_Billy and the Snakes_
The next day after Billy's midnight prowl which was Saturday,there was great commotion among the circus people, for theleading lady accused her rival, the brunette, of coming into herdressing room while she slept and destroying her blonde wig;while the pop-corn man said thieves had been at his stand andbroken his glass case and eaten his pop-corn, beside they hadspilled all his lemonade that he had intended using the next day;the night watchman was going to be discharged for not attendingto his business; then the Indian snake charmer came along andtold them the thief had visited his tent but his snakes hadfrightened him away.
"And he was a big fellow I can tell you. I did not dare tacklehim."
"Oh my!" said the leading lady, "and to think he was in my tentand I slept through it all."
"There, I told you I did not touch your old straw colored wig!"said the brunette.
And they all said, "Do tell us all about it, what time of thenight did he come, and which way did he go when he ran away?"
"All right," said the snake charmer, with a twinkle in his eyethe others did not see, "sit down and I will tell you all aboutit,--how I was awakened by a groan, and saw standing in themiddle of my tent, a huge fellow, with a long, white beard andwhite, agonized face; for you must know that my boa-constrictorwas squeezing him to death."
"Oh, how awful! Weren't you frightened?" said the leading-lady.
"No, because I knew he could not touch me while the snake wascoiled around him. At first I thought I would let the boa killhim, but he looked so awful with his eyes sticking out of hishead, as the snake squeezed him tighter and tighter, that I feltsorry for him; so I began to play the music I always play when Iwant the snakes to come to me, and the boa stopped squeezing thegoat and came to me."
"Goat, did you say? You mean burglar."
"No, I mean goat, or _burglar_ if you would rather call him so,for your thief was nothing more or less than Billy Whiskers."
"You mean, horrid man to fool us so!" they all said.
And the snake charmer got up and hurried out of the tent for hesaw blood in the eye of the champion boxer and he thought he hadbetter get out before the man took hold of him.
Saturday was to be the last day of the circus in Smithville andimmediately after the evening performance they were to break campand move in the night, and be on the road all day Sundaytraveling to the next town, where they were booked to give aperformance on Monday morning.
Now all this meant quick work and rapid travel, as they could notgo by train, there being no railroad to this town, so they had tohave their circus horses and wagons move them.
When Billy heard them talking about moving, he thought it wouldbe great fun and looked forward to it with pleasure. But helittle knew what was before him.
During the morning performance Billy behaved all right, but in theafternoon he was so excited and anxious to be off that he behavedvery badly. He ran around the ring so fast that when the monkeyjumped through the paper hoops expecting to land on Billy's back,he was beyond him and the monkey landed on the ground and had torun to catch up. This made the ring-master angry and he hit Billya sharp cut with his whip, but instead of making him behave betterhe got worse and worse. He would stand still and shake himselfuntil he nearly made the monkey's bones crack; and when thering-master hit him, he stood on his hind legs and the monkey hadto cling to his horns to keep from falling off. When Billy foundhe could not throw the monkey, he ran for the pole in the centerof the ring that supported the tent, and tried to butt him off butthe monkey was too quick for him and dodged every time. At lastBilly tried rolling with him, but this the ring-master could notallow as it would ruin the saddle strapped to his back. He gavehim a few good cuts with the whip that stung like everything andthis turned Billy's wrath from the monkey to him, and like a shothe was up and after the ring-master. He planted his horns in themiddle of the ring-master's back and ran him to the edge of thering where he gave him a butt that sent him flying to the othertent.
Billy was punished for this and told he should have no supper,and he understood what they said although they did not suppose hedid.
"All right," he thought, "no supper, no performance, for I won'tbehave and take my part unless I am fed. But I will findsomething to eat even if they won't feed me, for a goat can eatalmost anything from tin cans to apples."
The man who had tied Billy had scarcely gotten out of sight whenhe commenced to chew his rope in two and when it dropped apart,Billy walked over and commenced to eat the elephant's food. Thisthe elephant did not like. He told Billy to stop and go eat hisown supper, but Billy would not, neither would he take thetrouble to explain to the elephant that he hadn't any supper andwas expected to go supperless. Now if he had only told theelephant, who had always been a good friend of his, he wouldgladly have given him half of his supper; but Billy was in acontrary mood and would say nothing, but kept on eating. Thisprovoked the elephant, so he quietly wound his trunk around Mr.Billy and lifting him from the ground, set him on top of thelion's cage that was standing near. Billy was more surprised whenhe found himself standing on top of the lion's cage than he hadever been in his life, but only for a minute for he jumped downand disappeared through a tear in the canvas of the tent. As heran away he heard all the animals laughing, though you might havecalled it the lion's roar and the hyena's call, and above all theracket he heard the head animal keeper asking what all thisracket was about; and although they all tried to tell him by eachgiving his particular call, he was too stupid to understandanimal talk, so lost all the fun of the joke.
When Billy came through the side of the tent, he found himselfnear the tent where the horses and ponies were kept. Smellingcorn and oats, he walked in, and while talking to his particularfriends, the Shetland ponies, he helped himself to their supper.
While in this tent he became acquainted with a little MexicanBurroetta that was destined to become his closest companion andfriend in the future. The Burroetta was just his height, of amouse color, with a white streak down its spine and four whitestockinged feet, but the most peculiar thing about its looks wasits exceedingly long ears,--ears that were as long as Billy'shorns. It was the cutest, smartest little creature you ever saw,and had most beautiful, large, liquid eyes. It looked as mild asa dove, but was quite deceiving for it was as full of the "oldscratch" as Billy himself. It must have been this kindred spiritthat drew them together from the first.
That night the people had come to the circus; looked at theanimals and passed into the performing tent; several of thethings on the programme had been gone through with and it wasBilly's turn to perform next and still Billy had not been found.
Every man and woman on the place had been looking for him, butthough they had hunted everywhere and inquired of every one if hehad seen a large, white goat with long whiskers, no one had seenhim and they were about to substitute something else for hisperformance when one of the men, coming into the ponies' tent forsomething, saw Billy lying down by the little Burroetta.
"Here Billy, you rascal, come along with me. We have been lookingeverywhere for you."
And Billy was led off and made to go through his performance. Butto-night he was cross and still angry with the ring-master. Sowhen about through with his imitation of the professor, he leanedover and took a mouthful of the leaves of the book and chewedthem up. Then he stood up in his chair with his gown andspectacles on, and before anyone could stop him he had jumpeddown and ran out of the tent, with the spectacles still on hisnose and his gown trailing after him.
The excitement and confusion this caused in the circus knew nobounds. And when the children discovered that the astrologer wasnothing more or less than an ordinary goat, and that his voicehad come from a man, who was a ventriloquist, hid under theplatform, their disgust was complete and it broke up the circusperformance for that night.
Billy chewed, wriggled and pulled at his gown until he tore itoff and then he kicked up his heels and disappeared in thedarkness outside; and he was careful to
keep in the shadows awayfrom the light, so no one could see him, for he had sense enoughto know that he had done wrong and would be punished if caught.