All are more or less familiar with the piece of paper with a hole in it that is slipped over the string of a kite high in the air. The wind catches it and whirls it along, until it finally reaches its destination, the kite. Sometimes urgent business demands several communications to the kite, so several pieces of paper are seen whirling at various distances from the boy, making their way, now slowly, now faster, overtaking, falling behind and so on until they fulfill their mission. Such is the usual kite messenger. [Illustration: FIG. 139.] [Illustration: FIG. 141.] [Illustration: FIG. 142.] [Illustration: FIG. 140.] =A clever little messenger= was described by Nungent in _St. Nicholas,_ for October, 1900. This has been modified and used at a number of kite tournaments. It is in the form of a little yacht, and has a beam on which is attached two pulleys under which the kite line runs, a mast that carries the sail and that also extends downward thru the hull to carry a weight that holds the yacht upright. The mast slants backward a little so as to brace against the pull of the sail. The sail is held up by a string that is attached to an easy trip, and when released the sail drops and the yacht returns down the kite line to the operator by gravity. Fig. 138 shows a complete model with sail up as it appears on the up trip. Fig. 139 shows the various parts: the beam, _a_, is made of a light wood, ¼” × ½” × 15”, portions are cut away to reduce weight; the mast _b_, is round, ¼” in diameter at bottom, tapering to a point at the top, is 29½” long, 9” below the beam and 20” above; the mast is lashed to the side of the beam; _c_ and _d_ are yard arms, _c_ being 16” and _d_ 14” long and both about ⅛” to 3/16” thru; _c_ is lashed above the beam, and _d_ is hung by a thread 15” higher up. A thread is run from each end of both yard arms to the top of the metal loop supporting the back pulley wheel. The threads are for the purpose of preventing twisting of the sail. The sail is of some light soft material that is very pliable in the breeze. Some use silk, others soft cotton, and some paper. I used a Chinese tissue paper sail and found it very satisfactory; it lasted several seasons. The strong way of the paper should be put on up and down. The sail is pasted or sewed to the yard arms. The sail line is a piece of linen thread that is fastened to the middle of the upper yard arm, passing thru a loop made of small wire, _u_, which is lashed to the mast, see Fig. 140. The line then passes to the eye of the wire forming the trip on the side of the beam, see Fig. 141. _t_ is a small nail in the side of the beam _a_; _m_ is a long slim wire nail with an eye bent at the top and two bends at right angles about half way down. A piece of small spring brass wire will do as well as the slim nail. A small round wooden stick, _e_, not larger than ⅛” at the largest end and about 14” long lies loosely in the screw-eyes, _r_ and _s_, under the beam.