CHAPTER XIII
BILLY WHISKERS’ STORY
WHEN the animals were all quiet again, Billy said:
“Kind friends, I think I will tell you of an experience Nannie and I had when we were on a ranch out in New Mexico and I was leader of a large flock of sheep. You know that most flocks of sheep have several big goats to help guard the sheep against the attack of wolves.
“We had been doing this for a long time and had grown weary of the dangerous, monotonous life. We decided to run away, cross the mountain and make our way East. This ranch was directly at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and as this was a good time of the year to travel, there being plenty of grass and water, and little snow on top of the mountains, we determined to start immediately. We only waited for the herders to drive the sheep into the corral for the night and then we started.
“We had been out about ten days climbing straight up and up, higher and higher, and the nights were getting colder and colder, and the food scarcer and scarcer. We determined we must make a rush trip the next day and get over the top of the mountain or we would be snowbound and starve to death. That night we went to bed very early so as to be up at sunrise. As luck would have it, we had found a small cave hid away up the side of the mountain among the rocks which would protect us against the high winds, and we were congratulating ourselves on finding it for now we could have a good sleep undisturbed by wind or rain.
“We must have been asleep for three or four hours when Nannie awakened me by huddling up close and whispering in my ear: ‘Oh, Billy, I am so afraid! I thought I heard wolves howling in the valley!’
“As she finished speaking I heard them myself and from the howls I judged there must be six or eight. But as you know the howl of one wolf sounds like two or three, so I could not be sure. Of one thing I was sure and that was that they were on our track and coming fast, and two goats against six or eight wolves hadn’t much show. The only advantage we had was that we were in a cave and so protected on three sides. If we could hold the entrance and keep them out, we might be able to pick them off one by one.
“I had some hope of saving our lives this way but should they decide to attack in a bunch we could not hope to fight them off. Nannie would be practically no help unless she got over her fright to some extent, for now she was panic-stricken and could not think. And one wants his brain in good working order when fighting wolves.
“On, on came the cruel beasts, nearer and nearer, and Nannie shook so by this time she could not even stand up. I knew this would never do so I said: ‘Nannie, my dear, unless you stand up and fight, and fight as you never did before, we will be torn to pieces in less than ten minutes, for the wolves are almost here. I can’t fight them off alone, but with your assistance we may be able to save our lives.’
“Just then a big black wolf with mouth open and red tongue hanging out between sharp white teeth, appeared at the entrance of the cave. As if gloating over us, he raised his head and gave the pack cry for the others to come on; that he had found their prey.
“Now was my chance. While he had his head raised to give the cry, his eyes were turned upward and his chest expanded. So with a mighty spring forward I buried my sharp horns in his chest, piercing clear through to his heart. He dropped dead. I had just finished with him when two more came in sight.
“‘Come on, Nannie! You take the smaller one to the right and I will take the big one to the left. Be sure to spring upon them the minute they reach the spot in the path where that big stone is. It will take them so by surprise that it will give us the advantage, for they expect us to run away instead of fight.’
“And now that there was real danger at hand, Nannie bounded up as she always did and she and I sprang at the wolves at the same instant and knocked them over the steep cliff down into the canyon below. And we could hear them rolling with the stones they loosened, down, down, down into the rocky stream below.
“Now two more wolves came from one direction and three from another, and none of them knew what had happened to their comrades for the killings had taken place out of sight and in such quick time that none of the wolves had let out so much as a peep.
“‘Keep close to me, Nannie, so I can help you a little,’ I said.
“Just then the wolves spied us, and they all gave a howl of pleasure and quickened their pace. ‘Now is where we fight as we never did before, or die,’ I thought.
“With mouth open and tail swinging high in air, the foremost and largest one of the five jumped straight for me. He was so much larger than I that for a second he bore me to the ground with his teeth in my neck, but as luck would have it the collar I always wore kept the wolf from closing his mouth so his sharp teeth only grazed my skin instead of sinking into my throat as the wolf intended they should.
“Nannie, on seeing me down and the wolf on top of me with blood flowing from my wounds, thought of course I was killed. And forgetting herself, she charged on the wolf, and while he was preparing for another bite at my neck, something ran in his side and he knew no more. Nannie’s sharp horns had pierced his heart. She had just time to pull her horns out of his side when the other wolves were upon her.
