Grace set the tray on a table. “I’d be glad to get you some tea, Miriam dear.”

Miriam shook her head. “Nothing, thank you, Grace.”

Perched on the top step, Sadie was intent on scraping bark from a twig with her thumb. Hannah went to sit beside her.

“Sadie, Tyler was here the other day. We built a huge kite with a dragon on it. It’s on the dining room table. We’re waiting for his dad to come pick it up. Would you like to see it?”

The little girl sprang to her feet. “Oh, yes. Tyler promised I could help him launch it up into the air. I can’t wait.”

Hannah opened the front door, and she and Sadie disappeared into the house. They circled the table several times. Carefully, the child touched an end of the kite with a fingertip. “It’s so angry-looking, the dragon. He looks like he’ll eat up all the other dragon kites.”

“I picked up a book about kites at the library. Would you like to see it? Kites are interesting. I had no idea there were so many different kinds.”

“Oh, yes, please.” Sadie clapped her hands.

They sat on the couch in the living room, and Hannah opened the book and began to read.

“‘A farmer lived in a faraway country called China. One day he tied his hat with a string so that the wind would not blow it off his head and away, but the wind was very strong. It caught the hat, lifted it into the air, and took it up and away across the sky. People think that may have been the first kite ever.’”

Sadie giggled. “That’s funny, Aunt Hannah.” She pointed to a picture of a young Chinese man standing behind a wall, holding the string of a kite. The kite flew high above the wall and a piece of white paper was floating to the ground. A young woman in the field ran to catch the falling paper. “Tell me about that picture, please.”

“The young man is sending the girl a message, a letter, and he used the kite to lift it over the wall. See how she’s running to snatch it before it hits the ground?” Hannah turned the page.

“Who is that man in those funny clothes with all the horses piled up with stuff?” Sadie asked.

“His name is Marco Polo. He was a traveling salesman, who went from his home in Italy to China, a very long way away. When he returned home, he brought back wonderful things which he sold to people.”

“Things like what?”

“Like beautiful silk cloth to make pretty dresses, and rings and bracelets, fine combs and mirrors.”

“Did he bring back kites?”

“He probably did. Certainly, he told people in Italy about the kites he’d seen.”

“I hope he brought them a dragon kite like Tyler’s.”