BILLY FINDS NANNIE IN BAD HANDS
But when they reached the trysting-place, there was no Nannie. After
waiting an hour, they decided something must have happened to her, as
it was long past the time she should have been there. So they put their
heads together and formed plans as to how to search for her.
Billy was to go to the right to a farmhouse whose chimneys he saw
sticking up above the treetops to the right of the road. Stubby was to
go round a big turn he saw to the left and Button was to stay there at
the trysting-place in case Nannie came while they were away.
“I feel quite sure someone has caught her and tied her up somewhere,”
said Billy.
“So do I,” replied Stubby. “But it won’t take us long to rescue her
when we once find her.”
In the wiggle of a lamb’s tail Billy disappeared from sight down a
ravine and Stubby under some bushes on the other side of the road. When
they had gone Button climbed up into a tree and fell asleep.
It seemed to him he had been napping but a short time when he heard
Billy and Nannie talking under the tree. Billy had gone straight to
the stable yard of the farmhouse whose chimneys he had seen above the
treetops and as he approached, he heard a goat moan as if in pain.
He stopped short to listen. Could that be Nannie’s voice? If so, and
someone was hurting her, it would not be well for them. Again the hurt
cry reached his ears. Yes, surely that was Nannie’s voice! He redoubled
his speed and arrived at the fence that enclosed the farmyard just as
three boys were trying to hitch Nannie to a little milk wagon that
had three cans of milk in it. When they buckled on the harness, they
buckled in a piece of her flesh, but what cared they? This hurt so it
made her moan. Then they struck her over the head for not standing
still, and dear knows what else they _would_ have done to her if Billy
had not jumped over the fence with one bound and come to her rescue.
One boy he butted into a watering trough and another over the garden
fence where he landed in an asparagus bed. The last boy he butted
straight through the open barn door, knocking over the hired man who
was coming out with a pail of milk in his hand, upsetting it and
spilling it all over the barn floor.
Then he turned to Nannie and said: “Now run for your life and jump the
fence. When the wagon hits the fence it will break the traces and you
will be free.”
[Illustration]
Being a good jumper, especially when frightened, Nannie did exactly as
Billy told her to do. And as the hired man and the boys were picking
themselves up, they heard a crash. Looking in the direction from which
the noise came, they saw Nannie and Billy jumping the four-rail fence
as a steeplechase horse takes a fence. The traces broke and the little
wagon, which had been pulled up on its hind wheels, toppled over and
spilled out all the milk cans and the milk, while Nannie and Billy
landed safely on the other side and ran for dear life to where Billy
had left Button. Every once in a while Nannie would give a frightened
look over her shoulder to see if the boys were following her, but she
need have had no fear for the boys were too bruised to chance another
butting.
The hired man was so angry that he called their bulldog and sent him
after the goats. Billy heard him coming and told Nannie to run to
Button and he would wait for the dog to overtake him, then he would
give him the surprise of his life. This dog was used to frightening
anything he ran after. Little did he know Billy or he would have
tucked his tail between his legs and turned and ran home. Billy stood
perfectly still and pretended he was eating grass. On came the dog,
yelping and barking as if he were going to eat Billy alive. And he was
a ferocious looking dog for he was a bulldog with undershot jaw. A few
feet from Billy was a deep pond with steep sides so Billy thought,
“I’ll just butt him into that pond and he will have a good time getting
out for the sides will give way and crumble in the minute he touches
them.”
“Bow-wow-wow!” barked the dog, showing his teeth as he jumped at Billy
from a high bunch of long grass. Pang! went something flying through
the air followed by a yowl of pain, and the dog landed in the middle of
the pond and went straight down to the bottom.
When the hired man, leaning on the fence to watch his dog chew up
Billy, saw this, he roared with rage, picked up a pitchfork which was
handy and started for Billy. But when he reached the pond he found he
had to give all his attention to his dog, else he would drown as the
bank crumbled and gave way, carrying him back into the water every time
he tried to climb out.
Billy ran on and soon the friends were all together for the man and
his dog did not follow them. The Chums started on down the road that
led away from the town and toward Chicago, for which place they were
bound. They traveled straight down this road until midnight. Then they
went into a woods beside the road to sleep and rest until morning, but
Nannie scarcely closed her eyes, for she had become so frightened she
could not sleep.
“My dear little wife,” said Billy, “don’t be afraid! I won’t allow
anything to hurt you. Come over here and sleep close to me so I can
protect you.”
