Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1880 — Children on a Balloon Trip. [ARTICLE]

Children on a Balloon Trip.

A fIUNI VOY AOS OP TWO little any debt nr 1868. When Mr. Wise wa* lost in hk hallo—, called the Pathfinder,thenewspapereprinte ed Mbj accounts of trip made "into the CaxtnSibin the etete° town of log until ell the rat JStdme teZkra! Then, obe told the edit— of the 8k Louit rifiWTH i to look into the umber at thst ffi l^SLS d foSd ( sioli£S how two little children took Strip in o balloon all by thenuelre*. On that day, an aero—nt,ocaaUorof the air, named Brooka, filled hia air-abip with pa eathe frrm of Mr. Harrey,who lived near Oentralia. Bo expected to eail in the afternoon. <^srsrb& , ssfisjss to pisses them. and not thinking tor s W meet of mj danger. The balloon wan tied to a tree by ropea. All at once a gnat of wind brake the ropea, and the balloon got ’£*= wan wad with grief;and ahonted aloud: they’re loot; they’re tort!” All the neighbors ran to the spot, only to nee the balloon drifting of to the north, and more Jhaa a mile high. One o t the'children was a girl, Nettie, eight years old, and the other her tittle brother Willie, four years old. Both «ied when they found themselves leaving Ifea Stomal and going on a very, very strange jOQtney indeed. Nettie looked over the edge of the banket and saw her fhthfr wringing hia hands away below. Soon the people looked smaller to her than babies, and the booses like toy houses. She and Willie were going up, np all the time. “I ana* We jure going up to Heaven, Willi*,” •aid -Nettie. Willie thought it was very eold in heaven then, for the higher they went the colder it grew. Nettie wrapped Willie ia her apron, and held hia head in her lap until he cried himself Cast asleep. Then Nettie folded her bends and waited. She ■aid, "I think we must be near the gate now.’* She meant the gate of Heaven, that she had heard about ip Sunday School. But Nettle foil asleep, toe. When she awoke she found that some strange man was lifting her from the basket. The strange mm waen former, in Northern Illinois, who had seen* balloon drifting low down across a field. The rape was dragging, and so be caoghf Hi, and landed the children safely. The balloon had floated all night Nettie’s and Willie’s father soon learned that they had been found, and took them home two dey* afterward. Nettie is now a woman— I ana. the very same one who told the editor of the Republican to look beck to the flies for the story.