them, and, found that it was finished with the same starch, the taste of
which he had liked so much in the laundry. He wanted it down where he
could get a good bunch of it in his mouth, so he pulled hard, raising up
on his hind feet and throwing his weight upon it. The curtain gave way
at the top but it was not so convenient as he had expected, for the
long, wide curtain came right down over his back. He tried to get out
from under it and his horns ran through the open work. He tried to turn
round and his hind feet ran through other open work places. He tried to
back out of it and his forefeet got tangled in some more of it. The
more he tried to get loose from his starched meal, the more tangled up
he got, and at last, growing angry, he began to jump as high in the air
as he could.
In the half darkness, he was a great white figure with a long trailing
white robe behind him, and the first woman he met in the hall screamed
like a steam calliope. Of course her screams brought others out into
the hall and everybody, even the men, began to run when they saw this
jumping white ghost coming toward them, every once in a while letting
out a loud "baah!" Many ladies were so frightened that when they came
to their doors, instead of running into their rooms, they started down
the hall ahead of Billy, shrieking and screaming at the top of their
voices.
The noise only confused Billy the more. The more confused he grew, the
harder he jumped and struggled to get out of the curtain, until at the
very end of the hall, he came to a stairway and went down it head over
heels to the next floor.
Here things were even worse than they had been on the top floor, for by
this time the hubbub above them had brought everybody out of their
rooms, and the crowd was already there. As soon as Billy scampered to
his feet after his tumble and made another jump high into the air, they
too began running and screaming.
Billy now had gotten into a series of halls that ran the whole length of
the building and had a stairway at each end, so now he jumped and
struggled his way along until he came to a stairway, tumbled down it,
jumped back through another hall full of screaming people to another
stairway, and so on until he reached the ground floor. Here the
stairway opened into the great, marble-paved, main corridor of the
hotel. This was just now thronged with men, all wanting to know why the
lights were out and what all the uproar was about. Through these men
Billy dashed like a hurricane, having now torn the curtains enough to
let his legs have some action. One big fellow whom he upset fell on the
long trailing end of the curtain, and the shock nearly tore Billy's
horns loose from his head, but the curtain pulled in two and at last
Billy was free except for a few stray shreds and small pieces that still
clung to his legs and horns.
Now he could see where he was going, and, darting out of the side door,
he ran back to where he remembered the cellar steps into the porter's
room to be. The door was wide open and inside he found his friend, the
porter, with a lantern, looking for him. The porter saw at once from
the shreds of curtain that Billy had been into mischief again, but as
before, he was afraid to say anything about it for fear somebody would
find out that he had left the door of the store-room open, so he simply
took the shreds of lace curtain off of Billy to carry away with him, and
fixed Billy's bed nicely for the night.
"Bet you came from the Bad Place sure, goat-beast," said the porter,
shaking his head.
*CHAPTER VI*
*A CELEBRATION WITH FIREWORKS*
The next morning, bright and early, the porter came down to Billy's room
with a queer looking box made of heavy slats. One side of the box was
off and the porter carried it in his hand. Setting the box down with
the open side towards Billy, the porter put an extra bunch of carrots in
it, and Billy, never having seen anything like this before, walked right
in and began to eat his breakfast, upon which the porter quickly slapped
on the side of the box and nailed it tight. Billy did not realize that
he was trapped until the porter and another man whom he called lifted
the box and began to carry it up the stairs. Then Billy was angry in
earnest. He jumped and jerked as much as he could and nearly threw the
men down-stairs by his bouncing. As soon as they got up on the level
ground, however, the porter and the other man began to shake the crate
as hard as they could, so that, in place of Billy doing the bouncing, he
was being bounced until he had plenty of it and was glad to lie down on
the floor of the crate and hold still, while he was being carried to a
big dray that stood in waiting.
While it was being loaded on the dray, Mr. Brown and Frank came out in
the courtyard to see him.
"Isn't he a beauty, papa?" said Frank. "And he behaves himself so
nicely, too. I've been down to see him every other day and he's just as
nice and quiet as he can be."
