BILLY WHISKERS, STUBBY AND BUTTON VISIT THE COUNTY FAIR
Just as Billy, Stubby and Button were about to continue down the
railroad track, Billy chanced to glance to the east and there he saw
a cluster of long buildings that looked like barns and great open
grandstands roofed over like baseball and football grounds and all
enclosed with a high board fence. But what attracted him most was the
number of flags, banners and pennants he saw waving from hundreds of
flag-poles.
“Gee, fellows! That looks interesting to me, for those flags tell me
there must be a County Fair going on over there, as this is the time
of year they always have a big Fair. And I can well remember the one I
went to when I was quite young. I never had such an enjoyable, exciting
time in my life. What say you that we postpone going into the town and
go over to the Fair instead?”
“Fine, just fine! I would like it above everything, for I haven’t been
to one for years. I, like you, remember the time I was there, only
I was such a little puppy that I was under everybody’s feet and was
nearly run over several times, until at last my little master took me
up in his arms and carried me. But I have always thought I should like
to go back and see what it was like when I was old enough to take care
of myself.”
“As for me,” replied Button, “I am ready for anything, just so I get
something to eat pretty soon, for I am as hungry as a hedgehog.”
“That settles it!” said Billy. “And I can promise you the best things
to eat and plenty of them. The country women bring all their good
things to the Fair to contest for prizes, from the best roast chickens,
cured hams all roasted and garnished with cloves stuck in them to make
them tasty, to pickles and jellies of all sorts. As for pies, they
would just melt in your mouth. But I forget you don’t care for jelly
and spices. Very well then, there is a dairy exhibit where you can
bathe in cream, there is so much of it.”
“Come along, come along! The very sound of cream makes my mouth water.”
The Chums soon arrived at the fairgrounds and it being so early, the
only ones going in were the owners of exhibits and the men to feed
and water the live stock, chickens, geese and ducks that were on
exhibition. They watched their chance and slipped in when no one was
looking, Billy walking in under a load of hay while Button rode in on a
pole sticking out from the hay load and Stubby trotted in fearlessly
as if he belonged to a man driving a wagon full of milk cans.
[Illustration: BILLY AND NANNIE WERE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE BULL,
STICKING THEIR LONG HORNS INTO HIM. (PAGE 72)]
Once in, they hid under the seats of the grandstand until they laid
their plans--what they would do, where they would go and where they
would meet.
“There is no use of our trying to keep together,” said Billy, “for
if we do we will be stoned and clubbed and have no fun, so I say we
separate and each amuse himself in the way he likes best, but that we
all meet the other side of the town where we are to join Nannie.”
“The plan suits me to a tee,” said Button.
“And me too,” said Stubby.
“I think the first thing I will do will be to look up that dairy you
were speaking of,” said Button.
“As for me,” replied Stubby, “I shall smell out those roast chickens
and ducks. Where do you plan to go first?”
“I was just thinking I would go over to the fat stock show and while I
looked around for old friends I would incidentally eat up some of the
corn and oats that had been given to them. There is sure to be plenty
left as their owners will be stuffing them to keep them fat.”
“Gee! Look at the crowd pouring in. And it is so early. We better get
started before the crowd is so great we can’t get near anything. _Au
revoir_, fellows, until we meet again! And be sure you turn up at the
trysting-place!” And with a whirl of his tail Billy was off, running
under the seats toward the fat stock exhibit.
[Illustration]
Button followed him for a way, then he spied the dairy building to his
left and made a bee line for it. When he reached the door, he found two
dairy maids standing in the open door talking, and they were so excited
over what they were saying that he sneaked in right beside them and
was lapping the cream first from one pan and then from another. All of
a sudden one of them turned round and seeing Button, she gave such an
outlandish scream that it startled him and he fell headlong into the
pan. In a minute he came out dripping, cream streaming into his eyes so
he could not see. In his endeavor to get away, he fell into another as
there were several pans cooling in a vat of ice-water. One of the maids
grabbed up a broom and came for him. He jumped straight toward her and
as she dodged him she slipped and fell into the vat of cold, cold
water, upsetting every pan in the vat. Button landed on the floor and
the jar shook the thick cream from his eyes so he could see. And you
just better believe it did not take him long to escape. He had his fill
of cream for once.
