_Billy Joins the Fire Patrol_
When they arrived at the police station Billy was made to jumpout and was led through the station into the back yard, and herehe was turned loose. He had been there about half an hour, whenhe heard a terrible stamping of horses' feet and many bellsringing in the building on the other side of the fence.
Wondering what the racket could be about, he climbed on top of apile of boxes that were next to the fence and looked into theyard beyond. He found that the building was used as a fire-enginestation, and that the racket he had heard was caused by thehorses taking their places at the engine ready to start to afire.
Through two large doors that opened into the yard Billy could seewhat was going on inside. And when he saw the men jump to theirplaces on the engine and the driver whip up his horses, he becameso excited he could stand it no longer and he determined to gowith them to the fire. With a spring he was over the fence andfollowing after the engine at a stiff run.
It was a good thing Billy had a strong pair of lungs or he wouldnever have been able to keep up with the fast speed of thefire-engine horses, but he did and arrived at the fire in goodshape.
The fire was found to be in a three-story frame house, and whenthey got there the flames were already coming out of the upperwindows; but the strangest thing about the fire was that theinhabitants of the house, if there were any, seemed to be inutter oblivion that their house was on fire for not a person wasin sight about the place and all the doors and windows weresecurely locked.
Two men ran up the steps with axes, while two followed draggingthe hose after them. The men with the axes had given one knock tothe door when Billy saw what they were up to, and as he had oftenused his head as a battering-ram, he ran up the steps, and beforethe men knew he was there, he gave the door a mighty butt withhis head which made it crash in and the men and goat fell throughthe opening.
This tickled the crowd who had gathered to see the fire, and theycalled out: "Bravo for the goat!"
Billy followed the firemen upstairs but when he got there thesmoke was so thick he could see nothing, and it made his eyessmart beside choking him dreadfully, so he decided to go outagain. He turned to find the head of the stairs he had come up,but instead of discovering them he ran into the wall and the morehe tried to find his way out, the more confused he became. Hefell over something and when he regained his feet, after havingnearly gone head over heels into a box, as he thought, but whichwas a baby's cradle, he felt something heavy hanging to hishorns. At the same time he heard a baby cry.
"Poor little thing," thought Billy, "everyone has gone out of thehouse and left the baby asleep and now it is going to be burnedto death. Wish I knew where it was; it sounds near but I can'tsee for this smoke." Just then a little bare foot slipped downover Billy's eyes and then he knew the heavy thing hanging to hishorns was the baby.
As soon as he found this out, he tried harder than ever to findthe stairs and presently he found them, and with the baby'sclothes still twisted around his horns he ran down and out intothe street, just in time to meet the baby's nurse coming from thedrugstore around the corner. She was wild with joy when she sawthe baby and rushed up to Billy to unfasten the baby's clothesfrom his horns. The child was unhurt, and a crowd soon gatheredaround Billy to pet and praise him for saving the baby's life.
Billy stayed there until the fire was put out and watched thehose being rolled up, while the firemen that were doing it talkedto him all the time.
When the hose was all on the cart and the firemen stepped up onthe little step that is at the back to ride home, Billy walkedover and stepped up also but he had to stand on his hind legswith his fore feet on the coil of hose in front of him.
One fireman thought this a very clever thing for a goat to do, sohe put his arm around his neck and said, "All right, old fellow,you shall ride home with me, but take care for we are going tostart and the road is rough and you may fall off." And in thisway Billy rode back to the fire station, causing many smiles fromthe people they passed.
As they drove into the station one of the policemen who wasstanding outside their station called out, "Where did you getthat goat?" Billy's friend called back: "I don't know where hecame from; all I know is that he followed us to the fire, wherehe made himself useful by saving a life."
"Well, we have his brother in our back yard. If not his brother,then one that looks precisely like him."
"Oh, I guess not," answered Billy's friend, "for there are nottwo such fine looking goats in town."
"Well, I'll show you, come over and see for yourself."
So the two men went into the police station yard with Billylagging at their heels, laughing to himself to think how fooledthe policeman was going to be at not finding any goat there.
When they got to the yard the policeman looked everywhere, butcould find no sign of a goat, so went into the station to ask theother policemen where the goat had gone, but none had seen himand all thought he was still in the yard.
