BILLY WHISKERS MAKES TROUBLE AT SCHOOL
The next morning Mr. Noland took Stubby away out into the country with
him in his auto, and Nellie carried Button over to her friend's to
show her the big, fine cat she had found out on the rocks.
Consequently Billy was left alone to amuse himself as best he could.
He wandered around for a while and at last went down to the lake and
took a swim, coming out as clean and white as a fresh bale of cotton.
Then not knowing what to do with himself, he decided to go up into the
town and see how it looked to him. Not being a very large town, he had
no difficulty in locating the main street and then the largest church,
the movie theater and the schoolhouse. As he walked down the street,
he stopped to help himself to a peach here and a plum there at the
different fruit stands, as well as to several bunches of asparagus and
a peck or two of green peas that he saw in baskets outside the grocery
stores.
When he reached the schoolhouse he found it was recess time and all
the children were out in the yard playing tag, leap frog,
crack-the-whip and such games as children always play at school. Billy
stood watching them for some time and as they seemed to be having such
great fun, he thought he would go in and join in a game of
pussy-wants-a-corner he saw four or five girls and boys playing. Much
to the surprise of this group, the first thing they knew a big, white
goat was running from tree to tree to get an empty corner just as they
were doing. At first they were so astonished that they stopped
playing, but soon they went on as Billy kept running from tree to
tree, frisking his little paint brush of a tail and kicking up his
legs with glee. You remember he had lost part of his tail in France in
the war where it was blown off by a bomb which had sent him flying up
in the air.
Presently all the children had stopped their games to watch Billy play
pussy-wants-a-corner. He was just beginning to grow tired of the sport
when the school bell pealed out that recess was over and all the
children ran to form in line to march back to their rooms. Each room
had a separate line of its own. When Billy saw this, he too went and
stood in line. As he knew nothing about the different rooms, he
selected a line in which stood a pretty little girl with yellow hair
hanging in long braids down her back. She was the last one in the
line, and being very busy talking to the little girl just in front of
her, she did not notice that any one was standing behind her.
[Illustration: Billy overtook her and gave her a gentle butt that
landed her in the middle of the bed.
(Page 47)]
"Her hair looks just like straw. It is just the color of it,"
thought Billy. "I wonder if it tastes like it too." And thereupon
he began to chew the end of one of her braids.
"Stop pulling my hair, Jimmy Jones!" she cried, without turning
around. Jimmy Jones and Tommy Green were in the habit of pulling her
hair or giving it a twitch whenever they passed her. So now she took
it for granted it was one of them when Billy pulled it while chewing
on it.
[Illustration]
"Didn't I tell you to stop pulling my hair? I'll tell teacher if you
don't stop this minute!"
Billy did try to stop, but somehow her hair got between his teeth and
he could not let go, much as he wished to do so. Of course the more he
tried the worse it pulled. She turned quickly to slap the tease who
was hurting her. But horror of horrors! She found herself face to face
with the big goat that had been playing with them in the yard. She
was terribly afraid of goats, and had stopped playing when Billy
entered the game and had sat down on the school steps to watch them,
so now she screamed as if she was being killed. This brought a teacher
and some of the big boys to the rescue. By this time Billy was really
pulling very hard in his frantic efforts to get loose, but he was
unconscious that he was doing so. The little girl stood facing him,
which wound her braid around her head and made it pull more than ever.
Then too if she had only stood still, but she kept jumping up and down
and calling out, "Take the nasty old goat away!"
When the teacher arrived, she soon saw what the trouble was and with
the help of some boys she quickly removed the strand of hair from
Billy's teeth, which released the little girl, who fell half fainting
and crying in the teacher's arms.
On being freed, Billy trotted out of the schoolyard mumbling to
himself that he would never try to eat hair again, even if it did look
like straw. He was just about to run out of the school yard when he
saw a boy enter eating a big red apple, with another still larger and
more luscious looking in his hand.
