Standing on the hotel roof, Ben looks down into the village square.  Satisfied with the size of the crowd already gathered there, he beckons to a strange figure of a man who appears winged and bird-like.  The bird-man hesitates for a moment.  He appears uncertain and confused, but slowly he makes his way towards the boy standing at the roof’s edge.

Ben calls to him with a voice both reassuring and tense with excitement. “C’mon, Cal, don’t be afraid.  You gotta remember what we’re doing.  It’s for the Professor — we’re doing this to save the Professor.”

At the mention of the Professor, the bird-man raises his head and peers about him, less uncertain but still wary.

Ben calls again to the bird-man, who has stopped half-way across the roof.  “Don’t be scared!  Remember, you always wanted to fly!”

At the mention of flying, Cal raises his arms and his attached “wings” flutter in the light breeze that blows across the rooftop.  Cal carefully crosses the roof to where Ben stands waiting impatiently at its edge.  Together they lean out and look below.

“Look at all those people, Cal!  They’re here for the County Fair.  They don’t know it yet, but they’re gonna see you fly!”

Ben grins widely at Cal, whose face seems empty of thought or feeling.  Suddenly Cal’s eyes light up.

Ben notices at once and relief spreads across his own face.  “Okay. I’m gonna hook you up to this wire like I told you.  See how it runs across the square to the new train station?”

Their eyes follow the slender black line of the telegraph wire as it drops from the hotel roof.  It stretches diagonally across the square to the new depot along the gleaming train tracks.

Once more the excitement and chatter of the crowd reaches up to them, causing Ben to fidget with worry.

“Where’s Becca?” Ben fumes, “and why ain’t she ready yet?”

Silently Cal stares ahead of him, his eyes riveted to the wire.  It’s as if he can see a small piece of the future hanging just out of reach along its slender black thread.  An involuntary shiver rises out of him, causing his wings to rustle.

When Ben hears the rustling wings, his own anxiety mounts until he says, “Oh, I’m getting nervous.  I just can’t wait any longer!  Let’s go, Cal, start flapping those wings we put on you.”

As Cal begins to raise his arms up and down in a flying motion, Ben cups his hands to his mouth like a megaphone and shouts to the unsuspecting crowd below.

“Hey, everybody!  Look up here! Look up here!  He’s gonna fly!  HE’S GONNA FLY!”

FROM AROUND THE corner of the jail Becca comes running, out of breath and upset.  She sees the crowd staring up at the strange creature on the hotel roof.

“Oh Ben, why’d you start so soon?  We’re not ready yet!  The deputy ain’t back from his dinner.”  She paces frantically up and down near the jailhouse, then spots the deputy coming out the crowd towards the jail.

“Oh, good, here comes the deputy now.”

Just before the deputy gets there, Will runs up to Becca all out of breath. “Becca, hey, Becca!” he manages to say.

“Will, what are you doing here?!  You’re supposed to be waiting in the alley with the Professor’s wagon and Pegasus!”

“I was,” Will says, gasping for air.  “But Laura Mary Alice saw us and asked what we were doing there with the Professor’s wagon.  I didn’t know what to do, so I left Sam and Sarah gawking at her and run off to find you.  What’re we gonna do?”

“I don’t know, let me think a minute.  Oh, there’s no time — the deputy’s got the front door of the jail unlocked and we gotta get him away from there so we can sneak the Professor out.  C’mon with me.  You might as well help, too.”

They quickly walk over to the jailhouse just as the deputy opens the door.  Becca grabs the deputy’s arm and pulls him around to face the street.

 “Hey deputy, deputy,” she shouts, “look, there’s something happening on the hotel roof!”

The deputy, who is a small, wiry man with long whiskers that stick out from his face in disarray, turns to look up at the hotel.  Perplexed by what he sees, he says out loud, “What in tarnation is it?  And look at all them people gathered round.”  He looks back at the rooftop.  “But what is that thing up on the roof?  Is that a man?  Is that a bird?  Or what?”

The deputy is clearly confused now.  His voice grows whiny as he says, “I wish Sheriff Bill would get back from St. Johnsbury.  I got a prisoner to watch, the County Fair goin on, and now I got something on the hotel roof flapping its wings!”

“You better hurry, deputy,” Will says.

“And find out what it is,” Becca adds.

“Make way!” the deputy shouts, “make way here for the law!”  He pushes his way through the crowd towards the hotel, leaving the jailhouse door unlocked.