On his way to the fat cattle, Billy chanced to pass a pastry show
and the delicious odor of hot molasses cakes floated to his nostrils
through the open door.
“Oh my! Don’t those cookies smell good? I shall just have to have some
for I haven’t had any old-fashioned molasses cookies for ages and I
adore them. I also smell pumpkin pie which I like just as well. Guess
I’ll just tarry here a while and eat some. Think they would taste
better than corn or oats at this particular time. How I wish Nannie was
not so timid! Then she would be here so she could get some, for I know
she adores molasses cookies. If that big fat cook doesn’t stop standing
in that doorway wasting his time, I shall have to butt him out while I
go in and eat what I want. There, he is moving, and I smell something
burning. Serves him right when he neglects them and wastes his master’s
time and money standing at the door instead of attending to business.
But ‘It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good’ for now he will be
so busy looking after his things that he won’t see me helping myself.”
When Billy arrived at the front door, the cook was disappearing out
the back door with the pan of burned cookies, mumbling to himself:
“Gott in Himmel! See what happens to me when I just step to the door
for one breath of air! My Gott! My Gott! Mr. Swabenbach will kill me
for wasting his butter und eggs und sugar und flour.”
“Yes, and he will feel like beating you to a jelly when he sees what
has happened to his pies, for I have already tasted four different
kinds,” thought Stubby.
Just then the cook returned, still muttering to himself. But when he
saw Billy up on a table eating a pie and several others ruined by being
trampled upon he nearly fell backward in alarm. Then with a roar like
a bull he started for Billy, throwing his empty cookie pan at him. He
threw it so hard that when it hit Billy’s sharp horns, they made two
holes in it and it stuck to Billy’s head and slipped half over one
eye. Billy immediately jumped to the floor, hitting the pan a bang on
the side of the table and completely covering one eye. This made Billy
angry and when he saw the cook approaching him with a long-handled
soup boiler in his hand, Billy turned and, running between the short
fat legs of the cook, he upset him, sending hot soup all over him, for
it turned upside down on his head and spilled carrots, turnips and
potatoes all over him. Billy ran out the back door and jumped a fence
which brought him into a chicken yard. As he went over, the cookie pan
on his head hit the fence in just such a way that it knocked it off his
horns, much to Billy’s delight.
His arrival in the chicken yard caused a fresh commotion as it
surprised the fowls so they flew in all directions and set up a loud
cackling which brought the owner to see what was the matter. When he
spied Billy he thought one of the prize goats had escaped from the
cattle show, so hurried over there to tell them their goat was in his
chicken yard. A man with a rope came back with him to capture Billy,
never even stopping to see whether or not one of their goats had
disappeared.
But when they returned not a goat was to be seen or a chicken either,
for that matter, as the chickens had coaxed Billy to butt down the
fence so they could escape and he had done so. And the minute it was
down, the chickens in the yard flew and ran through the opening out
into the fairgrounds and made for the outside fence.
Billy hurried away from this scene of mishaps and as he was now nearly
to the fat stock pavilion, he decided to follow the crowd a way and see
where all the people were going. He soon discovered that they were on
their way to the race track to see a game of auto polo.
“Gee, I bet that will be exciting! As I never saw one, I think I will
stop and watch it for awhile.”
Around the field, in and out, went the small polo autos after the ball.
It was the most exciting thing he had ever watched and he wondered how
in the world the players were not all killed, for the autos turned
upside down, collided, skidded and ran head-on into each other. But
after each mishap the men seemed to get up, shake a little dust off
their clothes, wipe the dust from bleeding noses, and go right on with
the game.
