The next day, Chen Lin came to my house to ask us to go out to play, and it happened that Xin'er and I were reciting the "Book of Songs" - "Guan Guan Ju Dove, in the River Island." My Fair Lady, Gentleman is a good ......" he listened, and when we had finished reciting it he spoke: "What a beautiful writing! ”

"Why are you here?" I asked in a whisper.

"I'm here to play with you, today I brought the 'Tiger God', and I'm going to fight crickets with that person." He raised the small bamboo jar in his hand and said with a smile, "You just see how I win." ”

Xin'er responded softly: "I'll go to you when we finish memorizing this, you wait for us." ”

"Good!" Chen Lin walked out.

Due to the structure and form of the "Book of Songs", the rhythm is distinct, and the rhyme is harmonious, so Xin'er and I memorized very smoothly, successfully passed Mr. Wang's spot check test, and went out to play earlier than usual.

Chen Lin sat outside the county office, holding a branch in his hand and teasing the crickets in the bamboo jar.

"After memorizing, let's go play." I walked up to Chen Lin and patted him lightly on the shoulder.

Chen Lin stood up, picked up the bamboo jar on the ground, closed the lid, and led us to the place where we came from yesterday. "What did you just carry? It's beautifully written! Chen Lin asked us on the way.

"The Book of Songs is a collection of poems, which brings together more than 300 poems from the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period for more than 500 years."

"It's beautifully written! Who wrote it? ”

"It was not written by one person, the author is anonymous, the legend is that it was collected by Yin Jifu and compiled by Confucius, it is a collection of poems." I replied.

"If you like, you can learn it." Xin'er said.

"My father said he would send me to a private school when I was fourteen or fifteen." Chen Lin urged, "Let's hurry up, we have to rush home for lunch after the crickets!" ”

When he arrived at his destination, Chen Lin walked up to the boy who was fighting with him yesterday and said, "Hey! I brought my 'Tiger God' here, but what about your 'Black General'? Let's fight the two of them and see whose crickets are great! ”

The boy suddenly cried out with a "wow", and said vaguely: "My 'black general', woo, the 'black general' died last night, I fed it rice and edamame, and it didn't eat a single bite...... The boy cried even more sadly.

Chen Lin was stunned for a while, not knowing what he was thinking, and after a while, he handed the bamboo jar in his hand to the boy, smiled and said, "Don't be sad, I'll give you my 'Tiger God', it's much better than the 'Black General'!" ”

The boy probably thought that he had misheard, stopped crying, looked at Chen Lin blankly, and asked, "What did you say?" ”

"My cricket has been given to you, you can open it and take a look, the 'Tiger God' is a master of fighting!" Chen Lin was still smiling, his smile was very warm and warm, like a ray of warm sunshine.

The boy took the bamboo jar, eagerly opened the lid, looked carefully inside, and exclaimed, "Wow! This 'Tiger God' looks so good! ”

"That's for sure!" Chen Lin said proudly, "I feed it the best rice every day!" ”

"Thank you!" The boy said gratefully.

"What are we going to play today? Do you guys have any fun? Chen Lin asked.

"Why don't we make kites today?" A little kid proposed.

"Okay!"

"I want to play with kites too, and it's just a sunny day."

"Yes!"

……

The crowd chimed in.

"What is a kite?" Xin'er asked me.

"Commonly known as paper kites, they are made of paper, wood, and bamboo into various shapes, and then pulled by threads, and can fly in the air with the help of the wind." I said, "Xin'er, you'll find out later." ”

It is said that the first person to invent the kite was Mozi, and it was recorded in "Han Feizi and the Legend of the Outer Prince": "(Mozi) spent three years to fly into the sky with a wooden kite." The kites made by Mozi were first used for military surveys. Later, on the basis of Mozi, Lu Ban also made kites with similar functions, which is recorded in the "Book of Hong": "The public loses the wooden kite to peek into the Song City." ”

At the beginning, in order to arouse my curiosity about ancient books and classics, Mr. Wang told me a lot of stories like this, and recited the classic sentences in them as I spoke, so that I could remember them, so I knew the history of kites very well. And at that time, it was not called "kite", it was called "paper kite", "Li Ye of the fifth generation made paper kite in the palace, led the wind to play the play, and then took the bamboo as the flute at the head of the kite, so that the wind entered the bamboo, and the sound was like a kite, so it was called a kite. "This is what Mr. Wang mentioned to me.

"So what are we going to do now?" Chen Lin asked, obviously, in terms of playing kites, he can't compare to these children.

"We need a few bamboos now."

"Bamboo is quite easy to find, and when we came, we saw a few bamboo forests on the side of the road." Xin'er said.

