THE CHUMS RUN AWAY
The next day when Billy, Stubby and Button were resting on the grass
on a side hill, Billy exclaimed in a petulant voice, "Say, fellows, I
am getting tired of this place and I feel that it is time we were
continuing our journey."
"I am exactly of that opinion," said Stubby.
"Anything you fellows plan is all right to me," said Button.
"Then it is agreed we move on," said Billy.
"The sooner the better for me," replied Button, "for I know I am in
for a siege this afternoon when Nellie comes from school. I heard her
ask Kittie to come over and bring Bella, and she said they would have
a tea party under the trees, and make the cats sit in high chairs at
the party, with bibs on their necks, and drink tea. 'Won't it be fun
to see them sit up and drink tea?' she said.
"Now I have attended all the tea parties I want to, so unless we move
on I shall have to find a place to hide all the afternoon."
"What do you say to starting this minute?" asked Billy.
"Say we do!" replied Stubby and Button as with one voice.
"In which direction shall we go?" asked Stubby.
"Toward the north, silly! Always toward the north, where home and
Nannie are!" replied Billy.
"But the lake is north of us here," objected Stubby.
"I know it is, but we will follow its shore until we come to the end
of it and then on north, or get a chance to cross the lake in a boat.
And who knows but what we may come to a railroad track to follow which
will be a short cut? Anyway, let's make for that high hill you see off
there to the north and perhaps when we reach the top of it we can see
a good road to follow."
"Well, here goes!" said Button, and he put his head down and started
on a fast run, Billy and Stubby close at his heels.
They followed the lake shore as far as they could as it was better
traveling there than in the high grass. They also kept as close to the
water's edge as they could and still dodge the waves. Frequently Billy
and Stubby were caught by a wave but they did not care as it only
cooled them off. But Button contented himself by running along the wet
sand out of reach of the waves.
They had gone about half a mile out of town and were still running
along the beach when they came to a sawmill where there were a lot of
men wading in the water up to their knees pushing the logs on to a
narrow endless moving incline that carried them up into the mill where
they would be sawed into lumber.
"Don't they look like big alligators being pushed up that plane to be
killed?" said Billy.
"They really do, but I never thought of that before," replied Stubby.
"They remind me more of cattle being driven into the slaughter pens at
the stockyards," said Button.
"There is something fascinating about watching those big logs being
carried silently up into the mill to be turned into shingles, flooring
and boards of various lengths to be made into furniture," remarked
Billy.
"There surely is. But we can't stand here all day or we won't get far
on our journey."
The three had just started on a run again when they heard a big voice
which they recognized as Mr. Noland's calling to them. He stood on a
tramway that ran from the mill to the boat landing.
"Here, you rascals, where are you going? And what are you doing so far
from home? You'll get lost one of these days if you don't stop
wandering around in a strange town the way you do. Here, come back, I
say! Don't you hear me calling you? I just bet this old mill makes
such a noise they don't hear me!" and he put his hands up to his mouth
and tried to make a megaphone out of them, but it was of no avail. The
Chums kept on at their rapid pace and turned neither to the right nor
to the left, pretending they did not hear him.
After they were out of sight and sound of the mill, they stopped to
rest and to get their breath for they had been running fast.
"I did not know Mr. Noland owned a mill, did you?" Billy asked.
"No. But he seems to own or at least have a hand in everything in that
town, I have observed," said Button.
"I really think they will be sorry when they find we don't come back,"
said Stubby. "One could never find nicer people to live with. But we
are too old travelers to settle down in any one place, no matter how
nice it is. The wanderlust has surely got us by the throat."
"Billy," said Button, "you should go on a lecture tour through the
U.S.A. and relate the different exciting experiences you have had in
the many different countries you have visited."
"How about you and Stubby doing the same thing? You have been with me
nearly everywhere I have been."
"I know, but you have so much more presence than we have and your
voice carries so much further when talking than ours do," said Stubby.
"Just for sport I am going to enumerate some of the things that you
could make into a dandy lecture," said Button. "You could begin with
your experiences in the circus when you were young and before you were
married. Then when you were hunting for the Kids the time they ran
away and were carried off to Constantinople and you thought them dead.
