The Flying-Machine

An ingenious man had constructed a flying machine and invited a great crowd of people to witness its maiden flight. At the appointed moment, with everything in place, he boarded the craft and activated the power.

However, the machine immediately broke through the massive substructure upon which it had been built and sank out of sight into the earth. The aeronaut managed to spring out just in time to save himself from disaster.

"Well," he remarked, dusting himself off, "I have done enough to demonstrate the correctness of my design. The defects," he added, glancing at the ruined brickwork, "are merely basic and fundamental."

With this assurance, the crowd, impressed by his determination, stepped forward to offer subscriptions for the construction of a second machine.