"And then," continued he, "I am going to get upon some high place, and jump off, and hold the parachute over my head, and then I shall come down as light as a feather." "O Rollo," said James, "I don't believe you will." "Yes I shall," said Rollo: "you see the parachute is expanded, and so brings down a great deal of air with it, and this makes it come very slowly. Air is a _real thing_, James, and it keeps the parachute back a great deal." [Illustration: "James and Nathan both ran towards him, thinking that he must be hurt."--Page 37.] So Rollo ran off after the umbrella, very much interested in proving to James, by actual experiment, that the air was a real thing. When he came with it, he was himself inclined to make the first experiment from the low side of the shed. He could climb up, by means of a fence at the corner. James advised him, however, to try it first from the end of a woodpile, which was pretty high, but yet not so high as the shed. James was not quite sure that the experiment would succeed, and he was afraid that Rollo might get hurt. Rollo said that he was not afraid to jump off the shed. He knew the parachute would bear him up. He did not believe but that he could jump off the house with it; and, at any rate, he could jump off the shed, he knew. He accordingly clambered up, and, taking his station upon the eaves, he spread the umbrella over his head, and then jumped off. Down he came with great violence; his cap flew off in one direction, and his umbrella rolled away in another, as he had to put out both his hands, to save himself, when he reached the ground. As it was, he came down upon all fours, and in such a way, that James and Nathan both ran towards him, thinking that he must be hurt. "Did you hurt yourself, Rollo?" said James. "No," said Rollo, "not much." "I don't think the umbrella did you much good." "No," said Rollo, as he got up rubbing his elbows, "it didn't, and I don't see what the reason is." "You came down just as hard as you would without it." "Yes," said Nathan, "and he almost broke his back; I don't believe the air is any real thing at all." The fact was, that the umbrella did do _some_ good. Rollo did not come down quite so hard as he would have done without it. It retarded his descent a little. But it was not large enough to enable him to descend in safety. When his father said that a parachute was in fact only a large umbrella, he meant a great deal larger than Rollo had supposed. A parachute, such as is used with balloons, is a great deal larger than any umbrella that ever was made. QUESTIONS.