AND now we will go back and see what the Chums did while the family was at the church.
After they had watched the bridal party out of sight, they jumped through the cellar window and running up the cellar stairs, they found to their joy that in the hurry the family had forgotten to shut the cellar door. So all they had to do was to walk into the kitchen. As they did so, the delicious odor of roast chicken, spiced ham, salads, jellies and untold goodies reached their nostrils. And there in the oven, all ready to be served, were the chicken and mounds of mashed potatoes whipped until they looked like heaps of snow they were so feathery and white, while beside them were dishes of candied sweet potatoes and pans of peas, turnips, and beets. On another table were extra wedding cakes, some covered with chocolate icing and others with white icing with English walnuts sprinkled on top, and piles of nut cakes and little spice cakes. On another were salads, jellies, salted nuts, sweet pickles, sour pickles and red preserves, while between these dishes were plates heaped high with all kinds of sandwiches so daintily made that they would melt in one’s mouth.
“My! Oh, my! Did you ever see so many good things all at one time in your life?” said Stubby. “They have enough to feed a regiment. We could all eat our fill and then they would have plenty left, but I think it would be a mean thing to do, especially after all the trouble the bride has gone through to-day. It would nearly kill her to come home and find all her wedding supper messed up. Besides, we shall find plenty of scraps to more than fill us up when they are through eating. And we can get them without any trouble whatever for they will set pails full of the scraps outside the door for Spot and the Saint Bernard puppy.”
“I think you are right, Stubby,” said Button and all the others agreed it would be a shame to touch the things.
“Yes, I know,” replied the puppy, “but I am so dreadfully hungry and these things smell so good, I wish I could bite just one chicken wing.”
“Oh, no! Then they would know that someone had been here.”
“Look! See what I have found!” meowed Spot.
They all looked and over in one corner of the kitchen under the table was a big pail heaped full of scraps and good things to eat.
“Come here!” meowed Spot. “We can eat all this for this is the pail that holds the scraps they feed to the pigs.”
In a jiffy they were all eating from the pail, each picking out the morsel they liked best. They ate and ate until the pail was empty, and they even ate up the scraps that fell on the floor.
“It is too bad Billy can’t have some of this good stuff,” said Stubby. “I think I will go after him and bring him back so he can get some before the family returns.”
With Stubby to think a thing was to do it, so he ran down the cellar stairs, jumped out the window and ran to the field where he had seen Billy and Nannie chasing the bull. After sniffing round a bit, he picked up the scent of Billy and away he went across the field down into the ravine where they had disappeared from sight when the wedding party was watching them. At the foot of the hill the bull had run into a little stream and Billy had followed him. Consequently Stubby lost the scent, but he soon found it by running downstream until he saw where the limbs of some low hanging bushes had been broken off and there were some cattle tracks in the soft mud. Climbing out here, he took up the scent again and was running rapidly up a hill when he heard Billy baa: “Where are you going in such a hurry, Stub?” and looking up he saw Billy standing on a ledge of rock high above him.
“Where is your bull?” Stubby asked.
“Oh, he is worn out and lying down a little way from here.”
“Well, leave him and come with me back to the farmhouse where you can get a splendid supper of chicken, potatoes, jelly and vegetables of all kinds.”
“Thank you very much, Stubby, for thinking of me, but you forget that I prefer uncooked food and vegetables, grass and grain to meat and potatoes.”
“You are right, I surely did forget. I was enjoying them so, all I thought was that I wished you could have some too.”
“Stub, you are the most generous dog I ever knew—you are always thinking of your friends. I know if a friend were cold or in trouble that you would give away your skin and your head also, if they were not fastened to you. But I will come back with you anyway, and watch the return of the bride.”
When they reached the farmhouse they heard the puppy barking to them to come where they were. But though he barked and barked, they could not see him. It sounded as if his bark came from the roof of the carriage house. Presently, however, Billy spied him standing in an open door of the second story of the carriage house. They hurried along until they stood under the door, then they called up to him to tell them how to get up where he was.
“Go around to the back and you will see a big hole under the house. Crawl in that and you will see another hole in the floor that comes out at the foot of a pair of stairs that leads to where we are.”
They hurried along but when they got there Billy was too big. He could not crawl through the hole though they dug it deeper. And even if they had succeeded in making it larger, the one in the floor could not be made big enough for him to get his horns through.
