BILLY HAS AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE
The two Chums ran down the sidewalk until they saw the outskirts of the
town ahead of them and it being too early to meet Nannie, they decided
to separate at the next street and go into the business part of the
town and see what kind of a place it was.
“I see a good-looking yellow cat down the street I am going to talk
to,” said Button.
“Very well,” replied Billy. “If I don’t see you again, be sure and be
at the trysting-place by six o’clock this evening.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t made up my mind.”
And he never had a chance to make up his mind for at that moment a coat
was thrown over his head from behind and many hands grabbed him. Ropes
were slipped around his neck and legs and thus, half hobbled and half
pulled, he was dragged up a short pair of steps into a barber shop,
where amid much laughter which seemed to come from five or six throats,
he was lifted and pulled into a barber’s big chair. Here he was
securely held so he could not move a muscle and then the coat was taken
from off his head and he found himself sitting in a barber’s chair
before a glass with five big strong young boys around him laughing in
his face.
And the ringleader spoke up and said: “Now, Tony, get to work and fix
him up as I gave you directions!”
It seems these were college boys who were out for a lark and they were
looking for a white goat when they chanced to see Billy. What they were
up to was to catch a goat and shave him so his beard would be the same
shape as that worn by one of the professors at the college whom they
detested. He had a long face and pale blue eyes with the expression of
a girl, so they were sure they could fix Billy up and dress him in the
professor’s clothes so he would be taken for the professor himself in a
semi-darkened place.
They wished to play a joke on the Junior class. The class had been
up to some mischief and no one knew of it but these Seniors and they
decided to make the Juniors believe that the professor knew all about
it and was about to expel them. So they proposed to dress Billy up as
the professor and tie him in a chair at a desk in the recitation room,
and then tell the Juniors that the professor wished to see them there
at nine o’clock.
“All ready, Tony! First cut his beard into a long point, then trim his
hair on the side to look like side whiskers, and fix the hair on his
upper lip to look like a long mustache. Then dye them all black but
leave the rest of his face white. And oh yes, blacken his eyebrows and
lashes!”
“Heavens, what am I to do to get loose? Think what I will look like
with black beard, mustache, eyebrows and lashes. I really can’t stand
it to have them do it. I will be a sight all the rest of my life with a
face like that and a pure white back.”
[Illustration]
Poor Billy! He tried to open his mouth to baa, but it was tied shut.
He tried to move his head to look, but he was so securely tied he
could not even turn his head one inch. Then he tried to kick, but
his hind legs were tied together and his forelegs bound to the arms
of the chair. He was absolutely helpless! He closed his eyes and
wept for Billy was very proud of his size and good looks and to be a
laughing-stock to every person that laid eyes on him hereafter was too
much for his strong spirit to stand. So I know you won’t blame him if
he wept for once in his life. But he promised himself that when he did
get loose that he would spend the rest of his life getting even with
those five boys and the barber.
“Clip, clip, clip!” went the shears and at every clip the boys and
barber loudly howled with delight at the change it made in Billy.
“Now for the dye!” said the barber. “That will complete the likeness
and I know it is going to be perfect.”
Billy felt some cold stuff around his face and soon the barber took a
soft brush and put the cold liquid on his eyebrows and lashes.
“Oh, isn’t he a scream?” chuckled the boys.
“Come now, Mr. Goat, open your eyes and look at yourself in the mirror
before you,” said the barber as he finished his job.
But Billy would not open his eyes until the barber threatened to shave
the rest of the hair off his back unless he did open them. So he opened
them and looked. There gazing at him from the mirror was not Billy
Whiskers at all but a long-faced man with black whiskers, mustache and
eyebrows under which shone two blue eyes which grew larger and larger
as he stared at the face in the mirror. But where was he? For surely
that black-bearded person was not Billy Whiskers! No amount of dye
could change a goat to look so like a man. He was so taken by surprise
that he just sat and stared and stared at the reflection, while the
boys fell over one another in fits of laughter and clapped each other
on the back and howled with delight.
“Here, Tony, is five dollars for you for doing such a wonderful job.
Now where shall we hide him until it gets dark enough to lead him to
the college?”
“I’ll put him in my cellar until you come for him,” said Tony.
“That will be fine! Give him plenty to eat and drink, for we don’t want
to starve or hurt him in the least, and we will let him go the minute
the joke is played out. Good-by, Tony, good-by!” called the boys as
they filed out of the barber shop.
Tony shut the outside door and then cautiously untied Billy--all but
the rope around his neck. With this he led him to the cellar. Billy
could have butted him easily and made his escape, but he was too
disappointed to fight at that moment. Besides, he wished to go to some
cellar or dark place and hide until the dye wore off his beard and he
looked like himself again.