"Well that must be my goat, then," said the policeman.
"Not much!" answered the fireman. "You will have to bring betterproof than that before I give him up."
"Well, I don't want him anyway," said the policeman, "and youwill be glad to get rid of him yourself in a day or two for he isthe most troublesome goat you ever heard of. You should hear ofthe mischief he got into at the flat we took him from."
"Very well," said the fireman, "I'll stand all the trouble hewill cause."
And with that he led Billy out of the yard into their back yardand gave him a nice place to sleep, a big dinner and a bucket ofwater, all of which Billy was thankful for as he was both hungryand thirsty after his trip to the fire.
After his first ride on the hose-cart, Billy liked it so muchthat every time the cart went out Billy went too and rode, as hehad before, with his hind legs on the step and his fore feet onthe coil of hose in front of him and the fireman always steadiedhim with his arm. And soon this fire company was known as theWhite Goat Company, with Billy as its mascot.
Billy had been with the firemen about a month, when one day heheard them talking about a procession they were going to be in,that all the fire-engines, hose-carts and hook-and-laddercompanies were to be in the parade and that the horses were tohave their hoofs gilded and wear collars of roses, and that he,Billy, was to have his horns and hoofs gilded also, and wear arose collar and be led by a chain made of roses, by one of thefiremen who was to wear a red shirt, black trousers and highpatent leather boots and his fireman's hat with a visor.
When Billy heard this he said, "I won't march in their oldprocession, and make a circus of myself. I'll run away first."But he did not get a chance.
When the morning of the day of the procession came, Billy watchedthe firemen polish the brass of the engine and trim it withgarlands of flowers tied with bright colored ribbons; but whenthey commenced to gild the horses' hoofs one of them said to him:
"It will be your turn next Billy; we are going to give you ascrubbing in the tub until your hair is as soft and shiny assilk, and then we are going to gild your long horns and tie blueribbons on them, and put the handsomest wreath of pink roses wecan find round your neck. My! but you will look fine, Billy. Andwe expect you to behave and walk in a dignified manner, for theFire Marshal is going to give you a gold medal to wear round yourneck for saving the baby's life."
"It is very nice of them to give me a medal," thought Billy, "andthey have been good to me; but I don't like being scrubbed anddressed up like a clown, beside I am getting tired of town lifeand I long for the country and Nanny. I might as well run awayone time as another, so I will watch my chance, and when they areall busy and not looking, I will walk out of the station quietly,as if I were only going for my usual walk up the street, and whenI get to the corner, I will turn it and once out of sight I willrun until I get so far away they can't find me."
But for once Master Billy's plans were foiled for just as he waswalking out of the station one of the firemen saw him and said:<
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"Here, here, Billy, not so fast! We are ready for you now and ifyou go for a walk there is no knowing when you will come back."
And he took Billy by the horns and led him into the back yardwhere another fireman had a big tub of soapy water ready to puthim in.
Billy stood in the tub and submitted to the scrubbing until thesoapy water ran into his eyes and then he got mad and butted thefireman, who was holding his horns, clear over, and kicked theother man, who was scrubbing him, in the stomach; and then aroundand around the yard he ran bleating and shaking his head, wildwith the smart of the soap that was in his eyes.
"Here, Jack, this will never do," said one fireman to the other,"he is not half clean. Let us get the hose and turn it on himwhile he is running around."
"All right," said the other, "that will be great sport."
And they got the hose and soon they were squirting it over Billyas he ran, first on one side and then on the other, and no matterwhere he went the stream of water followed him and played allover him, and if he stopped running and hugged the fence it wasworse than ever for then the water flowed in a perfect streamand doused him from head to foot, sending a spray over the fence.
THIS CALLED FORTH A SHOUT OF GLEE FROM THEPOLICEMEN WHO WERE LOOKING OVER THE FENCE.]
All the firemen had come out to see the fun and when thepolicemen in the next yard heard a great deal of laughing andracket in the fireman's back yard, they too hurried to the fenceand watched the fun.
