d I put my hazy knowledge of Massachusetts
statutes dealing with neglect and non-support of family, in that
exciting moment when, for the first time, I should be whirling
earthward in a spinning nose-dive? Accidents and fatalities were most
frequent at the school of acrobacy, for the reason that one could not
know, beforehand, whether he would be able to keep his head, with the
earth gone mad, spinning like a top, standing on one rim, turning
upside down.

In the end we all mastered it after a fashion, for the tests are by no
means so difficult of accomplishment as they appear to be. Up to this
time, November 28, 1917, there has been but one American killed at it
in French schools. We were not all good acrobats. One must have a
knack for it which many of us will never be able to acquire. The
French have it in larger proportion than do we Americans. I can think
of no sight more pleasing than that of a Spad in the air, under the
control of a skillful French pilot. Swallows perch in envious silence
on the chimney pots, and the crows caw in sullen despair from the
hedgerows.

At G. D. E., while awaiting our call to the front, we perfected
ourselves in these maneuvers, and practiced them in combat and group
flying. There, the restraints of the schools were removed, for we were
supposed to be accomplished pilots. We flew when and in what manner
we liked. Sometimes we went out in large formations, for a long
flight; sometimes, in groups of two or three, we made sham attacks on
villages, or trains, or motor convoys on the roads. It was forbidden
to fly over Paris, and for this reason we took all the more delight in
doing it. J. B. and I saw it in all its moods: in the haze of early
morning, at midday when the air had been washed clean by spring rains,
in the soft light of afternoon,--domes, theaters, temples, spires,
streets, parks, the river, bridges, all of it spread out in
magnificent panorama. We would circle over Montmartre, Neuilly, the
Bois, Saint-Cloud, the Latin Quarter, and then full speed homeward,
listening anxiously to the sound of our motors until we spiraled
safely down over our aerodrome. Our monitor never asked questions. He
is one of many Frenchmen whom we shall always remember with gratitude.

We learned the songs of all motors, the peculiarities and uses of all
types of French _avions_, pushers and tractors, single motor and
bimotor, monoplace, biplace, and triplace, monoplane and biplane. And
we mingled