‘I have not,’ returned Lucius, now thoroughly awake, and examining everything with great curiosity. ‘What a queer-looking——Oh! why, Grizzly, if I don’t believe it’s a balloon!’ Ephraim sprang off the ground and twirled round in the air for joy. ‘Thet’s it,’ he cried. ‘Thet’s it! By time! ef ye ain’t cute. Thet’s jest what it is.’ ‘But—but—I don’t understand,’ said Lucius, fingering the network. ‘Where did you get it?’ Ephraim gave himself another spin. ‘I done read her up out of a book, and made her myself,’ he said. ‘Grizzly!’ cried Lucius in profound admiration. ‘You—made—it—yourself. Well, if you don’t just beat every one. You’re a genius, that’s what you are. What put it into your head to make it? You clever old stick!’ ‘You did,’ answered Ephraim, glowing with pride and pleasure. ‘_I_ did! Why? How? What is it for, then?’ Ephraim took a step forward and looked into his eyes. ‘_Fer you and me to sail around in and watch the war_,’ he said. Profound silence followed this extraordinary announcement, and then Lucius sat down on a heap of shavings and rather feebly remarked, ‘Oh!’ There really seemed nothing more to be said. ‘Yas, sir,’ went on Ephraim, still beaming with satisfaction; ‘when ye said ye wuz so sot ter see some fightin’, I began ter study and figger out what’d be the best way for ye ter do it ’thout ye gettin’ in the track of the bullets.’ ‘Oh,’ commented Lucius, ‘you were afraid of being killed, were you?’ ‘No, and I warn’t neither,’ returned Ephraim simply; ‘but I wuz powerful frightened lest ye might be. Bullets is sech darned unpolites—they never stops ter inquire if ye b’long ter a fust fam’ly or if ye don’t.’ ‘But you know,’ explained Lucius, ‘when I said that I wanted to see a battle, I meant that I wanted to take part in one.’ ‘I know ye did,’ assented Ephraim. ‘At the same time, ez fur ez I kin l’arn, that’s about _the_ most or’nery way of seein’ a battle ez has ever been invented. I tell ye, a bullet is the meanes’ thing alive.’ Lucius laughed. ‘But we can’t fight if we are up in the air, Grizzly,’ he observed. ‘Can’t we? I reckon we kin, though,’ replied Ephraim. ‘But ez fur ez that goes, who wants ter fight? I don’t, fer wun; and I don’t mean to let you, fer another. Ain’t there enuff of ’em hammerin’ away just now without you and me joinin’ in?’ ‘That’s not very patriotic,’ said Lucius with emphasis. ‘Ain’t it?’ answered Ephraim drily. ‘I reckon it’s sense all the same. Anyway, this is how I’ve fixed it up. If ye don’t like my way, I promise ye, ye won’t get a chance to go off on yer own, ef I have ter tie ye in a chair and keep ye at my own expense until the war is through.’ Lucius laughed again. ‘You dear old Grizzly,’ he said, ‘you are always thinking of me. I’d just love to go with you. It will be splendid fun. But, tell me, how ever did you manage to make such a wonderful thing all by yourself?’