Of course, this only added to Billy's rage, to see his hatedenemies, the policemen, laughing at him, and he vowed he wouldget even with them some day, and with the firemen right away, forhe knew his strength. With a bound and a quick run he made forthe group of firemen that were tormenting him and butted andhooked them in all directions, and sent the fireman who wasplaying the hose on him sprawling into the tub of soapy waterthat but a few minutes before he had Billy in.
This called forth a shout of glee from the policemen who werelooking over the fence, and with another angry bound Billy wentfor them and butted the fence down that they were leaningagainst, and they made their escape into the police station justin time, for Billy came through the fence and after them, rightup to the door they had run through.
He gave it one butt and then turned and walked back into his ownyard where he lay down on a pile of straw to cool off after hisexertion. He had been there about half an hour when his petfireman came out with a large plate in his hand heaped full ofgood things to eat and as he walked toward Billy, the goat couldsmell the cabbage, turnips, apples and carrots. He bleated afriendly greeting to let the fireman know that he would not hookhim if he came nearer and the man came up and set the plate downunder Billy's nose and Billy gave him a goat smile showing thatall was forgiven and began to eat.
While he was eating this same fireman went in and brought out akettle with a brush in it and began to gild Billy's horns andhoofs. Then he tied a wreath of roses round his neck and went toget the rope wound with roses to lead him by. But while he wasgone Billy ate up the front of the wreath and as much more of itas he could reach.
When the fireman came back dressed for the parade with the rosechain in his hand that he was to lead Billy with, he spied theeaten wreath, and said:
"Why, Billy, you beat any bad boy I ever heard of for mischief!Now you will have to come into the station and have anotherwreath tied round your neck, and I bet you won't chew this onefor I will tie it so close to your neck you can't reach it withyour mouth."
As they went in the station Billy heard a band playing and therat-ta-tah-tah of the drums, and when they heard the music theengine horses, all decked in rose collars and bridles, withplumes on their heads, started to prance and pull the beautifullydraped and polished engine out of the station to join theprocession.
And before Billy knew what was up, he was led out and made tomarch in the procession between the engine and hose-cart. Afterthey had started he rather enjoyed it for from all sides he heardthe people say:
"There, look! There goes the goat that saved the baby's life."
"Isn't he a beauty?"
"See what nice, white, silky hair he has!"
"Yes," Billy thought, "if they could have seen the firemenscrubbing me, I expect they would have laughed like the policemendid." But it all tickled his vanity for Billy was as conceited agoat as you could well find.
They had been marching for some time and Billy was getting tiredof the slow gait and being made to stay between the engine andhose-cart instead of riding on the hose-cart as he had been inthe habit of doing, when he heard the plaintive bleat of a goatand the sound of a whip.
"My!" thought Billy, "how that voice reminds me of Nanny."
Just then a little cart, with a can of milk in it, drawn by agoat came in sight around the corner, and who should be pullingit but Nanny, with the big, clumsy Mike Rooney cracking the whipat her and every once in a while giving her a stinging cut whichhad caused Nanny to cry out as Billy had heard.
Mike had just given Nanny another and an extra hard cut with thewhip, when Billy recognized Nanny and with a bound he was at herside leaving the fireman behind him and upsetting Mike in his madhaste to get to Nanny.
When Mike regained his feet he came at Billy with the butt of hiswhip raised to strike him, but before he did so, he recognizedBilly as his long-lost goat, and was going to make up with himand hitch him to the cart to help Nanny draw it, when Billy madea plunge at him and sent him sprawling into the street. Then hebutted the cart over and spilled the milk and told Nanny to turnaround and run toward home and he would keep Mike off.
Nanny did as she was told and soon the harness broke and let herloose from the overturned cart. By this time Mike was on his feetagain, furious and mad enough at Billy to kill him had he caughthim, but with a kick of his heels in the air Billy and Nanny hadleft him and were running away as fast as they could while thefiremen and the crowd stood still and watched.
Mike ran until he was all out of breath and in turning a cornersharply he ran into another boy coming in the opposite direction.This made the boy mad and he struck at Mike hitting him in thejaw. That was too much for Mike who was already angry at beingoutwitted by the goats, so he pitched into the boy and theyfought until both had black eyes and bloody noses and a policemancoming up at that time arrested them both for disorderly conduct.While all this was happening the goats had made good theirescape.