“Seeing them coming, I squirmed from under the heavy dead wolf that was pinning me down and was on my feet beside Nannie before the wolves reached her. But what was our surprise to see the wolves stop short when within six feet of us, lift their noses in the air, sniff and start past us on a gallop. The wolves had smelled the blood of the first wolf that had been killed and Nannie and I had no charms for them compared to fresh blood, even though it was the blood of one of their own pack. They fell upon the wolves Nannie and I had killed and fought and tore at the carcasses until not a shred of meat was left on any of the bones.
“‘Now is our time to escape, Nannie, while the wolves are gorging themselves with fresh meat,’ I said, and so we started up the side of the mountain in double quick time. By morning we had reached the summit and crossed over and were down the other side beyond the snow line before we stopped traveling. But we had to halt and get our breath and rest very often as one has to in high altitudes.
“Needless to say, we reached the valley in safety or we would not be here now. I thank you for your kind attention.”
At the close of Billy’s story he stepped into the center of the ring and announced that he had been loose all day and allowed to roam at will, and while hanging around the kitchen tent, he had heard the night watchman, cooks and other caretakers of the circus talking about a big ball that was to be given in the skating rink in town that evening for the circus people. They had all declared their intentions of going, for they were quite sure everything would be all right at the circus for the two or three hours they would be away, and the owner of the circus would be none the wiser.
“The cooks are to make cakes and ice-cream, broil and glaze ham and other meats for them to have when they come back from the ball. And it is all to be set on the table before they go, so all they will have to do when they return will be to make hot coffee and then sit down and eat. Now I propose we go over and eat up that supper while they are away. They will think some hoodlums from the town came out and did it. It will be great fun and give you animals a chance for once in your lives to taste the food humans eat. You may not like it; still you may as I have yet to meet the animal that does not like sugar or salt,” said Billy.
“Your proposition sounds fine for a lark, but will you kindly tell us, Mr. Billy, how we are to get there when we are all tied and shut in a circus tent?”
“Easily enough! Half of you animals don’t know your own strength or power or you would not be here. Now listen to my plan. The elephant, camel and moose will have to pull with all their strength on their ropes until the pegs in the ground to which they are tied fly out. I know they will. You all just think you can not uproot them, so you never have tried. So much for what thought will do for an animal as well as for a person. What we truly think turns out to be true if we only think hard enough in the right way.”
“Those of you who are not noted for your strength but for your sharp teeth will gnaw your ropes in two, and when you are all free we will hie us to the banquet tent.”
“But how are we to get out of this circus tent?” asked the giraffe.
“The elephant will stick his sharp tusk through it and tear a hole in it large enough for you big animals to squeeze through.”
“It sounds very plausible but I don’t believe it can be done,” said the elephant.
“’Fraidy cat! ’Fraidy cat!” squeaked the parrot.
“Shut up, Polly! Someone might hear you and then you would spoil the whole party!”
“Come now, you animals with sharp teeth, begin to gnaw on your ropes!” called Billy.
The poor giraffe was in despair. So was the zebra, for they both had large but flat teeth and could not chew a rope in two in a month.
“Don’t worry, you two; I’ll fix it so you can get loose. I’ll chew your ropes for you,” offered Stubby, “and I’ll get Button to help me.”
And then for many minutes all you could hear in the circus tent was a sound like thousands of rats gnawing. Their jaws were getting pretty tired from this unusual work when Billy thought of an excellent plan to lighten the task. He ran out of the tent and over to where the grain for the horses was kept. And here he found over a hundred rats eating the grain that had been spilled when the horses had been fed.
He ran in their midst and said: “Stop eating a minute and listen to me, good friends! You can eat this stuff every day for it is always here, but I have a plan whereby you can get dainties to eat that you love with no fear of poison or of being caught. But before I tell you where you can get it, you must do me a favor. It is an easy one that will take but ten minutes. Then you will be free until morning to eat the dainties I have told you of if you so wish. Will you do it or not?”
The spokesman rat asked: “Where are these dainties you speak of to be had?”
