Art Smith's Story Author:Art Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. DAD turned the idea over in his mind without speaking. It must have been like a bombshell to him, he had been so proud of my work in the architec... more »t's office. He had thought I would be a successful man in his own line of work—the work his slowly approaching blindness was making impossible for him. "Why?" he said, after a while. It is hard for a fifteen-year-old boy to tell why he wants things. I wanted to learn to fly, but the reasons why I wanted it were all tangled up in my mind. Dad had to know just what they were. That was dad's way. He always had his own ideas in order in his mind; he thought things out in a straight line. We sat there at the table a long time, while I talked about the Wright brothers, and read him some of the articles in my magazines. Mother came in while I was doing it. Mother was a little, quick woman, all nerve and energy. Whenever she undertook to do anything, she did it. I never remember seeing her idle. She kept the house clean, had a big garden, did a great deal of church work, and always had time to help me make a kite or build a boat. She was president of the Ladies' Aid Society, and whenever she started to get a new church carpet or pay up the minister's salary it was as good as done. This evening she came in with some mending, and went right to work at it. " 'Art' wants to be an aviator," dad said to her. "Goodness me! Isn't it awfully dangerous?" said mother. Of course that was the natural way for her to look at it. There had been three children older than I. They all died when I was little. I was the only one left. "I'll be careful," I told her, and explained to her as well as I could that there is no danger if the aviator keeps his head, and the air currents hold steady, and nothing is wrong with the mac...« less