Next, some of the tales you told when you came home from Japan after
being in the war between the Japanese and the Russians, and afterward
how you found yourself down in Mexico. Next you could tell what you
and your friends did along with Billy Junior, and your grandchildren,
to say nothing of the scrapes you were in when you went on that
memorable vacation and left Nannie at home. After that you could make
a whole lecture on your hairbreadth escape in an aeroplane, what you
saw in town and in Panama, on the Mississippi, in the West, at the
World's Exposition in San Francisco, and last but not least in Europe
during our Great War. And then you might end with our escape from
France and the return to America. There would be a wonderful chance
for a series of lectures and I bet before the audience heard them all
their hair would be standing on end and they would be holding their
breath from excitement at your many narrow escapes from death."
"There, Billy," said Stubby, "your life work is laid out for you. You
travel and lecture while Button and I will be your press agents and go
ahead and find a place for you to lecture in all the big cities and
towns. If you did this, then Nannie could travel with you all the
time. And I know you would both like that. Then too you would not grow
so restless as it would keep you on the move all the time, for we
would plan it so that you would give only three lectures in any one
place and then go on to the next."
"The more I think of it, the more the idea appeals to me," said
Button.
"Why not make our journey north into that kind of a trip right now?"
said Stubby. "We could send word to Nannie to journey south to meet
us."
"It _does_ sound rather attractive," admitted Billy.
"Of course it does!" seconded Button. "And you owe it to the poor
untraveled animals to give out some of your experiences to them, to
enliven their humdrum lives and tell them about the outside world.
Just see what a lot of pleasure the Dog and Cat Club give those
stay-at-homes who have never been outside the suburbs of New York
City--and most of them have never ventured ten blocks from where they
were born."
"Hark!" exclaimed Billy. "I hear the most peculiar whistling, whizzing
sound. It sounds up in the clouds, but I can't see a thing."
"It must be an aeroplane then, but I can't see a thing in the sky,"
said Button, but as he spoke a huge dirigible balloon poked its nose
out of a cloud over their heads. It was so directly overhead that they
could see every part of it distinctly.
"Isn't it a whale of a balloon? I never saw as large a one even in
Europe," said Billy.
"Nor I either," said Stubby, full of wonder at its size.
"Look! It is slowly coming to earth. I believe they are going to land
over in that clover field," said Button.
[Illustration]
And sure enough they did. This great big dirigible, the first of its
size to cross the Atlantic Ocean, was landing right before their eyes.
"Let us run over and get as near it as we can," Billy said.
When the monster airship landed, the Chums were not fifty feet away,
and stood taking in everything as it slowly settled to earth.
[Illustration]
Presently little windows and doors were seen to open in its sides and
people came walking out. The Chums went nearer and found out by the
conversation they overheard that they were forced to land as something
was the matter with the machinery. The longer Billy looked, the more
he wanted to see what the dirigible was like on the inside, until at
last his curiosity got the better of him and he walked boldly up to
the balloon and poked his head in one of the doors and gazed in. Not
being driven away, or seeing any one, he stepped in and soon was
exploring the balloon from one end to the other, with both Stubby and
Button at his heels.
"Isn't it wonderful?" said Billy. "Just as cozy and nice as a ship
that sails the sea. Staterooms, lounge, dining saloon, kitchen and
storerooms galore! Let's hide and be carried off with her when she
starts. It is worth being delayed on our journey to have such an
experience."
"Indeed it is!" replied Button.
"Quick, get under that table! I hear some one coming," warned Stubby.
Billy dodged under the table in the dining saloon while Stubby hid
under a chair and Button ran up a curtain and settled himself on the
curtain pole near the ceiling. The person they had heard coming soon
passed through the room, and they came out of their hiding places and
continued their explorations.
Presently they found it difficult to stand on their feet, and looking
from a window they discovered they were slowly rising from the ground.
At the same time they found it was exceedingly hard to stand still and
keep their balance. Before it should grow any worse, they ran back and
hid where they had before, to await further developments.
"I hope if they find us they don't pitch us overboard when they get up
two or three thousand feet," said Stubby.