"I was holding up the open umbrella when I said that, and as soon as I
spoke, the umbrella began lifting me up into the air. I was awful
scared at first, but I held on tight to the handle, and it didn't pull
very much, either. I was going pretty fast, for when I looked down all
the big buildings were sliding past me so swift that it made me dizzy,
and before I really knew what had happened the umbrella settled down
and stood me on my feet at Uncle Bob's front gate.
"I didn't tell anybody about the wonderful thing that had happened,
'cause I thought no one would believe me. Uncle Bob looked sharp at the
thing an' said, 'Button-Bright, how did your father happen to let you
take that umbrella?' 'He didn't,' I said. 'Father was away at the
office, so I found it in the attic an' I jus' took it.' Then Uncle Bob
shook his head an' said I ought to leave it alone. He said it was a
fam'ly relic that had been handed down from father to son for many
generations. But I told him my father had never handed it to me, though
I'm his son. Uncle Bob said our fam'ly always believed that it brought
'em good luck to own this umbrella. He couldn't say why, not knowing
its early history, but he was afraid that if I lost the umbrella, bad
luck would happen to us. So he made me go right home to put the
umbrella back where I got it. I was sorry Uncle Bob was so cross, and I
didn't want to go home yet, where the governess was crosser 'n he was.
I wonder why folks get cross when it rains? But by that time it had
stopped raining--for awhile, anyhow--and Uncle Bob told me to go
straight home and put the umbrella in the attic an' never touch it
again.
"When I was around the corner, I thought I'd see if I could fly as I
had before. I'd heard of Buffalo, but I didn't know just where it was,
so I said to the umbrella, 'Take me to Buffalo.' Up in the air I went,
just as soon as I said it, and the umbrella sailed so fast that I felt
as if I was in a gale of wind. It was a long, long trip, and I got
awful tired holding onto the handle, but just as I thought I'd have to
let go, I began to drop down slowly, and then I found myself in the
streets of a big city. I put down the umbrella and asked a man what the
name of the city was, and he said 'Buffalo'."
"How wonderful!" gasped Trot. Cap'n Bill kept on smoking and said
nothing.
"It was magic, I'm sure," said Button-Bright. "It surely couldn't have
been anything else."
"P'raps," suggested Trot, "the umbrella can do other magic things."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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