"Instead of looking for a few random bamboos, we need bamboo with a wall thickness of three to five centimeters, which is the most suitable, and then use the toughness of the bamboo strips as the skeleton of the kite." The little boy, who looked older, said with experience.

"Then the three of us go and find the bamboo, and you go and collect other materials to make kites." I say.

"Good!"

As long as children hear that it is related to play, they will show unprecedented enthusiasm and wisdom, and their hands-on ability will also become superb, maybe they play too much, practice makes perfect, just like Chen Lin playing with mud, it is simply fascinating, especially compared with his peers. Of course, it does not rule out their original abilities.

"Brother Xiao Sheng, is the kite fun?" Xin'er asked me.

"I've seen other people play before, and they're having a lot of fun, but I haven't played it myself." I replied.

Chen Lin also echoed: "Me too, I've only seen others play, but I haven't played it myself." ”

"By the way, Chen Lin, let me ask you, don't you feel sad that you gave your beloved 'Tiger God' to others?" I asked.

"Seeing that he cries so sadly, let's give it to him, it will make him better, and I am older than him, my father used to tell me to be courteous to those younger than me, and respect those who are older than me. I think it's worth it for a cricket to gain a friend. Chen Lin's immature face was full of maturity and responsibility at this moment, which simply impressed me with him.

We quickly found three bamboos of the right thickness, but our strength was too small to uproot them. We couldn't pull up a single bamboo with all our efforts, and we couldn't do anything about it.

"Xin'er, I pick you up, you grab the bamboo on it, and then I let you go, you use the weight of your whole body to break the bamboo." I said to Chen Lin, "You catch Xin'er down there, don't let her get hurt." ”

Xin'er was very light, I picked her up easily, and things went well, and we got three bamboos this way, although they were all short, but they should be enough to make the skeleton of a kite.

We returned to the meeting point with the "trophies", they were ready to make other materials for the kite run, we handed over the bamboo, they used a knife to cut the bamboo into a few pieces, the movement looked skillful, and in a short time it was all shaved.

"What shape of kite shall we make?" The older boys are asking for our opinion.

"Frogs."

"Lion, how mighty the lion looks, it must be spectacular to make a kite like a lion and fly in the sky!"

"Dragons are mightier than lions! So why not make it into the shape of a dragon? ”

……

The group of children engaged in a heated discussion about the shape of the kite, each with louder voices, as if whoever screamed louder should listen to whomever he wanted.

Others whimsically said, "Let's make it into the shape of meat, I like meat the most." ”

"Okay, okay, don't make any noise, be quiet!" The older boy, trying to maintain order, rolled his eyes, looked at Xin'er and said, "Well, she's the only girl among us, and we'll listen to her." ”

"Huh? Ask me? Xin'er had a surprised expression on her face, she didn't expect such a big choice to be handed over to her.

"Yes, just you are a girl, we will listen to you." The rest of the boys nodded in agreement.

Xin'er thought for a while, and then slowly spoke: "I want to make the kite look like a butterfly, it should be quite beautiful." ”

"Okay, let's make it in the shape of a butterfly."

"I agree!"

……

When they were about to paste paper on the skeleton of the kite, Chen Lin suddenly exclaimed, "Oops! It's not early, it's time for us to go back to lunch! ”

Hearing him say this, we all reacted that it was already noon, and it was time to go back to lunch, otherwise Daddy would be anxious at home, and he might have been angry.

"That's right! Let's go back for lunch first, and then come back to this gathering after eating, make the kite, and we can fly the kite in the afternoon. The older boy said, "I'll take these things home first, so that they don't get taken away or trampled on here." ”

Our house was still some distance away, and we started to trot, wondering if my father and mother would worry about us at home.

Fortunately, when I got home, my father and mother were just having lunch, and when they saw me and Xin'er, my father said without blame: "Do you still know to come back?" Let's play comfortably outside, wash your hands and eat. ”

Chen Lin ate quickly, and he came to us when we were just halfway through eating.

"Xiaolin, did you have lunch at home? If you don't eat here, you can go out to play after eating. The mother said to Chen Lin.

"Auntie, I've eaten it."

With Chen Lin waiting beside us, Xin'er and I unconsciously sped up our meals.

"Eat slowly! Eat slowly! Be careful not to choke, don't you have enough time to play? "Mother blamed us softly.

When we hurried to the meeting point, they had already made the prototype of the kite, which was in the shape of a butterfly as Xin'er wished, and even colored, although it was only black, red, and the original white of the paper, but it was still visible.

"Finally, it's all over the line." They said happily.

The thread is a very thick linen thread, and I don't know who secretly took it out of the house. They wrapped the thread around a wrist-thick wooden stick.

Finally, a big butterfly kite was ready.