So at last Nannie fell asleep, but it was almost worse than being awake
for she had terrible dreams of being chased by bulldogs that bit pieces
right out of her side as she tried to run away from them.
In the morning she felt as tired as if she had not slept at all, and
the long journey ahead of her made her feel ill at the very thoughts
of it, with its hardships and adventures. She thought of it all the
morning and at noon she said to Billy: “My dear, I hope you won’t be
disappointed, but I have made up my mind that it will be better for all
concerned if I return home and let you and Stubby and Button continue
your trip without me.”
“Why, Nannie! What do you mean? Are you going to desert us at the very
beginning of our journey?” asked Stubby.
“Yes, Stubby. I feel I am getting too old to enjoy leaving my peaceful,
quiet home, my children and grandchildren, to go roaming all over the
continent just for the excitement and adventure. It may be all right
for you unmarried ones, but for a grandmother, NO! I believe my place
is at home and I am going to start back to-night before we are so far
away I can’t find my way.”
All this time Billy had kept still and was watching Nannie to see how
much of this she meant, and he was surprised to find that every word of
it was in earnest. Then the thought flashed through his mind: “Perhaps
she is right. She always has been a home-loving body and very timid,
and I believe with her that this trip would be too much for her. I
will go back with her to within sight of the farm so I shall know she
reaches there safely. Then I shall come back and join Stubby and Button
and we can continue our journey.”
Nannie noticed Billy was very quiet and she was afraid to look at him
for fear he would be angry at her for backing out. So she felt greatly
relieved when she did look at him to find he was smiling at her and
nodding his head for her to go.
“You certainly are a darling, Billy, to let me have my own way in
everything, but you need not escort me back home. I can find the way,
and if I can’t, I can call on the crows and blackbirds to show me the
way.”
“No, my dear; I shall feel better if I see you home--at least the other
side of the village where the boy captured you. If we travel fast, I
can join Stubby and Button here by day after tomorrow. And what is two
days lost when one is not in a hurry and going away for a year?”
So they rested all that afternoon and just before dark Billy and Nannie
started back to the old farm. They traveled rapidly until they came to
a high hill that looked down on the old farm and the rolling country
around it with its placid lake and wooded slopes on one side and the
equally pretty country through which they had just passed on the other.
“Billy,” said Nannie, “you need not come any farther with me. I can go
on alone from here in perfect safety.”
“Oh, I might as well go all the way with you.”
“No, you need not, for it would only make you have to say good-by to
everybody again, a thing you hate to do.”
“Very well, if you say so and if you feel all right about my leaving
you here, I will. But I do _so_ wish you were going with us! Every
mile I have been traveling in bringing you back has made me feel more
lonesome as it will be many months and perhaps a year before I see you
again, and at our time of life we haven’t as many years to be together
as we once had, you must remember.”
“Oh, Billy, don’t talk that way or I shall turn right around and go
back with you no matter how afraid I am of the unknown dangers I will
have to pass through.”
“No, no, dear! I would not have you go for worlds, if you were going to
be afraid all the time. Now you start ahead and I will stand here and
watch you out of sight.”
“No, indeed, that is what _I_ am going to do. I am going to wait here
until you disappear over that farther hilltop.”
“Oh, very well, if you wish it.”
And with many, many rubbings of noses and sides in lieu of kisses, the
two old lovers parted. Billy ran as fast as he could down the hill and
Nannie strained her eyes to see him come out of the grove of trees at
the bottom and begin to climb the hill. She could easily locate him by
the white spot he made on the green landscape.
But what was the matter with her? Every time he disappeared her heart
fluttered so she felt she would suffocate and the tears sprang to her
eyes in such numbers that for a minute or two she could not see him
when he did emerge from the bushes and trees that had hid him. And all
too quickly he was approaching the top of that terrible hill where,
when he once stepped over the top, she would not see him for--what had
he said?--weeks, months and perhaps a year!
No, it must not, could not be! She knew it now by the flutter of her
heart that fear, children or grandchildren could not keep her from
following her own darling lover-husband. And with a long jump she was
down the side of the hill, baaing for Billy to wait for her.
Poor timid, loving Nannie! Her love had cast out fear as it always
does in life if we love enough. Nannie ran so fast that she did not
look where she was going and she had many falls and turned many
somersaults before she reached the top of the hill over which Billy
had disappeared. And when she at last stood on the brow of the hill
she expected to see him miles ahead of her. But what was her joy on
reaching the crest to see him quietly drinking out of a little stream
at the bottom.