"I don't know," said his father, shaking his head. "I don't believe
that a goat able to stir up as much trouble as he did back in the
village where we bought him will be anything but a scamp goat to the end
of his days. I'm really sorry that I bought him. It's going to cost a
lot of money, too, to send him by express from here to Havre and to pay
his passage over to America. I have a big notion to turn him loose."
When Billy heard that he was frightened, and, turning his solemn eyes
around to Mr. Brown, he "baahed" as pitifully as he could.
"Just hear that, papa," said Frank, "he wants to go with us. He likes
us."
"Oh, very well," said Mr. Brown. "But come, we must hurry up. We have
only a few minutes to make our train."
As soon as Mr. Brown and Frank had walked away, the driver of the wagon
cracked his whip, the horses started up, and Billy was rapidly taken to
the depot. Here he was loaded into an express car, and in a few moments
more was headed toward France at as swift a pace as the engine could
pull the train. The express messenger in the car, as soon as his work
was done, lit a short black pipe and commenced teasing Billy. Reaching
his hand between the slats, he suddenly poked Billy in the ribs, and
Billy, already nervous from the rapid motion, jumped straight up off his
forefeet. Of course his horns hit the top of the box and pained him.
The man laughed at the funny motion and poked the goat again. This
time, Billy, afraid to jump up, merely danced, and the man laughed
aloud. Again and again he repeated his trick until the goat was nearly
frantic. Billy tried to burst out the side of his cage so that he could
get at the man, but the crate was too stout for him to do it any damage
and he only hurt himself by trying, so after a while he gave it up.
At the next stop they made, however, the express agent, while he was
taking on the parcels, slammed a heavy box on top of the crate. Billy
heard the timbers crack and felt the box giving end-wise a trifle. For
a moment he was afraid that the heavy box would break down his crate and
squeeze him flat underneath it, but as soon as the train had started
again the messenger moved the box into the far end of the car and Billy
was delighted to find that at last the boards on one side of his prison
were loosened. The messenger had laid aside his glowing pipe at this
stop, but now he took it up again, although smoking was against the
rules, and came over to tease Billy. He had no more than thrust his
hand through than Billy lurched his body sideways as hard as he could
against the boards, and out he tumbled.
He was on his feet as quick as a cat and made a jump at the man. The
express agent dodged him and ran to the far end of the car, hunting
wildly for something with which he might strike the angry goat. Billy
was up to him before he had time to find anything, however, and chased
him from one end of the car to the other. At last the man stopped in
front of the big box that he had taken on at the last station, and
waited for Billy to jump for him. When Billy jumped, he sprang aside
and let the goat plunge head first into the side of the box, breaking
open one of the boards and hurting his head considerably. By this time
the man was at the other end of the car and laughing. Billy ran after
him again, but this time he knew the man's ways. When he started to
dodge back from the other end of the car, Billy also turned like a flash
and was right after him. This time he got him and gave him a bump that
sent the man sprawling headlong on the floor. As the man went down, his
arm gave a jerk and his lighted pipe went through the hole that Billy
had butted in the big box.
[Illustration: Dodged him and ran to the far end of the car.]
The man was just scrambling to his feet when a big, blue ball of fire
shot out of the side of the box and scooted along his back. Billy had
wheeled to give the man another dose of his medicine, but just then a
big ball of red fire hit him in the side and he, too, tried to hunt a
corner. The box was full of fireworks that was being shipped for a lawn
fete, and for the next few minutes there was the most exciting time that
ever happened inside of an express car going at full speed.
Skyrockets and Roman candles, whistling bombs and silver fountains,
flower-pots and pin-wheels filled the air, spitting and spluttering,
popping about from one end of the car to the other, bouncing first off
of the man and then off the goat. No place was safe. The side of the
box was soon burst open by the force of the explosions, and the
fireworks came tumbling out at greater speed than ever.
Both Billy and the express agent were hit until they were bruised and
burned and sore all over. Billy had a great deal of his hair singed off
and the express agent's face was as black as a coal-miner's. The smoke
became so thick that they could scarcely see, and it smarted and blinded
their eyes until the express agent thought to open the side doors when
the rapidly rushing wind swept in and carried away most of the smoke.