“Never mind, Stubby; you go up to them. I’ll find some good place to hide,” which he did. He saw one of the low loads of hay and he and Nannie jumped up on it and lay down on one of the soft quilts. Both were soon fast asleep for they were tired from chasing the bull.
How long they slept they did not know, but they were awakened by laughing, chattering voices beside the hay load and one girl was coaxing another to climb up the ladder first onto the load.
“So they are coming up here, are they? Well, we will just duck our heads under this quilt and if they see our fur they will think it a white fur rug.”
That is just what they did think. But it proved disastrous to Billy and Nannie, for a big fat girl weighing nearly two hundred pounds dropped down on them, half on Billy and half on Nannie, and nearly broke their backs. Billy let out a groan and raised his head. When he did that, it frightened her so that in rolling off him she rolled clear off the load and came down kerplunk on the opposite side of the wagon. At this moment another girl appeared at the top of the ladder, but on seeing the goats she screamed and fell over backwards, carrying the ladder with her.
All this commotion brought their beaux to the scene and when they saw two billy goats standing on the hay load, they all laughed and made fun of the girls for being so afraid. One of the men jumped up on the load to drive them off, but he made the mistake of taking a club with him. Had he let them alone the goats would have jumped off the wagon and not hurt anyone. But the young fellow wanted to show off before the girls, so he hit Billy a crack with the club and the next thing he knew he was flying through the air over the girls’ heads and when he came down he landed in the pig pen, astride a big fat pig. He was not hurt in the least, only surprised, but his pride had had a bad fall and the girls all laughed at him, making it ten times worse.
Billy and Nannie now jumped off the wagon and, kicking up their heels, they ran under the wagons and around the autos that were standing in the yard so fast that none of the men could catch them, and soon they disappeared behind the barn. From there they hid between three or four strawstacks where they could easily dodge anyone that should follow them. But no one did. Now the wedding guests had started to go home, it took but a little while to clear the barnyard of all the wagons, buggies and automobiles crowded in there.
Soon everything was as still as if there had been no wedding or any other excitement. When it was nearly dark, the cats and dogs came out of the carriage house loft and found Billy and Nannie behind the strawstacks where they all spent the night. Early the next morning before anyone was astir in the farmhouse, our Chums bade the spotted cat and Saint Bernard puppy good-by and continued their pleasure journey.
“Here we have been away from home over a week and we have fooled along so that we are not more than one hundred miles from home yet.”
“But what is the use of hurrying?” asked Button. “We are only out for pleasure.”
“You are right, Button. And what do you two say to our not going to California as we have been there two or three times before, but to going directly west from here, visiting South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Oregon? We would probably see a good deal of ranch life and some magnificent mountain scenery as soon as we get beyond the desert and treeless plains of Dakota and part of Wyoming. It will be a much harder trip, but who cares? We are used to hardships since the Great War.”
“We are with you!” barked Stubby and meowed Button.
“Billy,” spoke up Stubby, “I believe we would have a much pleasanter time if we followed some main railroad track. If we go straight in a northwesterly direction from here we will strike the Northern Pacific Railroad at St. Paul and by following that it will take us just where we want to go on the Pacific Coast. What is more, by simply going a little out of our way we can visit the Yellowstone Park, one of America’s largest and most interesting natural parks. There tame bear, deer, buffalo and other wild animals rove about free, protected from the hunter by game laws. And what is more, we can see the wonderful hot geyser springs that throw sprays of boiling water up into the air from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy feet high, for four-minute periods every sixty-five to seventy minutes. So regularly does one of these springs throw up this spray that it has been named Old Faithful. Then there are many other wonderful springs, falls and rivers to see there besides the native forest of huge trees two or three hundred years old.”
“That all sounds good to me, Stubby,” said Billy. “What say you, Nannie? For it will be something entirely new that none of us has ever seen before.”
Nannie being in favor of the plan, they traveled steadily this way with few adventures or mishaps until they reached St. Paul. Here they prepared to stop to rest and have several good meals of meat before starting off on their long journey across the treeless plains where there would be nothing but prairie dogs, sand birds’ eggs, and such things for Stubby and Button to eat and sagebrush and long, coarse grass for Billy and Nannie. As for water to drink, they did not know where in the world they would get it, as there is only one river of importance in North Dakota, the Missouri, and few streams in the country they would be passing through. But for all that, they were going to try it.