He was wildly excited and was watching with straining eyes a brilliant
player when a heavy hand was laid on him and a gruff voice said: “Here
you, old fellow, come along with me! You have caused all the trouble
you are going to since your escape. And don’t you know it is almost
time for your race around this ring in the donkey and dog race?”
“Gee! He takes me for some goat that is down to run a race with some
donkeys and dogs, I take it. Well, I am game! I’ll go along and race to
suit him. And I bet on myself to win that race.”
Billy was right. That was just what the man wanted of him, and with
little preliminaries Billy was led to the starting place and hitched to
a little racing sulky that a little darkey boy was to drive. Near by he
saw two little donkeys, two big dogs and one goat hitched to sulkies
like the one to which he was being harnessed.
[Illustration]
He was led into the ring, the others were led up also and all of them
stood in line. Then a bell rang, and they were off. It had been a long
time since Billy had been in a race. Being out of practice running, he
was left behind at first as his legs felt stiff and he was a little
out of breath. But his pride got the better of his short breath and
stiffness when he saw they were all ahead of him. He could not stand it
to be beaten. He who had won every race he ever had been in. Oh, no! He
would show them he was not too old and stiff to beat them. This was to
be a three-lap race, which gave him encouragement.
“They can have their first lap; I’ll have my second wind and all my
stiffness will be gone on the second. Besides the ones who start off
the briskest often come in last.”
“Here, Billy, what is the matter with you? You must be sick to lag
so on this race. Get a move on you or your rival, the slate-colored
donkey, will beat you!” urged the boy that was driving him, never
doubting that our Billy was the goat he had always driven.
With a bound forward that nearly threw the boy off his seat, Billy
started on a mad run. Off he went, rounding corners and ever increasing
his speed until he had passed all but his rival, the slate-colored
donkey. When he came abreast of him, it was nip and tuck to the poles,
but Billy came in a neck ahead.
But what was the surprise of the boy, his keeper and all the racing
people to see another goat exactly like Billy standing in the gateway
to the racing ring!
“Well, I’ll be switched!” exclaimed the boy. “Where did that goat come
from that is so much like ours? We better nab him; he would make a
great mate for ours.” Then he attempted to take hold of the collar on
Billy’s neck, expecting to find the collar their goats always wore,
but there was none. His surprise was unlimited, and he called to a man
standing near their goat to feel for the collar and there it was.
“Well, I’ll be hanged! If I haven’t driven a strange goat and never
known it was not our own!”
Everyone thought it was the strangest thing they had ever heard of and
many followed the boy and Billy into the yard where he was unharnessed
and then led away and tied up with some other goats and sheep.
They had just left him alone when whom should Billy see but Stubby
sticking his head through a hole in the fence near him.
“Billy, I came to congratulate you on the race. I never saw a prettier
one, but my heart was in my mouth for awhile, you were so long getting
started. And now what are you going to do? Here you are tied up and it
is time we were going on or Nannie will be looking for us.”
“Why, I am going to start in a few minutes, just as soon as they give
me a drink and I eat a bite or two. I am rather tired and thirsty from
my race.”
“But you are tied and they won’t untie you for a while, I can tell you.”
“Oh, Stub, you make me tired at times! Especially when you think any
old rope will keep me from escaping. Here comes my drink of water.
Vamoose to the other side of the fence and as soon as I have eaten and
drunk my fill I will baa and then you crawl under the fence and come
and help me chew this rope in two.”
“All right, I will,” barked Stubby.
After twenty minutes Stubby, who was about to fall asleep, heard Billy
baa and under the fence he went. Within a very short time they had
chewed in two the rope that held Billy and he had run to the fence
where he butted a couple of boards off to make a hole big enough for
him to crawl through. No one noticed his escape, for at that time of
the day that part of the grounds was almost deserted.
Billy and Stubby proceeded toward town and they decided to sleep
outside the village that night, and not go in until morning.