Billy Jr. Gets a Taste of the West.
JUST outside the car yard fence was a Chinese laundry, and ever since Billy’s car had been backed into the yard he had been watching the Chinamen at work at the open door. So now that he was loose he determined to get out of the yard and see what it was the Chinamen were sticking their cheeks out with and blowing on the clothes.
When he appeared at the door it startled one of the Chinamen so that he let all the water that was in his mouth and which he had intended to sprinkle the clothes with, fly in Billy’s face. Now Billy thought the Chinaman had spat in his face on purpose, and if there is one thing more than another that will make a goat fighting mad, it is to spit or even pretend to spit at him.
With a plunge forward he butted the Chinaman through a curtained partition that separated the front room from the back, knocking another Chinaman that was bending over a washtub into the tub headforemost and upsetting tub, Chinamen, and all. Then he quietly walked into the back yard where some nicely starched shirts were hanging out to dry. These he chewed until the two Chinamen tried to drive him out of the yard by turning the hose on him. They had only given him one squirt when he went for them and butted one into a limp heap in one corner of the room, while the other took to his heels down the street, as if the old man from the sulphur regions were after him.
On coming out of the laundry Billy Jr. heard Star whinnying for him in a distressed, excited voice, and he bleated back, “I am coming, Star. What’s the matter?”
Star answered back, “Hurry up or you will be left behind; they are going to switch our car on to the Santa Fe train.”
Billy knew he would not have time to go around the way he had come, so he crawled through a place in the fence where a couple of boards were off, and gained his car just as it began to back out of the yard.
“Well, old fellow, where have you been? You look all wet, and you have nearly given me nervous prostration by your absence. I have neighed and neighed for you until my throat is sore.”
“I never heard you,” said Billy Jr., “for I was inside the laundry seeing to a little washing,” and Billy Jr. commenced to laugh.
“What are you laughing at?” asked Star.
“At the funny frightened faces those pig-tailed Chinamen made at me when they saw me coming for them. I wonder if the Chinaman I frightened up the street has stopped running yet,” said Billy Jr.
“Tell me so I can laugh, too,” said Star, “for I know you have been in mischief.”
While Billy was telling of his adventure the train started on its way, westward ho.
The trip from Chicago to Kansas City was made without any excitement; and after they had left Kansas City behind and were well on their way across the state, Billy, who was looking out of his peephole, said:
“Well, I am glad I took your advice and did not try to walk or steal rides to the West. I would have been a tired, foot-sore goat by this time, if I had ever gotten as far as here, which I doubt. The map of the United States I chewed up never gave me any idea of the distance between the eastern states and the western. Look quickly, Star, at that woman with a baby in her arm, coming out of that hole in the ground. What on earth is she doing there? They don’t bury people alive out here, do they?”
Star laughed and said, “No, she lives there. That is what they call a ‘dugout,’ and lots of people in Kansas live in them.”
“Well, when I have to live in a hole in the ground I hope I shall turn into a groundhog and be done with it.”
“Mercy!” exclaimed Billy later, “isn’t it getting hot and oppressive in here!”
“Yes, and it bodes no good for us, for I am afraid it is the calm before the storm and that we are going to have a regular old-fashioned Kansas blizzard or cyclone. Do you see that black cloud rolling toward us from the northeast? Well, I think that is a Northeaster, as they call them, bringing a sand storm with it.”
“Ugh! how cold it has grown all of a sudden. I feel chilled to the bone, after that hot, stuffy air we have been having. And see how it is raining off there.”
“Off there now, but in less than a minute it will be here; only that is not rain but fine sand that will sting us like needles, blind us, choke us, and nearly suffocate us before it blows over as suddenly as it came. I know what they are like, for we passed through one on our way East.”
Before Star had stopped talking the first particles of sand were flying and had already shut one of Billy’s eyes and filled his mouth with grit.
“Oh, this is terrible! Why don’t some one come and shut our windows so the nasty sand can’t sift in? I would not live in Kansas if they gave me the whole state,” said Billy Jr., “if this is the kind of storms they have here.”
Two days later they found themselves in New Mexico in sight of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, and Star said that by three o’clock they would be at Las Vegas, where their journey was to end. “And I shan’t be sorry, for my legs ache from standing on them so many days without lying down.”
They were met at Las Vegas by Mr. Wilder, who had been very much worried about them since he heard of the wreck they had been in. But his fears were laid at rest when he saw them, for both had come through in fine shape and had stood the trip splendidly.
The next morning Billy was tied to a wagon filled with groceries and provisions for Mr. Wilder’s ranch, whither they were bound, while Star with his master on his back galloped ahead or followed behind as he saw fit. Once when Star was walking beside him Billy said:
“Star, do you know I feel lonesome for the first time in my life. When I look at those great solemn mountains, whose tops are always covered with snow, I feel about as big as a fly and as if they were trying to teach me a lesson in patience, and dear knows I need it badly enough. How do they make you feel when you look at them?”
“I love them,” said Star, “and the nearer I get to them and the more I look at them the nearer God seems to get. People think horses, dogs and other animals don’t know about God, but I guess we feel His presence more than they do sometimes, though we can’t talk about it.”
“How much further is it?” asked Billy Jr. “I hate walking behind a wagon, taking all the dust from the horses’ heels. And this dust seems to smart so when it gets in one’s eyes.”
“Yes, I know it does; that is because there is so much alkali in the ground about here. Don’t you remember my telling you about Dead Lake and the bones of animals you would see bleaching on its margin had you tried to walk across the desert? Well, this is not a desert, but we have to pass a small lake of alkali water, and, small as it is, you can see the bones of animals lying beside it. There is very little water out here, no large rivers, and only a few springs or little mountain streams.”
“Quick! look off there toward the foot-hills; do you see that grey dog running with a long loping trot?” continued Star.
“Yes, what of it?” said Billy Jr.
“Why, that is not a dog but a coyote or prairie wolf.”
“It is? I wish I had taken a better look at him,” answered Billy Jr.
Presently Star called out, “Cheer up, Billy. We are almost there, for I can see the smoke now rising from the ranchhouse in the distance.”