05

Air Mail

Gordon Hillman

Every night when the clock strikes eight

And the stars are out and it's very late,

And the moon is dim in the western sky

I watch to see the mail go by.

You can hear it whirring over the hill

When the sun has set and the wind is still,

And if you are looking straight overhead

You see its lights all green and red,

And its motor plays a little tune

As a shadow swoops across the moon

Just beneath the stars and across the sky,

I watch the mail go roaring by.

A Backward Look

Airplanes, radios, dog-teams, horses, trains—we have read about all these ways of carrying men or sending messages. We perhaps understand a little better how man has made the world smaller. There are other ways, too.

Make a list of all the ways men send messages.

Make another list of the ways they travel.

Write down the different ways you have traveled and sent messages.

Your class might like to gather pictures of ways of traveling and sending messages. These pictures could be put on a bulletin board.

There was a time when traveling almost always meant danger—danger from wild animals, from cold and hunger and thirst, from savage people. Now in most parts of the world we travel in comfort and safety, and our messages speed on their way to our friends. But there are still parts of the world where travel is hard, and where men wait days and even weeks for news they are eager to get.

Name five places where this is true. One of the stories in this Part tells you of such a place.

The four stories you have just read are only a few of many just as interesting. Did they show you how progress in transportation and communication makes the world grow smaller? Men have dug canals for boats, strung thousands of miles of wire for messages, built roads over and through mountains for trains and automobiles, and spent long hours of patient work to invent the radio and the airplane.