They were all resting in a quiet back yard they had found, Button asleep on the top of a shed and Billy and Nannie on the ground beneath him, when a big gray cat stuck its head through the gate that led into the alley. When he saw Billy, Nannie and Stubby asleep, he crept cautiously up to them and stood watching them as they slept. After he had scrutinized them all he wished to, he meowed two or three times in a low voice which did not awaken Billy, Nannie or Stubby, but did Button. He stood up and meowed back to the cat which surprised it so it was about to run away, for it had not seen Button.
“Don’t hurry away!” said Button. “Did you wish to speak to the goats or dog?”
“Yes, if this one goat is the celebrated Billy Whiskers that has traveled all over the world and been in the Big War in Europe. I have an invitation for him.”
“He is the one you are looking for then, for that goat is none other than the celebrated and world-renowned traveler, Billy Whiskers. And the dog beside him is the same dog that has traveled with him and been in all the wars with him. The other goat is Nannie, his wife.”
“You don’t mean to say that that little yellow dog is Stubby, Billy Whiskers’ lifelong friend and companion? If that is so, you must be Button, the celebrated big black cat that has also been his chum and traveling companion.”
“You are right. I am his friend and chum but I don’t claim to be very celebrated.”
“Well you are, and every dog, cat and goat in this city has heard of you three. And I hear you are now making a trip to the coast alone and on foot, and are going to brave the dangers of the desert and treeless plains. You little know what dangers you are facing. Many, many dogs and cats have tried but their bones now lie bleaching on the desert sands or they have come back more dead than alive. I beg of you not to attempt it on foot and without someone to look after you.”
“Oh, don’t fear for us! We are too experienced travelers to be afraid of deserts and treeless plains. But I thank you for your solicitude in our behalf.”
For quite a while Billy, Nannie and Stubby had been awake but had kept their eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. Now they opened them and spoke to the gray cat.
“My friend,” said Billy, “will you kindly tell us how you heard we were coming here?”
“Certainly I will tell you. When you were in Minneapolis some sparrows who had gone to roost in a cluster of lilac bushes in the park heard you talking to several dogs and cats who had gathered there to hear you tell of some of your adventures when in the Great War. And the sparrows were so interested that in the morning they told the pigeons living on the court house roof they must find you and hear you speak on the War.
“They flew in all directions but they could not find you until in the late afternoon they met a cat who had heard you talking the very evening before. She told the pigeon that you had all left Minneapolis for St. Paul early the next morning before the city was astir. And she added that you were traveling fast as you wished to get across the treeless plains and semi-deserts you would have to cross before reaching the Yellowstone Park, at which place you were going to stop before continuing your journey to the Pacific Coast. The cat added that she had told a carrier pigeon to take the news that you were coming to St. Paul and for them all to be on the lookout for Billy Whiskers, the world-renowned traveler, mascot and fighter, who was on his way there with his two equally well-known Chums, Stubby and Button.
“And so you see that is the way the news reached St. Paul. The sparrows told the pigeons, the pigeons told the cat, the cat told the carrier pigeon and the carrier pigeon told me, and both of us told every dog, cat, goat, donkey, horse and cow we met that you were coming and for them to speak to you if they chanced to see you and try to coax you to meet them in the park at twelve o’clock to-night and give them a reminiscence of your adventures and travels.”
“I am sure it is more than kind of you to take all that trouble and interest in me and under the circumstances I don’t see how I can refuse to give a short talk.”
“Thank you so much! Now I am going to ask another favor, and that is that your friends Stubby and Button will also give talks and relate some of their hairbreadth escapes when on their travels.”
“Thank you very kindly,” replied Button, “but I am no speaker and I refuse to take up the time that would shorten Billy’s talk.”
“Oh, no! You don’t get out so easily, Mr. Button,” spoke up Billy. “You have to talk as well as I do. And you too, Stubby, so you need not try to sneak out of that gate, for you also have to speak or I won’t.”
“That is it, Mr. Whiskers! Bring them up to the scratch so I can count on you three being in the middle of the park at twelve o’clock sharp to-night. I hope your wife also will honor us with her presence.”
“Yes, we will all be there unless we are locked up in the police station or some other bad luck befalls us.”
“Au revoir then until to-night,” and with a profusion of thanks and scraping and bowing, the gray cat backed out the alley gate and disappeared to spread the news of the coming lectures to be given by Billy, Stubby and Button.