_What Billy Did on Friday_
When Billy's little band of circus people joined the others theyfound everything in order as they were the last company of thesix traveling bands to join the main one.
There was one huge tent with three rings in it where theperformances would be given; opening into this was another largeone where the animals were exhibited and branching out of thiswere three others,--one where the horses and ponies were kept;another used as the dressing room, and still another where thecircus people took their meals, while scattered around were tenor a dozen side-shows.
The cage Billy was in had hardly been put in place when the sideswere taken off and he found himself in the large animal tent withthe cages arranged round the edge and his old friend theelephant tethered just outside with the other elephants from thedifferent bands, and his elephant friend was talking to his chum,the elephant he had told Billy about, that told such goodstories. Billy thought he must be telling one now for they wereboth laughing, but you might have thought they were trumpetinghad you heard them.
Billy bleated to the elephant and he raised his head and lookedin all directions to see where Billy was but he could not seehim, until Billy told him where to look.
"Goodness gracious me! Is that you, Mr. Billy, shut up in thatcage? I never expected to see you in a place like that."
"Neither did I ever expect to find myself in one like this,"Billy answered, "and what is more, I would rather be dead thanstay here. But I will get out yet, don't you fear."
"I bet you do, Mr. Whiskers, for you are a good one at gettingout of scrapes as well as getting into them. Let me introduce youto my friend and chum, Prince Nan-ka-poo, as he is called on theshow bill."
After the introduction Billy's friend said: "Don't look so downhearted. I will get the Prince to tell us one of his funnystories so we can have a good laugh. He has just been telling mea capital one."
But before he had time to tell it a man came along with a hoseand began to wash out Billy's cage and souse him with water,squirting it in his eyes just to tease him, which Billy thoughtwas a little too much as it was like kicking a fellow when he wasdown and could not help himself.
"Just wait, Mr. Man with the hose, until I meet you when I getout of here, and if I don't make your body ache, then my name isnot Billy Whiskers. I am going to give you a butt and hook thatwill send you half way up a telegraph pole!"
While he was fuming about this, another man came along and gavehim a nice, cool drink, and as he saw he had not eaten any of thehay he gave him a bunch of carrots and a bundle of nice grass.This Billy appreciated and said to himself: "That's a nice man.I'll do him a favor some time if I ever get the chance."
Billy had not stopped eating when a man came along with a bucketin his hand with something black in it and a large flat brush.When he got to Billy's cage he commenced to unlock the door andto Billy's surprise he climbed in and shut the door after him.
"Well, I wonder what is up now," thought Billy.
"I don't want to interrupt your breakfast, Master Billy, but thisjob has to be done before the circus begins this morning. Justgo on eating while I turn you from an ordinary white goat into ablack one. Hereafter you are to be known as the wild goat withthree horns from Guinea. If you don't believe me, read theprinted sign outside tacked to your cage, but do not be alarmed,this black stuff is not paint and it will wash off easily, for itis only charcoal and some other mixture. You see our black goatdied and as we have it advertised, we are going to fix you up torepresent it and the people won't know the difference for thepublic are easily fooled. And for your third horn--this came offof a Mexican steer."
The man took from his pocket a long horn and glued it ontoBilly's head between his other horns, only with the curved pointforward instead of backward. How Billy wished for a mirror to seehimself when the man had finished!
"I must look like Satan, Mr. Windlass's goat," thought Billy.
Billy did not get fixed any too soon for the people now began tocrowd into the circus to see the animals before the performancescommenced and they passed around the ring before the animals'cages, talking and giving them peanuts, pop-corn and apples. Heheard some one say when in front of his cage:
"Oh, my! Look at this queer looking goat with three horns--don'the look fierce?"
"OH, MY! LOOK AT THIS QUEER-LOOKING GOAT WITHTHREE HORNS. DON'T HE LOOK FIERCE?"]