"My, but those apples look good! I must have one, no matter what
happens," thought Billy.
On seeing Billy coming toward him, the boy ran for dear life, trying
to make the school door before Billy could overtake him. He did, but
that was all. Billy had gotten a good whiff of the apples, and that
settled it. He _would_ have one of those apples, even if he had to
chase the boy all over the school. He was hoping the boy would be so
afraid of him that he would throw one of the apples at him. But no
such good luck. Up the stairs ran the boy, trying to reach the room
before Billy could catch him. Close on his heels came Billy. The boy
dodged into his room and tried to shut the door but Billy was too
close on his heels. So he ran around to the far side of the room,
thinking surely the goat would not follow him there. But on came Billy
more determined than ever to have one of those apples. Round the room
they chased each other, with all the scholars standing up in their
seats screaming and laughing and hugely enjoying the chase. By this
time the boy was so afraid that his hair was standing straight up on
end, and he was crying lustily. Had he known it was the apples that
the goat wanted, he would gladly have given up both. He thought, of
course, it was himself Billy wanted to butt. Now the extra large apple
had been for his beloved teacher, and the second time around the room
as the boy reached the platform where she stood, he made a dive for
her and threw his arms around her waist, calling to her to save him,
save him!
[Illustration]
The teacher picked up a bottle of ink, the only thing on the table she
could see to throw at Billy. It hit him on one horn and broke, and the
ink began to run down into his eyes. This made Billy angry, so instead
of chasing the boy, he decided to go for the teacher, butt her, grab
the coveted apple from the boy and make his escape. Up on the platform
he leaped, upsetting chairs as he went and overturning the table
behind which the teacher and the boy had taken refuge. Billy shook the
ink out of his eyes, leaped over the table and chairs, grabbed the
apple out of the boy's hand, brushed against the teacher so hard that
he knocked her over, stepped on her and then left the room.
On the way he ran into the principal of the school who had heard all
the commotion and was coming to see what was causing it. Billy, never
slackening his speed, ran straight into him, and landed the principal
on his back, and as his head touched the floor his wig fell off. This
mortified him so he let Billy go, and thought no more about him. All
his effort was to get his wig on straight before any of the young lady
teachers should see him. For he was very vain and he did not wish any
of them to know he wore a wig. But alas! The more he tried to
straighten it, the more it persisted in turning inside out and back
end foremost. And there he sat with his bald head shining like a
billiard ball when a sweet voice said, "I hope you are not hurt, Mr.
Wheeler!" and looking up he saw standing before him the prettiest
teacher in the whole school, the one above all others he would not
have had see him in such a predicament for a whole year's salary.
"Oh, no, not at all, thank you!" he replied, as his nervous fingers
tried to adjust his wig. He jumped to his feet and walked off as
quickly as he could, trusting his wig was on straight. But when he
reached his office and looked in the mirror, he found it was on hind
side before, and the part at the back of his head when it should have
been on top. From that day the boys nicknamed him Baldpate, though
they took very good care that he never heard them call him that.
As for Billy, he found his delicious looking apple had a false heart
and was worm eaten, so he had had all his trouble for nothing and
gotten a nasty spot of black ink on his snow-white whiskers and hair.
"I guess I'll go back to Mr. Noland's and see if Stubby and Button
have returned," he thought, and as he rounded the corner of the street
on which Mr. Noland's house stood, he saw the auto turn in the other
end of the very short block. Stubby jumped out and when he saw Billy
he ran joyously to meet him, barking as he came, "Oh, Billy, you
should have been with us! I never had more fun in my life. But what
has happened to you? I bet you have been in mischief somewhere.
"Come down by the lake while I try to wash this ink off, and I will
tell you what I have been up to while you were away, and you may tell
me what has happened to you."
So the two of them trotted off toward the lake to recount their
adventures. And as you are interested in the doings of Billy, Stubby
and Button, perhaps you might like me to relate to you in another
chapter what happened to each of them.