CHAPTER IV
AN UNEXPECTED SHOWER BATH
Just at dusk the next day Billy, Stubby and Button entered a smalltown to look for some nice quiet place for them to sleep, for they hadtraveled far that day and were tired of being chased by dogs andstoned by boys. So when they came to a small bungalow on the outskirtsof the town with a cellar door open and no one around to drive themaway, the three stepped in as noiselessly as possible and crept downthe cellar stairs to find a place to hide until the family had gone tobed. Then they would begin to look about for something to eat for theyexpected to find potatoes and probably other vegetables there forBilly to eat and some kind of cold meat for Stubby and Button, andperhaps a pie or piece of cake, either of which would be veryacceptable to all of them for they dearly loved sweets of all kinds.
The corners of the cellar were quite dark as by this time the sun hadset, so Billy hid himself in one corner behind a pile of kindling,while Stubby crawled under the stationary wash tubs and Button curledhimself up on top of a high pile of boxes, from which place he couldsee a swinging shelf with a plate of cold meat and boiled potatoes, aswell as an uncut pie and some doughnuts on it. In the opposite cornerof the cellar Billy spied a pile of potatoes and some cabbage andcarrots.
"Well, I declare," exclaimed Button, "if we are not lucky! Here wefind a good supper all laid out that will just suit our differenttastes. Meat and potatoes for Stubby, as well as potatoes, cabbage andcarrots for Billy."
"Hark! I hear some one coming!" warned Stubby. "I do hope whoever itis, they don't find us and drive us out just when a good supper is insight, and also a nice quiet place to sleep."
Clumpety, clump, clumpety, clump, down the stairs came a stupidlooking German girl with a plate of fried chicken in one hand and adish of lovely crisp lettuce in the other. These she put on the shelfand then turned and stumped her way up the stairs again. Then theyheard her locking up for the night, as they thought, but soon sheappeared wearing her hat and went out the side door through which theyhad come into the cellar. They all kept very still for a little while,then Button meowed to Stubby to tell him what he could see on theshelf for them to eat, and where Billy could find some potatoes andother vegetables. Stubby crawled out from under the tubs and ran towhere Button said the shelf was, but alas, alack! how was he to get atthe things on the shelf? It was six feet above him and so hung fromthe ceiling that there was absolutely no way for him to climb up toit.
"Gee whiz! It makes me hungrier than ever to smell all those goodiesand not be able to get at them!"
While Stubby was standing there trying to think out a way to reachthem, Button cautiously climbed down from the boxes onto the shelf andwith his nose and paw poked a big, round potato and a thick slice ofmeat off the plate to the floor. As they fell, they hit Stubby on thenose and made him jump, it was so unexpected, and at first he thoughtsome one was throwing things at him. While he ate the meat, Buttonhelped himself to fried chicken and Billy came over and baaed to himnot to be so greedy but to throw him down some lettuce.
"Why don't you go over into that corner and eat those carrots andother vegetables?" meowed Button.
"Because I am not such a goose as to eat cold, dirty potatoes andcows' food when I can get my favorite nice, crisp lettuce."
The three ate and ate, for they were very hungry after their longtramp on the road all day. After Button had pushed all the food ontothe floor he did not want for himself, and had licked the plate, hesaid, "I wish I had a nice drink of milk now, to quench my thirst. IfI had that, I could go to sleep and sleep until daylight withoutwaking, even if a rat chewed my tail and a mouse bit my ear."
"A pail of clean, cool water would please me better," said Billy.
"Me too," said Stubby. "Listen! I hear water running somewhere," headded.
"It sounds to me as if it were in the kitchen upstairs," said Billy."I don't hear any one stirring around up there, so let us go and get adrink and then turn in for the night."
Billy walked to the cellar stairs and was half way up, while Stubbyand Button were just behind him, when they heard some one exclaim,"Chester, come quick! Come quick! The water is running in the sink,and the cellar floor is flooded."
This was followed by the loud laughter of two people.
"Whatever shall we do?" said a girl's distressed voice.
"Get a mop and mop it up!" replied a boy.
"But the mop is in the cellar and I'll get my feet wet if I cross thefloor to go to the cellar. Besides, I have on my best white shoes."
"Where do you keep the broom? That will do."
"Behind the kitchen door usually, but with the house all torn up withhousecleaning, I don't know where it is."
"I'll find it. You stay out of the room so you won't get wet."
"Who ever would have thought that just because I happened to set thatcoffee pot over the hole in the sink that it would stop it up so tightthat the water when it overflowed the coffee pot would fill the sinkand make it overflow?"
"No one would," answered the boy. "And here is all this mess justbecause we hadn't any sense and tried to cool a bottle of ginger aleby setting it in the coffee pot and letting the water run on it."
The three listeners on the stairs heard the boy cross the kitchen andturn off the water. Then they heard him get the broom from behind thekitchen door.
"Where are you going to sweep the water?" asked the girl.
"Down the cellar stairs! It won't hurt anything down there," andbefore Billy, Stubby or Button could move, a deluge of water struckthem full in the face, blinding them and sousing them from the tips oftheir noses to the ends of their tails.
This made Button sneeze, and he climbed back to the top of the boxes.Billy turned on the stairs, but before he could really face about,another sweep of the broom sent a second deluge on him, and blinded bywater and mad with rage, he rushed up the stairs to escape it. Insteadof getting out of the way, he ran straight into the boy who wassweeping, which surprised the boy so that he let go the broom handleand it too flew out of his hands and hit Billy on the head. This madeBilly so angry that he jumped for the boy and butted him straight intothe sink, where he sat down in the overflowing basin. The girl, toopanic-stricken to move, stood in the doorway wringing her hands andcrying, "Don't butt me, Mr. Billy Goat! I didn't do a thing!"
She looked so funny standing there wringing her hands and callingBilly Mr. Billy Goat that just for fun Billy thought he would give hera very little butt into the next room--not enough to hurt her, butjust to frighten her a little. But when she saw him coming toward her,she screamed and ran. Billy pursued her into a bedroom, where heovertook her and gave her a gentle butt that landed her in the middleof a big four-poster bed, after which he turned and trotted off to seewhat the boy was doing. He found him floundering in the sink, tryingto get out that he might go to the girl's rescue, but he could not ashis feet would not reach the floor and he could get no grip on himselfin the slippery sink. Just at this crisis the maid came home andunlocked the outside door at the head of the cellar stairs. With onebound Billy was at the door the minute it was opened. As he flew byher, he hit her, knocking her over against the young man who wasseeing her home. He held a watermelon under his arm, on which theyintended to feast, but when Billy struck the girl and she fell againsthim, it sent the watermelon flying from under his arm and the three ofthem, Billy, the maid and her beau, all fell on the melon. Thissquashed it flatter than a pancake and made it explode like a bomb.While all this was taking place, Stubby and Button made their escapethrough the open door and ran down the street to wait for Billy tojoin them.
When he came up, all he said was, "Just our luck, to have to lose aperfectly good lodging place just when we were almost ready to go tosleep for the night! And just because two young geese could not drinkginger ale warm instead of cold!"
"But I would not complain if I were you, Billy," said Button, "for wegot a good supper before it happened."
"Sure enough! So we did. I guess I better not complain. One
thing, itis a nice warm night, so it wouldn't be bad to sleep outdoors, and Isee a clump of trees and bushes down by the lake. Let's go down thereand see if we can't find a nice soft mossy bank to sleep on."
So the three trotted off and soon found a soft sandy bank under somesheltering trees and bushes where they curled themselves up and weresoon fast asleep.