"Let's read the card on his cage and see what it says about him.It says he was caught in the mountains of Guinea and that he isvery ferocious. He looks it, doesn't he? How would you like tohave him hook you?" Billy heard one little boy say to another."Isn't this funny, the card says he kills his prey with his twosharp pointed horns and then hooks the other one into his preyand carries it off."
"Is that what the card says? Well, if that isn't the biggest lieI ever heard!" thought Billy. "I'll bet the ring-master made thatup, like the one about my being an astrologer. Oh, he is a dandy,he is! But when I come to think of it, I don't mind if they dofool the people, if they are so easily gulled as that; and Iguess I will help them carry it out by behaving fierce andkicking around when anyone looks into my cage."
After the people had all passed into the main tent, the windbegan to blow a perfect hurricane and the rain came down insheets while one peal of thunder followed another in such quicksuccession that one would hardly have time to die away beforeanother was upon it; rolling and booming like heavy pieces ofartillery. The lightning was so vivid and bright that it madeBilly wink at every flash.
Presently a fiercer, stronger volume of wind hit the big tent andit collapsed burying all the people under it, while the same gustswept on and picked up the tent Billy was sheltered in andcarried it off, upsetting cage after cage of animals as it flewup and soared over their heads.
Billy's cage was among those upset, but before it went over thewind picked it up, carried it a few feet and then dropped it,smashing in the wooden side and setting Billy free. For once theold saying came true: "That it is an ill wind that blows nobodyany good." With a swish of his stubby tail Billy was off down aside street, and as he ran he could hear above the peals of thethunder and the rushing of the wind, the lions roaring and theelephants trumpeting for fear amid the confusion and excitementof the collapsed tents,--the circus that Billy had escaped fromfor good.
_Billy Finds Nanny_
As Billy trotted down the side street, the cyclone still ragedand blew loose boards and papers in every direction, but he kepton until he found himself out of the town and on the high road.
"Why, how good it seems to get away from the smelly old circusand be free again. Who cares for the wind and weather when one isfree? This rain will wash the black stuff off my coat that circusfellow put on; and now I think of it, I'll just walk up to thatboard fence and butt off this old horn that they glued to myhead: that will be the end of the Wild Goat from Guinea."
Suiting the action to the words, he walked up to the fence andhooked the curved part of the horn over the rail, pulled back,and the horn came off easily without pulling out any hair as therain had softened the glue. As it fell inside the fence, Billykicked up his heels, whisked his stubby tail, and started downthe road at a fast trot. As he ran, he made up his mind he wouldfind Nanny once more, even if he had to spend the rest of hislife looking for her. You know from past experience that if Billymade up his mind to do a thing, that he did it; for Billy'sstrong points were bravery, perseverance and stick-to-ativeness.These are good qualities for boys and girls to have as well asgoats.
It was a good thing that Billy had these qualities, or he neverwould have found Nanny again. For one whole month he hunted forher, going up one road and down another, being stoned by boys andchased by men as he tried to steal a meal out of their gardens.Some times he wandered into a yard to get something to eat, andthey set the dogs on him, but this they always wished they hadnot done, for he invariably turned and ripped the dogs open withhis long horns.
In this way he traveled, sleeping by the wayside in a
ll kinds ofweather, until even he was beginning to get discouraged. When oneday he happened on a road that looked familiar to him, and thefurther he traveled, the more familiar it became, until he cameto a bridge with a red house beside it. Then he knew where hewas for he recognized the house and the scenery around as theplace where the bridge had broken down when the elephant hadattempted to cross it. His joy knew no bounds for now all he hadto do to get to Nanny was to follow this road to the town andthen take another to the other side of town which would lead himto his little wife Nanny.
When he thought of dear, patient, little Nanny, a tear rolleddown his cheek; but he shook it off in a hurry for the nextminute the thought came to him, what if Nanny had given him up aslost and married another? The thought made him mad; and for threeor four miles he ran like a steam-engine, snorting with rage ashe went, and vowing to himself that if it were so, he would splither new husband open with his long horns, as he had the dogs hehad met by the way.