Luckily the car did not catch fire, though some of the goods that were
being expressed did. The agent had a pail of drinking water in the car
and as soon as the fireworks were nearly burned out he ran around from
one place to another using his water sparingly and beating out the fire
wherever he could.
Billy, too, seemed to know that burning things were dangerous, for when
a bundle of rugs began to smoulder he jumped on the burning places and
stamped them with his feet until the fire was beaten out. The express
agent saw him at this and he at once forgot his anger at the goat.
Billy went scampering around after that, stamping out fire wherever he
could find a coal. After all danger was passed and the express man had
tidied up his car, he sat down puffing and looked at Billy.
"Well, Mr. Goat," said he, "we've had a busy time of it and I guess we'd
better be friends. Don't you tell on me and I won't tell on you. I
don't want to let anybody know that I was smoking a pipe anyhow. It's
against the rules of the company."
"Baah!" said Billy, and that's all the talk they had about it. After
that they had no further trouble except that the express agent tried to
coax Billy back into his crate, but had to give it up as a bad job.
It was night when the train bearing Billy Mischief drew into Paris.
Billy could not be coaxed or driven back into his cage, so, when the
train stopped, the express messenger had another man come in to help
him. Between them they managed, after a hard struggle, to get Billy in
the crate, but as they were trying to fasten the lid on he burst out of
it, jumped out of the car door, ran as hard as he could and soon was
safe from pursuit and alone in the streets of Paris.
With a natural instinct to hide from the men who wanted to put him in
that close, uncomfortable box, he turned into the alley-ways and dark,
narrow streets and for a long time ran on without meeting anyone. But
this sort of thing was not very much to Billy's liking. He wanted to
see all the excitement that there was, so by-and-by he turned into one
of the broad, brilliantly lighted streets, where he trotted along
sedately, minding his own business and looking around him curiously at
the gayly dressed throngs. A great many people turned round to look
after him and laugh, he trotted along so solemnly.
All this time there was great excitement at the railroad station. Mr.
Brown had left word that his goat was to be held until the next night's
train to Havre as he intended to spend a day in Paris, but the express
department had no goat to hold, so the matter was reported to the police
department, and within a few moments all the red-trousered gendarmes of
Paris were looking for a mischievous white goat with freshly singed
spots on his shiny coat.
One of these gendarmes, soon after he had received his instructions,
found Billy and a big stray Tom cat eyeing each other with every
intention of immediate war. Billy had never spoken to a cat before and
so when he saw this strange animal on the street he walked straight up
to it and said "baah!" He intended to mean something like our "Good
evening. It's pleasant weather, isn't it?" but Billy's voice at best
was not a very gentle one and his long horns looked threatening, so the
big cat arched his back and bristled his hair and stuck his tail
straight up. Billy did not know much about cats but he could easily see
that this one meant fight, so he shook his head angrily. They were
standing in front of one of the pleasant Paris sidewalk cafes and a
great many ladies and gentlemen were seated at little round tables under
the broad awning.
[Illustration: Billy and a big stray Tom cat eyeing each other.]
Just as the gendarme recognized Billy by his singed coat, the cat let
out an ear-splitting "meow!" and, jumping up, scratched Billy's face
with the sharp claws of both his forefeet; then it sprang up on one of
the empty tables and down on the other side. Billy, smarting with the
pain, jumped after him, upsetting the chairs on the other side with a
crash. The express department had offered a good reward to whoever
should find Billy, so the gendarme took after the goat, overturning some
more chairs. The cat darted here and there and everywhere among the
little round tables and Billy right after him. The cat ran under a
table at which were sitting two gentlemen and two ladies, and Billy, now
so angry that he did not notice where he was going, forced his way right
after him, upsetting the table, spilling the glasses and bottles upon it
into the laps of the ladies and making a tremendous noise. Table after
table they overturned in this way.