The barber led Billy to the cellar where he took the rope from his
neck and left him in a large room while he went to get him something
to eat and drink. When he came back he said: “Now, old fellow, you
better eat and drink what I have brought you and then take a rest for
if I am not mistaken you will have a wild night of it when once those
Junior college boys find out a goat has been palmed off on them as the
professor.” So saying, he walked out and shut the door.
For a few minutes Billy lay still. Then he decided he better eat and
drink if he was to be in trim to combat the boys. After he had eaten
all he cared to and had a drink of good cold water, he felt so much
better he said to himself: “I am a chump to give up like this! While
there is life there is hope. I’ll just look round this room and see if
I can’t find some window open or a rickety door I can butt down.”
He walked around and around the cellar but found the windows were too
high from the floor to jump through and the doors too heavy to butt
down. But as he inspected the door he saw that it had an old-fashioned
round knob for a handle.
“I have an idea,” he said to himself. “If I wiggle that knob, it may
turn the latch and I can open the door.” And in a second Billy had that
knob in his mouth and was twisting and twisting it in every direction
to try and make the latch slip back. It would go half way, then when he
could not turn his head any further, it would slip back. At last Billy
grew angry, he grabbed the knob between his teeth and gave it a quick
turn and lo and behold! the door flew open.
Well, it did not take Billy long to get out of that room and run down
a long, dark hall until he came to a pair of steps that led up, he did
not know where, but he expected into a hall that would eventually lead
to some outside door. Anyway, he took the chance and mounted them.
When he arrived at the top he heard someone coming and seeing a door
standing ajar, he quickly pushed it open and stepped inside.
[Illustration]
It was pitch dark in this room and the air felt damp and sultry. Billy
stood perfectly still until the sound of footsteps died away. By this
time his eyes had become accustomed to the darkness and he could
distinguish small, long narrow windows five or six feet from the floor.
“Funny place for windows! And a queer room, I must say, with this
heavy, damp air in it. It is so dark I’ll walk cautiously over to one
of those windows, stand on my hind feet and find what I can see through
them.”
Billy took two steps and found himself falling into inky blackness.
Then he went kersplash! into deep water. He had fallen into a swimming
tank. As this building was given over to Turkish bathrooms, barber
shops and so on, Billy had fallen into the swimming tank, that was
all. In a minute or two he realized where he was and he began swimming
around to find some place to get out of the water. At last at one end
he found a long board running down into the water to the floor of the
tank, put there for the little boys who went swimming to climb out.
So up this board he went. Then he walked around the platform that
surrounded the tank until he came to the door. Once there, he stood
still and listened to find if he could hear anyone coming, but all was
still. He poked his head out the door and feeling a draft, he stepped
out into the hall and ran along searching the cause of the draft, which
led him to an outside door as he had supposed it would. It opened into
a long back yard which ended on an alley. And just as he left the
building, he heard the voices of the five boys as they came in the
front door after him. He had made his escape none too soon. And as he
leaped the back yard fence into the alley, who should he nearly land on
but Stubby.
“Well, this is luck! But come on, Stub, don’t stop to ask any questions
now for there are five boys on my trail this minute!” With a whirl of
their tails, the two Chums disappeared down the alley.
When they stopped running, Billy said to Stubby: “Thank you for not
laughing at my appearance. You are a true friend, Stub.”
“But why should I laugh at your appearance? You look just the same to
me.”
“Look just the same? Come, Stub, that is going too far with friendship!
How can you say I look just the same with my beard and eyebrows dyed
black?”
“Beard and eyebrows dyed black! Are you crazy, Billy, or what is the
matter with you? Your beard is no blacker than it ever was. You must be
blind to think so.”
Billy now cast his eyes down at his long beard and, sure enough, it was
white as snow, just as it always had been.
“Could I have dreamed it all?” thought Billy. “No, for I am as wet as a
rat from my swim in the tank.” Then the thought came to him: “The water
must have washed off the dye. But who ever heard of dye coming off in
one washing of cold water?”
Billy never had, but what had been put on Billy was not a regular dye,
but only some coloring matter that actors and actresses use when they
wish to change from blond to brunette. It is a perfectly harmless
preparation and washes off easily.
When Billy realized he was looking his old self, he began to caper
around and baa with joy until Stubby thought he must have taken leave
of his senses. But when he stopped skipping around and told Stubby how
the barber had fixed him up, Stubby said he would have given up his
luncheon to have seen him, especially when Nannie and Button had their
first glimpse of him.