A rope, running through a pulley is fastened to the curved part of the U, and a horse, pulling on the ground end of the rope, hoists into the air a big mass of hay. The wagon was driven under the high barn window and from a beam overhead the hay fork was lowered. Adam North plunged the two sharp arms deep into the springy, dried grass. All but Russ had gotten down off the load of hay to wait for the ride back to the field. But Russ remained there. He wanted to see how the hay fork worked. So when Adam plunged the arms into the fodder Russ was near by. Adam pulled on the handle that shot the prongs out from the arms to hold the hay from slipping off as the fork was raised. Then, suddenly, Russ did a daring thing. Seeing the mass of hay rising in the air, pulled by the horse on the ground below, the boy made a grab for the bunch of dried grass. He caught it, clung to it and up in the air he went, on an exciting and dangerous ride. “Oh, look at Russ! Look at Russ!” cried Rose. “Hi there, youngster, what are you doing?” shouted Adam. “I—I’m getting a ride!” Russ answered. But his voice had a frightened tone in it as he swung about and looked down below. He began to feel dizzy. CHAPTER XVI OFF ON A PICNIC While Russ swung to and fro in the mass of hay lifted by the hay fork and was kept over the load itself there was little danger. If he fell he would land on the hay in the wagon. But the hay fork had to swing to one side, when high up in the air, so the hay could be placed in the window opening into the storage mow. And it was this part of Russ’s ride that was dangerous. The man on the ground, who had charge of the horse that was hitched to the pulley rope, knew nothing of what was going on above him, for the load of hay was so large that it hid Russ and the fork from sight. But this man heard the shout of Adam, and he called up: “Is anything the matter?” “No! No!” quickly answered Adam, for he feared if the horse stopped the shock might throw Russ from his hold. “Keep on, Jake!” he called to the hired man. “You’ll have to hoist a boy up as well as a fork full of hay. Hold on tight there, Russ!” Adam warned the Bunker lad. “I will,” Russ answered. He was beginning to wish that he had not taken this dangerous ride. It was done on the impulse of the moment. He had seen the mass of hay being lifted with the fork and he felt a desire to go up with it—to get a ride in the air. So he made a grab almost before he thought. Up and up went the fork full of hay with Russ on it. Now he was swung out and away from the wagon, and was directly over the bare ground, thirty or forty feet below. In the barn window of the mow overhead a man looked out. “What’s this you’re sending me?” called this man to Adam. “It’s Russ! Grab him when he gets near enough to you,” Adam answered. “I will,” said the man who was “mowing away,” as the work of storing the hay in the barn is called. [Illustration: “NOW WATCH HER WHIZZ!” CRIED RUSS.