manage. You know, perhaps, that during
the siege of Paris it was almost impossible for any one to leave the city
unless he went up in a balloon, and floated off above the besieging army.
A great many persons escaped from Paris in this way.

Poor Augustine was very sorry to lose little Puck, who gave her one of his
cards when he bade her good-bye; and Kiyi set up a doleful howl when they
all left the court, as though he knew he should never see them again.

When everything was ready, the balloon rose into the air, and Puck nestled
down in his mother's arms and watched the ground and the roofs of the
houses sink away beneath him. That is, he looked over the side of the car
once, and saw them falling; but it made him dizzy, and he did not try it
again. His mother saw the sick look about her little boy's mouth, and
said, pleasantly:

"Isn't it nice? It's better than having wings. And then you can make
believe you are in a big ship; see all those ropes stretching away up
there; they look just like rigging."

Puck gave a quick, frightened glance up, then shuddered and said, faintly:

"Yes, it's awful nice; but me's 'fraid, and _so_ cold."

The cold was, indeed, intense; and his mamma wrapped Puck as warmly as she
could in a shawl, and held him tightly, and very soon he was fast asleep.
When he awoke, he found that his mother was also asleep, and his father
was holding him. He had forgotten all about the balloon while he was
asleep, and so looked dazed and startled when he opened his eyes; and his
father, to keep u