translations from Dickens, Hoffman, Byron, Schiller, our author is wonderfully exact and faithful both to sense and form.
COMBATS IN THE AIR.
Some of Roa Bárcena’s characteristics are well illustrated in the little sketch, Combates en el aire (Combats in the air). An old man recalls the fancies and experiences of his boyhood. To him, as a child, kites had character and he associated individual kites with persons whom he knew; they had emotions and passions; they spoke and filled him with joy or terror. One great kite, a bully in disposition, was, for him, a surly neighbor, whom all feared. This dreadful kite had ruined many of the cherished kite possessions of his young companions. Once his teacher, the boy himself, and some friends, fabricated a beautiful kite. In its first flight it is attacked by the bully and the battle is described.
The preliminaries of the sport began with the manufacture of the kite. The kinds most used were pandorgas, parallelograms of paper or cloth, according