Another gendarme, attracted by the hubbub, came up and saw Billy. He,
too, gave chase, adding to the confusion. Everybody began to shove back
their chairs. All of the people were either talking or laughing or
screaming at the top of their voices. Waiters came running, and one of
them, a little excitable man with a funny little black mustache, tried
to head Billy off. All he got for it was a good bump right in the
middle of his big white apron and he landed back against another waiter
who was bringing a big tray full of glasses. The two of them went to
the floor together in a noisy pile of tables and chairs, and Billy
dashed right on over them. This time, the cat, which was bewildered by
the crowd and had scarcely known which way to run, found an opening to
the street. Having a clear track, he would easily have gotten away from
Billy except that just at that moment a third gendarme saw the cat and
the goat coming and jumped square in the road of them.
The cat had tried to dart around him but the gendarme's legs came right
in his road, so the cat began to climb the gendarme, and Billy, coming
up just then, made a dive head first at the cat, catching it just as the
animal reached the gendarme's lower vest button. The gendarme sat right
down with a grunt to think things over, while the cat sprang for the top
of a high fence and was over with a whisk of his tail. Billy could not
climb the fence so he ran back a piece and tried to butt it down, but he
could not do it. By this time the gendarme he had knocked down was on
his feet again, and two others came running up.
There were now five of the red-trousered little police soldiers after
him, and things began to look very lively for Billy. They tried to
surround him but he ran through them, and all five of them chased after
him up the street. At nearly every block they were joined by another
gendarme, so that before he had gone very far Billy was heading quite an
army of French soldiers. To escape he turned down a dark street. They
were digging a wide ditch across this dark street and the lights they
had placed there as danger signals had been taken away by some
mischievous boys. Billy, who could see well in the dark, perceived this
ditch as he came to it and leaped lightly over it, but the excited
gendarmes who were following him could not see it, and the whole crowd
of them fell headlong in the ditch, which, fortunately, was not yet deep
enough to hurt them much.
Billy turned now into another well-lighted street. Here again he found
a gendarme who, as soon as he saw and recognized Billy, started out to
stop him. He went like a streak between this fellow's legs. Now he
began to wonder why all of these little fellows in the red trousers were
such enemies of his, and when, at the end of the block, he saw three of
them standing in a row, he got angry. Shaking his head, he determined to
give the big one in the middle the hardest bump he had ever given to
anyone in his life. Lowering his head and shaking it, he went on as if
he had been shot out of a cannon, and, as he drew near, gave a mighty
jump and butted the big gendarme right in the stomach.
Alas for Billy! In place of the soft human figure that he thought he
was butting, it turned out that the gendarme in the middle was printed
in glowing colors on paper and pasted against a solid brick wall, as an
advertisement for a play then performing at one of the theatres. The
two gendarmes who had happened to stand alongside of it were real,
however, so when Billy dropped back stunned from his hard jolt the two
real gendarmes promptly arrested him, and it was a very sick and sorry
goat that was shortly afterwards returned to the Express Department to
be held for the Havre train.
*CHAPTER VII*
*BILLY FINDS HIS MOTHER*
Poor Billy, forced back into his crate and nailed up again, began to
think he did not like traveling very well. So far he had been in two
cities and so far he had seen neither one of them by daylight, while
everywhere he went he got hurt. All that night and all the next day, he
moped in his crate with a sore head. On the following night he was
bundled into an express car, and giving up in despair, lay down and went
to sleep.
When he awoke it was daylight and he was being taken off the train in
Havre where the Browns were to take the boat for Cherbourg and then for
America. This was the first time that Frank had seen Billy since they
left Bern and when he and Mr. Brown walked up to the crate after it had
been taken off the train, Frank's heart was filled with pity. There
were raw places on Billy's head, his fine shiny coat had the black marks
of fire on it, and altogether he was as woe-begone and miserable a
looking goat as ever was seen. Of course the Browns did not know
anything of the adventures that Billy had been through, but Frank was a
boy who did not like to see animals suffer and he was very angry.
"Just see, papa," he cried, "how they have abused my poor goat, shut up
in that tight crate all this time! I'm sure he's not so bad a goat as
you thought. He has been imposed upon. Please let me take him out of
that crate and lead him by a rope. I know that he will come along
nicely."
Billy "baahed" gratefully at this, and with some reluctance Mr. Brown
allowed the goat to be taken out of the crate, let Frank secure a rope
and tie him on behind the carriage which was to take them to their
steamer.
