outside life's gate and cannot enter into the light; cannot
hear the music or enjoy the friendly speech of the world. When these
gloomy ideas come to her mind she remembers, "There is joy in
self-forgetfulness," and tries to find her happiness in the lives of
others.

* * * * *

"_One flag, one land;
One heart, one hand:
One Nation over all._"

--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT

There is a poem called "Darius Green and His Flying Machine." In this
poem Darius, a country boy says, "The birds can fly and why can't I?"
A Greek story, centuries old, tells how a certain man and his son made
themselves wings of wax. They flew far out over the sea, but the warm
sun melted the waxen wings, and the two flying men were drowned.

Today the aeroplanes cut through the air with great speed. There are
many different designs, and daring young men are eager to manage these
swift flying crafts.

However, it is but a short time since two American boys made the first
successful flights in the United States and started a factory for
building aeroplanes. Wilbur and Orville Wright lived in Dayton, Ohio.
Their father was a minister, who spent his spare time working with
tools. Once he invented a typewriter, but it was never put on the
market. The boys were interested in his workshop, and while very young
began to find their greatest pleasure in making things that would go.

It was in the year 1879, when Orville was eight years old, that his
father brought home a toy that made a great impression on the boyish
mind. It was called a heliocopter, but the Wright boys called it "the
bat." Made of bamboo, cork, and thin paper, it had two propellers that
revolved in opposite directions by the untwining of rubber bands that
controlled them. When thrown against the ceiling, it would hover in
the air for a time. They made many models of this toy, but after a
time they became tired of it and wanted to build something more
difficult.

[Illustration: ORVILLE WRIGHT
Joint Inventor of the Aeroplane]

Their first venture was a printing press; and when Orville was fifteen
years of age, they were publishing a four-page paper called the
Midget. They did all the work from editor to delivery boys.

Just about this time the bicycle craze passed over the country.
Everyone rode a wheel. Automobi