“C’mon, Will, now’s our chance.  Shut the door behind you.”

Becca and Will enter the jailhouse and look around.  Behind a large oak desk cluttered with papers stands a cabinet whose door is ajar.  Becca walks over and opens it.  Inside hang a number of large keys on pegs.  She glances at the jail cell and says, “Hi, Professor.”

The Professor, who’d been lying on his cot, his face turned towards the wall, jumps up in surprise and says, “Why Becca, Will, what are you . . .?”

“No time to explain, Professor.  Which one of these keys here unlocks your door?”

Without thinking the Professor answers, “Well, I think it’s that large gold one. But what . . . ?”

Becca places the large key in the lock and quickly turns it open.  The heavy barred door swings open and the kids rush in.

Just come with us, Professor.  Will, grab his other hand.  C’mon, we’ll explain later.”

Together Ben and Becca pull the Professor towards the outer door.

“But, but . . .” the Professor stammers.  “Now why are you taking me outside?  You children must know I’m under arrest.  Oh, here comes Laura Mary Alice — perhaps she’ll explain what is going on here.”

As Laura Mary Alice rounds the jailhouse corner with Sam and Sarah in tow, she nearly bumps into the Professor.  “Professor!” she exclaims.

“Laura Mary Alice, what are these children up to?”

“I don’t know.  I just found Will, Sam, and Sarah in the alleyway with your wagon hitched to Pegasus.”  She turns to them and says, “Now you children better start explaining yourselves.  And where is Ben?”

Just then Ben’s voice booms once more off the hotel roof:  “Look up here! He’s gonna fly!”

For a moment it’s as if time stops.  The hundreds of people gathered in town stand as if frozen, their eyes riveted on the strange apparition perched on the edge of the hotel roof.

Then the air fills with the whirring sound of wings as the creature leans out and glides forward, flying over the heads of the crowd below.

For what seems like a very long time, everyone is captivated by this glorious scene of a winged man soaring, gliding, flying freely through the air.

The bird-man glides halfway across the village square, but suddenly there’s a loud snapping sound as the wire that holds him gives way under his weight.

Frantically, he begins to flap his wings just as a powerful gust of wind bears him upwards towards the noon sun.

“Look!” Will cries out.  “Cal’s flying!  He’s flying for real!”

“That’s Cal up there?” the Professor shouts, his voice filled with shock and dismay.

They all watch in fear and fascination as Cal soars for a miraculous moment more, buoyed on the wind’s strong shoulder.  But when the wind dies as suddenly as it appeared, Cal’s wings collapse and he tumbles towards the crowd.

The people scream and scatter as Cal crashes violently onto the hard earth.

The Professor, Laura Mary Alice, and the kids run towards him, fighting through the crowd.  When they reach Cal, the Professor kneels down and cradles Cal’s head in his arms.

“Cal, Cal, can you hear me?” the Professor calls to him.

A low groan rises out of Cal, and slowly, as if in deep pain, he opens his eyes to stare at the Professor.  For a moment Cal is silent, as if trying to recall a precious memory that keeps slipping away.  Then he says clearly, the words jubilant and proud, “Cal fly!”  A crooked smile appears on his broad face, and he seems to glow with victory.

“Yes, Cal, you did fly, you really did.  But don’t move, just lie still.”  The Professor turns to the crowd that now encircles them.  “Please, help me!  Let’s get this man to a doctor!”

A couple of men in the crowd lift Cal and carry him off, but as the Professor starts to follow, someone calls out, his voice raspy and accusing, “Hey, you’re that Professor that robbed Freddy Miller.  What are you doing out of jail?”

Everyone stares at the Professor, the scene frozen once more in time.

Then another man says accusingly, “Trying to escape, eh?”

“Grab him, boys!”

The men nearest to the Professor reach for him as others in the crowd shout out:

“Yeah, get a rope —”

“He oughta be lynched —”

“Get ‘em, boys!”

In the midst of this wild melee, a woman steps into the circle of men and shouts above the din, “STOP!  You men are making a big mistake.”

A thin, wiry man closest to the Professor says, “You stay out of this, Ellen Colwell.  Womenfolk got no business here.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Ellen replies.  “This most certainly is my business.  This violence must stop.  For too long men like you have been committing acts of violence in the name of justice while women have done nothing to stop them.”  She glares defiantly at the men around her.  “I refuse to let you harm this man in any way.”