It was not Billy's fault that the knot was an ordinary single bow hitch,
and Billy did not know, when he nipped at the little end which stuck
out, that he would loosen the whole knot and let himself free, but that
is exactly what happened. For a time he trotted along nicely behind the
carriage, but, as they reached the wharves, Billy saw a sight that
filled him with eager interest. Near a big cattle boat was an enormous
pen filled with goats which were soon to be loaded on the boat, and
Billy at once ran down to this pen, which was about a block away. His
heart beat high with hope as he neared it, and when he came close up to
the bars he began to "baah" as loud as he could.
From inside the pen came an answering bleat. Billy's mother was there
and she had recognized his voice! She crowded close up to the bars and
soon she and Billy were affectionately rubbing noses through the little
spaces between the boards and telling each other all that had happened
to them since they had become separated. How Billy did wish that he
could get inside the pen and go to America with her! He trotted around
and around the high fence trying to find a weak place where he could
break in, but the pen was built strong enough to make all such trials
useless, so after every round Billy would have to come back to where his
mother stood waiting and tell her of his failure. After he had made a
third trial and came back up to her the wise old goat struck a happy
idea.
"Just stand where you are, Billy," she said, "and by-and-by maybe one of
the drivers will come this way and think that you belong in here with
us. Then he will let you in and we will go on board together."
She had scarcely more than finished speaking when the lash of a sharp
whip that had whizzed through the air hit Billy on the flank. Looking
up, he saw a young man opening a gate for him to be driven through. The
young man had no whip, however, so Billy turned in the other direction
to see where the stinging blow had come from. Standing only a few feet
away from him was a short, wide man with a whip in his hand, and Billy
started for him with a snort.
[Illustration: The lash of a sharp whip.]
"A thousand lightnings yet again!" exclaimed the fat man, who was none
other than our old friend and Billy's old enemy, Hans Zug.
Hans knew better this time than to run when he had a way so much easier
to escape. With all the speed that his pudgy body would let him have he
climbed the bars of a high pen just in time to escape the hard bump that
Billy jumped up to give him. Sitting on the top bar, Hans whirled his
whip around his head and lashed Billy across the back. Wild with rage,
Billy tried to reach his enemy, but he could not jump high enough, and
Hans, laughing till he shook like a bowl of jelly, reached down and
lashed Billy once more. Feeling that with all his strength he certainly
ought to jump high enough to reach his tormentor, Billy tried to leap
again and again, but every time all he got for his pains was a whack
with the long whip.
At last, however, Hans made his big mistake. After whipping poor Billy
until he was tired, Hans laughed so heartily that he fell backwards off
the fence, and you'd better believe that Billy's mother made him
welcome. She met him with her hard head while he was on the way down.
Hans dropped his whip and grabbed for dear life at the fence, and he
caught hold with both hands just at the right height to make a good mark
for Billy's mother. That strong and sturdy old goat bumped him twice
for every lash that he had given Billy, and every time she bumped him,
Hans Zug grunted and yelled. He clawed his feet desperately to get a
foothold on the bars to climb up, but every time he would get one foot
placed Billy's mother would give him another terrific bump and he would
lose his footing.
Billy, on the outside, ran backward and forward, hoping for Hans to get
to the top and fall over on his side of the fence, and poor Hans was in
an awful predicament. At last, seeing that Hans' comical struggles were
not going to put him over where Billy could get at him, that anxious
youngster ran to where the young man was still holding the gate open a
little way, and ran inside, upon which the gate closed sharply behind
him. He made his way rapidly among the other goats and quickly ran up
beside his mother. He watched her motion, jumping when she jumped, and
they both butted Hans together so hard that, with a mighty grunt, he
went way up in the air, both his feet landing at once on a bar higher
than the one he had been trying to catch.
[Illustration: They both butted Hans.]
Billy and his mother both laughed, but they were so delighted and so
excited that the next time they tried to bump Hans their horns clashed,
they stumbled and fell back, and in that moment Hans Zug climbed up out
of reach.
When he got to the top of the fence he lay down straddle of it, clinging
with both hands and feet to the topmost bars for safety.