He had brought a thin package under his arm, and while Lucy and Charles waited at the embankment he ran like a thing of air out into the open field.

It was a glorious June day; and the great elms with their fresh young foliage were glimmering thick in the fiery sky, and like an emerald sea was the grass on the field, where hundreds of children were playing ball and other games.

Sky-High threw to the air a bundle of red with a few light angles and circles of bamboo, and it began at once to rise and expand.  It went up into the mid-air, and fold after fold rolled out, and there appeared a great dragon.

All the children on the field stopped in their play to look up at it.  The sun turned the dragon to intense red.  To all appearance a terrible monster had taken possession of the air!

Suddenly the dragon wheeled about and went coiling along towards the overlook, Sky-High following and guiding its course.  When it was just overhead it opened a great mouth, and smoke seemed to issue from it.

“Look out, little Lady of the Lotus,” cried Sky-High merrily, “or it may swallow you!”

The little girl ran aside, but the dragon made no attempt to come down.  When at a height some twenty feet above the earth it paused.  Then suddenly, with a puff, it poured down a shower of flowers, butterflies, and gilded paper, like a gold shower.  The air was full of them; they drifted here, there, and everywhere.  All the children on the field ran to behold the wonder.  Everybody shouted, and a great crowd of little people gathered around Sky-High to pick up the tissue flowers and butterflies.

“Ah,” said the little Chinaman, “you ought to see him do that in the night, when all he sends down turns into fire!”

There never had been seen a kite like Sky-High’s before.  But the Chinese have been masters of kite-flying for more than two thousand years.  Among their national festivals they have a kite-flying day.

Sky-High often came there with his magic kite.  He became a very popular boy in the Park.  The Boston boys said “Hello!” when they met him in his azure suit, quiet fun shining in his eyes.  Lucy and Charles walked by his side with pride.  They introduced him to all of their friends who asked it, and everybody spoke of him.

“Oh, he is such a gentleman, and so educated!  Haven’t you heard about him?  He came to learn how to do business and understand our American homes.  He will go back to his country and teach sometime.  No doubt a working-boy can rise in China the same as in our land!”

Lucy often begged her mother to let Sky-High wear his beautiful Chinese clothes to the Park—­with his kite he would seem like a true enchanter!  But Mrs. Van Buren strictly forbade.

VIII.

A WAN.

One day there was heard a tremendous explosion in the department of Sky-High.  Mrs. Van Buren came running down-stairs.  Lucy followed her, all eyes and ears.  Irish Nora met them, running up-stairs.  The kitten fled out, and jumped over the fence.  The parrot was shrieking.