“I cannot tell you until you have done what I ask you to do. Should I tell you first, you might give me the laugh by running off and eating them up before you did the favor I am asking.”
“Well, what is the favor?” asked another old rat.
“It is to gnaw a few ropes in two. Come, hurry and decide for time flies, which makes the time all the shorter for your feast. Think of it, cakes, pies, pudding, meats, cheese of many kinds, all for the eating, and no danger! Will you or will you not come?”
“Yes, we will come. Now lead the way to where the ropes are you want chewed.”
And I know even the men and the girl in the moon would have laughed had they chanced to look down and had seen a big white goat leading an army of rats into a circus tent.
When the animals saw Billy coming with the rats they were too astonished to speak, and before they had time to ask any questions the rats were gnawing the ropes like mad.
“Billy, for plans and strategy you certainly take the cake!” said the elephant. “You should have been human. With your brain you would have made a wonderful major general for some army.”
In a jiffy the ropes fell apart and then the rats attacked the hole the elephant had made in the tent and helped him to tear it. When the hole was big enough for them to squeeze through, Billy said:
“Now follow me, rats and animals, and I will lead you to the festive board where all the goodies are spread out for you to feast on them.”
Once inside the tent every animal and rat tasted the things that looked most tempting to him. The leaf eaters ate the salad; the meat eaters, the ham and cold tongue; the rats ate the different cheeses and cakes; but the giraffe, being thirsty, was looking for a drink of water when he spied the ice-cream freezer. While nosing around he accidentally knocked the lid off, so he stuck his tongue in to taste it. Being hot and thirsty, it tasted good and felt cool to his throat. He was thus amusing himself when Billy found him. He would lick up a mouthful and then stretch his neck up as high as it would go and shut his eyes to enjoy the cool, sweet stream running down his long neck. He called to the elephant to come and try it, which he did but the elephant did not like it. He much preferred the salted nuts and went from place to place eating the nuts in the individual dishes.
The camel liked the sweet cakes and so it was that on that long table set for a hundred fifty persons, each animal found something to his taste. And those greedy animals and rats did not leave until there was not a morsel of food left and the plates were licked as clean as if they had been washed.
On going to the flap of the tent to look out to see about what time it was, Billy spied a long, straggling line of people coming down the street straight for the tent. He recognized them as the circus people coming home from the ball.
“FOLLOW ME, NANNIE!” CALLED BILLY AND
RAN UNDER THE HOOK-AND-LADDER AUTO.
It took but a minute for him to notify his friends and in less time than it takes to tell it, every animal and rat was out of the tent and hurrying as fast as fast could be to get back to their places in the tent before the night watchman got there or any of the returning crowd saw them. After they had seen that all the animals were back in their places standing beside their gnawed ropes, Billy and Stubby and Button ran back to the dining tent and secreted themselves so they could hear what the circus people said when they entered their tent and found the food all eaten.
The first to come was the head chef and one of the bareback lady riders. On throwing back the flap of the tent to show the lady what mountains of goodies he had prepared for the feast, the chef was struck dumb by the sight of the empty table. At first he thought there must be some practical joke about it and that someone had hidden the food and put down empty plates. So he rushed in and looked under the table to see if they had hidden the food there. But no! Then to the kitchen to look in the oven and cupboards for food, but no food appeared. He was wringing his hands and pulling his hair when the rest of the crowd arrived wanting to know what kind of a practical joke he called it to have no food and only an empty table to show an impatient crowd when they arrived from the ball hungry as wolves. Cries were heard of “Throw him in the river! Throw him in the river!”
“No! No! Stop that howling! Can’t you see the poor man is beside himself at the loss of the supper? Don’t you see he has played no joke on you, but someone else has played a joke on him?” said the lady with him. “But I am with you to find out who did play this mean trick.
“Anyway, we can have some ice-cream, for I see the ice-cream freezer at the end of yonder table. Each get your saucer and spoon and I will serve you.”
But alas! when she got there she found the top of the can on the floor and the ice-cream all gone.
“Who has done this? Who has done this?” they all asked one another but no one knew or could even guess. And they have not found out to this day and that was over a year ago.
The next day the circus was to be divided, half going to Duluth and half to Bismarck. All the animals were in a flutter to know how the division was to be made and who was going with whom.