Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Above the Clouds

The balloon left the ground so smoothly that our intrepid travelers did not even realize that it had ascended into the sky.When they looked out of the basket a minute later, they saw a group of friends below waving goodbye to them and throwing their hats up.The sound of "Ula" came from below. "Good-bye!" cried the Know-it-All and his friends in answer. They waved their hats too.Little Panic stretched his hands over his head to take off his hat, only to find that there was no hat on his head. "Wait a minute, brothers!" he cried. "Stop the balloons! I forgot my hat at home."

"You always forget things." The little nagging said. "It is impossible to stop the balloon now," said Passepartout. "It will fly till the air in it cools, and then it will go down." "Then what, I have to fly without a hat?" Little Panic asked angrily. "Didn't you find the hat under the bed?" Little Bread said. "I found it, but I put it on the table because it was very hot, and I forgot to take it at the last moment." "You always forget something at the last minute," said Little Nagging. "Look, brothers," cried Quan Mo suddenly, "our house is falling down!"

Everyone laughed, and the little nagging said: "Why, maybe you think the house will fly with us?" "I didn't think so!" Quan said without feeling wronged, "I just saw the house below, so I said it. We used to live in houses, but now we fly on balloons." "It's flying," muttered the little nagging. "Flying everywhere!" "Little Nag, you're always chattering," Quan Mo said, "you can't be quiet even when you're sitting on a balloon!" "If you don't like it, just leave!" "Where am I going!"

"Come on, come on!" the know-it-all snapped at the quarrelsome, "what's the point of arguing on the balloon?" The balloon rose higher, and the entire flower city was as clear as the palm of your hand.The houses looked so small that the little dwarfs could not be seen at all.The wind blew the balloon, and the whole city was soon far behind. Know-it-all took out a compass from his pocket and began to judge the direction of the balloon's flight. Compass - This is a small metal box with a magnetic needle.The magnetic needle always points north.Look at the needle of the compass to find the way back.It is for this that the know-it-all brings a compass.

"The wind is blowing us due north," explained Passkick, "which means that we should head due south when we come back." The balloon had risen very high and was speeding over the fields.The city disappeared into the distance.The little stream that the little man called the Cucumber River twisted like a ribbon below.Some of the large trees growing in the fields seemed to be shaggy bushes. Little bread suddenly found a small black spot underneath.The black dot moved quickly on the ground, as if running behind the balloon. "Brothers, look, someone is running after us!" Little Bread shouted.

Everyone looked at the little black dot. "Look, it jumped over the river!" Little Panic shouted. "What could this be?" Xiao Zhuangzi asked, "Look, it jumped over the big tree!" The balloon flew over a grove of trees, and tiny black spots moved on the branches.The doctor put the pince-nez on his nose, but he still couldn't see what it was. "I know!" Quan Zhi suddenly subtracted, "I was the first to understand! This is our Blika. We forgot to take Blika, so it is running with us now." "What are you talking about!" said Little Bullet. "Blika is here. It's under my stool."

"Then what is this? Know-it-all, maybe you can guess it?" Xiao May asked. Wan Liantong put away the compass and looked down. "This is our shadow!" he said with a big laugh. "What, our shadow?" Quan Wu was surprised. "It's very simple. It's the shadow cast by the balloon. We fly in the sky and the shadow runs on the ground." The dwarfs looked at the shadow for a long time, and it got smaller and smaller until it disappeared altogether. "Where is the shadow?" they asked anxiously. "We're so high up," explained Passkick, "that we can't see the shadows."

"It's outrageous!" the little nagging said to himself, "you can't even see your own shadow while you're sitting here." "You're nagging again!" Quan Zhi said, "You're not safe anywhere." "Ansheng, Ansheng!" the little nagging imitated him with a funny look, "what's the use of Ansheng sitting on a balloon? You want Ansheng, just sit at home." "You can sit still." "I don't need An Sheng." "Are you arguing again?" said Pass-a-Thon, "I have to let you go down."

The little nagging and Quanzhi were no longer afraid, so they stopped arguing. At this time, the balloon unknowingly entered into a cloud of smoke.The earth below disappeared.Surrounded by white curtains. "What is this?" Everyone shouted, "Where did the smoke come from!" "It's not smoke," said Passepartout, "it's clouds. We flew into clouds, and we're flying in clouds now." "Hmph, you made this up," said Quan Wu. "The clouds are thin, like oatmeal, but this is a kind of fog." "What do you think clouds are made of?" asked Jack-of-all-trades. "Clouds are made of fog. It's only from a distance that they seem solid."

Believe it or not, he said, "Don't listen to him, brethren. He's making it all up, to prove that he seems to know a lot of things, but he doesn't know anything. So, I don't believe it. What did he say that clouds are fog! Clouds are soup. It’s as if I’ve never eaten soup!" After a while, the balloon rose higher, flew out of the cloud, and flew above the cloud. Quan didn't know to look out from the basket, and saw the clouds covering the earth below. "My God," cried Quan Wu, "the sky is down there! We're flying head-down!" "Why is it head down?" Everyone asked strangely.

"Look! The sky is under our feet, that is to say. The feet are up." "We are flying above the clouds," explained Passepartout, "and we have risen higher than the clouds, so that the clouds are not above us now, but below us." Don't know or believe it at all.He sat in his seat, clutching the hat on his head with his hands.Since he was sitting upside down, he thought, the hat would fall off.The balloon was blown very fast above the clouds, but it was not long before everyone noticed that the balloon was beginning to fall. "Why are we flying?" the boys asked in panic. "The air in the balloon is getting cold," explained Know-It-All. "So, now we're going to fall to the ground!" Little Patchy asked. "What are we carrying sandbags for?" said the know-it-all. "Need to throw the sand out of the basket, so we can fly high again." Little May quickly grabs a sandbag and throws it down. "What are you doing!" shouted the know-it-all. "Can you just throw the whole bag down? It's gonna hit somebody's head!" "Maybe it won't hit," Xiaomao said. "Maybe it will hit!" the know-it-all said to him, "should untie the bag and throw some sand." "I'll be here right away," Xiao Zhai said. He untied the other sandbag and dumped the sand directly into the basket. "One is smarter than the other!" said Passepartout, shaking his head. "What does it matter if the sand is still in the basket? The balloon won't get any lighter." "Maybe I can sprinkle sand," said Xiao Zhai, and threw sand out of the basket in handfuls. "Be careful!" Little Panic shouted, "You will squint my eyes." "Maybe I can't squint," Xiao Zhai said, and at this moment Shasha squinted his eyes. Everyone scolded Xiaomay, but Xiaomay cut a big hole in the bottom of the basket with a knife so that the sand could escape from the hole.Know-it-all saw it and cried, "Wait a minute! What are you doing? You're going to break the basket up, and we'll all slip out of it." "Probably won't fall apart," Xiao Zhai said. "The two of you will say 'maybe' and 'probably,'" Jack-of-all-trades said, grabbing Little Possible's knife. The sand was thrown out of the basket through the hole, and the balloon became lighter and flew higher again.The boys looked out of the basket with satisfaction.Everyone was happy that the balloon flew up again.Only the little nagging who is always dissatisfied with everything continues to babble: "What's this called? It goes up and down for a while! Is that how balloons fly!" Since he didn't know what else to say, he glanced at Little Bread, who was gnawing sugar cubes without saying a word. "You've found time to nibble on sugar cubes: why don't you nibble on them when we're down." "Why should I carry extra weight?" Little Bread said. "If I eat the sugar, the balloon will be lighter and it will rise higher." "Then go ahead! Let's see what tricks you can come up with." Little Nagging said.