Not the ballooning profession as the boys had learned it.
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The Chums of Chance owe their ballooning legacy to the 1870-1871 Siege of Paris, as they described at some earlier point in the story. But with science changing so quickly in this liminal place and time which Pynchon chose for a reason (that reason probably being the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887, according to my speculation and nonsense), the boys now have a lot more to contend with than filling a balloon with hot air and gauging which way the winds are blowing. They're not even flying through Æther anymore. I think?
Anyway, how long ago could the boys have learned ballooning anyway?! They're just lads! Unless they're ghost lads!
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