MY AIRSHIPS
INTRODUCTORY FABLE
THE REASONING OF CHILDREN
Two young Brazilian boys strolled in the shade, conversing. They were simple youths of the interior, knowing only the plenty of the primitive plantation where, undisturbed by laboursaving devices, Nature yielded man her fruits at the price of the sweat of his brow.
They were ignorant of machines to the extent that they had never seen a waggon or a wheel-barrow. Horses and oxen bore the burdens of plantation life on their backs, and placid Indian labourers wielded the spade and the hoe.
Yet they were thoughtful boys. At this moment they discussed things beyond all that they had seen or heard.
"Why not devise a better means of transport than the backs of horses and of oxen?" Luis argued. "Last summer I hitched horses to a
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