“He has his back to me, so I will just creep up and surprise him,” she
said to herself with joy in her heart that she had found him so soon,
“and never, no, never will I leave him again of my own accord.”
After drinking all he cared to, Billy waded out into the middle of the
stream where the water was deep, to let it wash over his back to clean
his long hair. He was so busy with his bath that the first he knew of
her presence was when he saw a shadow in the water beside him.
Can you appreciate his surprise when he looked up and saw his little
Nannie whom he had thought so far away standing beside him?
“Why, Nannie, my darling, how you surprised me! When I saw your shadow
I thought you were some animal that had waded into the stream for a
drink. Whatever brought you back? Oh, I don’t care what it was, so you
are here, for I was so lonesome without you that I was about to turn
back and coax you to come with us or stay behind myself.”
“Were you really, Billy? How nice! Now I know you will feel all right
when I tell you I have decided to go with you and never be separated
from you again if I can help it.”
“Have you really decided to do that, Nannie, and not just come to tell
me something you forgot to say to me?”
“Indeed I never was more in earnest in my life! My fears are all gone,
or rather they are as nothing to the lonesomeness I felt when I saw
you going from me and I realized how long it might be before I saw you
again.”
[Illustration: HE SUCCEEDED IN LIFTING THE BRIDE INTO A CROTCH OF THE
TREE, BUT BEFORE HE COULD CLIMB UP THE BULL WAS UPON HIM. (PAGE 94)]
“Hurrah! Hurrah for you, you sweet little wife of mine!” and Billy
began to prance around in the water so he nearly drowned her.
“My, but this water feels good and cool to me after my long hot run to
catch up with you,” said Nannie.
“Won’t Stubby and Button be surprised when they see you come trotting
back with me?”
“Yes, and they will think I am the biggest goose that ever lived.”
“But a fine one at that, for both Stub and Button are very fond of you.”
After Billy and Nannie left them, Button said to Stubby: “Well, what
shall we do with ourselves while waiting for Billy’s return?”
“I don’t know,” said Stubby, “but when I went over to that big barn you
see the other side of the road, looking for Nannie, I met the cutest,
curliest Saint Bernard puppy you ever saw. I guess I will go back and
play with it awhile. And by the way, Button, I saw a spotted cat over
there too, so you better come along with me and probably we can manage
to pass away the time happily until Billy’s return and get a good
square meal or two besides.”
When they came within a short distance of the big barn they saw the
haymow door was open and on the ledge basking in the sun lay the
spotted cat Stubby had seen when he was there before. She seemed to be
eating something nice and juicy. “It must be a mouse,” thought Button.
When he got right under the door, he meowed: “Good-morning, Mrs. Spot!”
This so surprised the cat that she let fall from her mouth what she was
eating and it fell at Button’s feet and he discovered immediately that
it was the head of a squab.
“Excuse me,” meowed Button, “I did not mean to startle you. I thought
you had seen me coming. Wait a minute and I will bring up to you this
delicious morsel you have just dropped.”
Not to be outdone in politeness, the spotted cat meowed back:
“Oh, no! Don’t trouble yourself to bring it back. I have plenty more
and if you would care to have some and will come up here, I can give
you all you can eat.”
“I am sure that sounds most alluring. I’ll be right up if you will tell
me how to get there.”
“Wait a minute and I will come down and show you the way.” And before
Button expected her, the spotted cat crawled out of a hole from under
the barn. Just then the cat saw Stubby for the first time and not
knowing he was with Button, he spit and flew at him in a rage and would
have scratched his eyes out before Stubby could have defended himself
had not Button meowed:
“Don’t touch him. He is my friend and won’t hurt you. He only came over
to visit the little puppy while I talked to you.”
The spotted cat apologized most profusely and invited Stubby to join
them at their feast of squab up in the hayloft. But when Stubby tried
to squeeze through the hole under the barn he could not, so he was
forced to stay outside with thoughts of having a whole squab dropped
down to him from the loft.
“But how comes it that you have so many squabs to eat at one time?”
asked Button.
[Illustration]
“It happened in this way. As you know, there is going to be a wedding
here this afternoon and these squabs were raised to serve at the
wedding feast. But the boxes their nests were made in, up in the pigeon
loft just over our heads, broke loose and spilled out all the young
squabs and no one knows it but me and the mother pigeons. Haven’t you
observed how excited the old pigeons are and how they keep flying in
and out of the loft looking for their babies? My, but there will be
a terrible commotion at the house when they discover that the squabs
are gone. So come ahead and follow me. We must hurry and eat our fill
before the people at the house discover their loss.”