The wiry man laughs mockingly and says, his voice dripping with scorn, “You and who else?”

For a moment Ellen is stunned by the threat in the man’s voice.  But before she has time to reply, another voice answers the man’s challenge:  “Me, Granny Jesse, for one.”  The frail old woman steps out of the crowd and stands next to Ellen.

“And me, Ben Colwell, for another.”  The boy takes his place on Ellen’s other side.

“And me, Laura Mary Alice.”

One by one the rest of the Colwell family step out of the crowd — Will, Becca, Sam, Sarah — and as each one comes forward they link arms to create a human wall around the Professor.

Facing the crowd, Ellen says, “Now, it looks like you men have a choice.  You can either lynch all of us, or you can go back to the Fair.”

The men hesitate for a moment, then the wiry man says, “Yeah?  Well what about that thief there?  He was trying to escape, wasn’t he?”

“If he were trying to escape, would he be here now?”  Ellen pauses, choosing her words carefully.  It’s clear to her that the Professor’s future, perhaps his very life, hangs in the balance of this moment.  She decides to speak the simple truth:  “I don’t know what’s going on here any more than you do.  But I do know that I, too, judged him once and I was wrong.  You’re making that same mistake now, and you’re doing it because he’s a stranger and he’s different.  Think, would you treat one of our own like this?”

The men, dressed in farm clothes, their hands calloused with the work of their living, look at the Professor in his fancy clothes and city ways.

Ellen lets her words sink in, then continues.  “Besides, I don’t believe he would intentionally hurt anyone or that he robbed Freddy Miller.”

“Well where’s your proof?” the wiry man says.

From outside the circle comes a deep voice, booming loud and clear:  “Right here! I got all the proof you need!”

“Sheriff!  When’d you get back?” the deputy says.  Till now he’s been hanging back, unwilling to face the angry crowd of men.  Relief shines on his face.

“I just arrived, and not a moment too soon, I can see.”  Bill walks into the center of the crowd and says, “I’ve just returned from St. Johnsbury where me and David Rintell, the Caledonia Sheriff, had a long chat with a fellow who admitted to that string of robberies, including Freddy Miller’s.  Now get these folks back to the Fair, deputy, before I change my mind about the men of this town.”  He glares at the leaders of the mob, who quickly back into the crowd.

“C’mon, folks,” shouts the deputy, “show’s over.  It’s County Fair day, and let’s have a good ol’ time.”

AS THE CROWD disperses, still buzzing with the exciting events they just witnessed, the Sheriff turns to face the Professor.  “This town owes you an apology, Professor, and a big one from the looks of things.”

“Thank you, Sheriff, but right now I’m more concerned about Cal.”

“He’s gonna be fine, outside of a nasty bump on his head.  Doc says those crazy wings he was wearing probably saved his life by cushioning the fall.”

“That’s great news, Sheriff.”  Relief spreads across the Professor’s face.  “Thank you, again.  And thank you, dear family, for your stunning show of courage.”  He beams at them, then continues.  “But I would be remiss, children, if I didn’t point out that your plan to help me escape was wrong and nearly ended in disaster.” The children hang their heads in shame. “Yet when you stood up to injustice, as you just did with that mob, you did it openly and righteously.”

Sam turns to Will and asks, “What’s he saying, Will?  Did we do good or bad?”

“The flying part — that was bad.  Standing up with Mama — that was good.”

“That’s right, Will,” the Professor says.  He looks at each of them in turn, then continues.  “What’s more, everything you did shows me that you care for me.  And that moves me more than I can say.”  The Professor’s eyes brim with tears, and he laughs a bit uncertainly, embarrassed by his blatant display of deep feeling.

“A man may show a gentle heart and yet be a man,” says Laura Mary Alice.

“Shakespeare?” asks the Professor, a puzzled look on his face.

“No, Laura Mary Alice,” says Laura Mary Alice.  “Come, Professor, let’s get Cal and go to the Fair.”

The kids cheer, Ellen smiles, and Granny Jesse says, “‘All’s well that ends well.’”

With growing social awareness, there eventually arose a new model that held that such people could be helped by providing a safe, healthy environment, loving care and attention, and useful work.  This model, called “moral treatment,” was the basis of treatment at the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, which opened in Brattleboro in 1836.  Successful at first, the Asylum quickly became overcrowded, thereby destroying its ability to provide the intimate care that had worked so well.