In the meantime, while Billy had been away, poor, lonely, littleNanny had never forgotten her old Billy, though all the youngBilly Goats in the herd tried to make her do so, and each and allhad wanted her to marry them, but she said "no" and remainedfaithful to her Billy.
She had one thing to comfort her however, and that was twobeautiful little Kids that had been born to her some time afterthe circus-man had taken Billy away. With these she spent all hertime, and they repaid it by being very fond of her; and it was abeautiful sight to see the three playing together in the greenmeadow down by the stream.
So Billy thought the next day, when, after traveling all night,he at last came to the farm and looking through the fence sawNanny lying in the grass with the two little kids jumping overher and kissing her nose.
"Two very fine looking kids," thought Billy. "I wonder whose theyare."
Then his old heart stood still for his next thought was: "She hasforgotten me, is married again and these are her children."
This thought made him feel sick and faint, and his knees shookunder him, so he dropped on the grass with his nose through therails of the fence, and there he lay for a long while, but henever took his eyes off the three in the pasture.
"I will lie here and see if it is so," thought Billy, "and if itis, I will go away and never let her know that I came back."
As he looked, old Satan, the minister that had married them, cameup to speak to Nanny, and Billy felt his blood beginning to boilfor he thought:
"If she is married to that old widower, and I am afraid she is,for one of those kids is as black as Satan himself, I can't standit! I shall stay to make myself known just long enough to killhim."
Soon, however, Satan walked off, as it was getting dark, and thegoats began to find cozy places for themselves for the night. ButBilly lay still and watched, though he was very thirsty andhungry, not having eaten anything all day, as he had been tooanxious to get back to see if Nanny was married again.
He watched her wash the kids' little faces for the night with hersoft tongue and give them a good-night kiss on their little nosesbefore they cuddled down to sleep beside her. It made Billy groanwith lonesomeness to see it all, and he lay there broken inspirit and wished he could die, and closed his eyes to shut outthe sight.
But he could not keep them closed. He had to open them to lookonce more on Nanny's sweet, patient face. As he did so, henoticed that the moon was just rising; and as it came up, Nannyrose also and stepping carefully so as not to waken her babies,she walked toward the fence where Billy was.
Closer and closer she came with her pretty, sweet face showingplainly in the moonlight. Billy scarcely breathed, he was soexcited, wondering if she would recognize him, and what she wouldsay when she saw him.
She came straight to the fence and stuck her nose through therail just above Billy's head before she saw him.
When she did, her eyes dilated with surprise, and then with ableat of joy, she called:
"Billy! My Billy! Have you come back!" And she commenced to cryas if her heart would break for joy.
No words can express Billy's joy when he felt her tears on hisface and her warm nose kissing his cold one, and all Billy couldsay was, "My darling, you are not married to Satan after all, areyou?"
This made Nanny laugh and she called him a silly, old goose.
But what was the matter with Billy? He felt as strong and youngas Nanny herself, and had forgotten his thirst and weariness of afew moments ago. Being only a goat, he did not know thathappiness is the greatest elixir of life yet discovered.
"Wait a second, Nanny. I can't have this old fence between us,"and Billy backed off, gave a spring and was over the fence besideNanny in no time.
"Oh! Billy, how good it seems to have you back again. Now I havea great surprise for you. Come and see our two beautifulchildren. One is as white as snow and her I call Day. The otheris as black as a coal, and him I call Night. They are twins, andtwo smarter, healthier kids you never saw.
"Night is very mischievous and reminds me of you all the time.Ever since you have been gone, I have walked to the fence everynight and looked and waited for you to come back and it nearlybroke my heart when night after night went by and you did notcome."
Billy and Nanny walked over to where their babies were, and Billyassured her that they were the most beautiful kids his eyes hadever rested on, and he felt himself swelling with pride as thefather of such handsome kids.
Nanny led Billy to the stream and while he was quenching histhirst and eating a little of the sweet grass and mint that grewon its bank, they told each other all that had happened sincethey parted.
I will leave Billy and Nanny here, and my next book will be aboutDay and Night, Billy and Nanny's kids.
THE END.
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