CHAPTER II
BILLY WHISKERS, STUBBY AND BUTTON VISIT THE COUNTY FAIR
JUST as Billy, Stubby and Button were about to continue down the railroad track, Billy chanced to glance to the east and there he saw a cluster of long buildings that looked like barns and great open grandstands roofed over like baseball and football grounds and all enclosed with a high board fence. But what attracted him most was the number of flags, banners and pennants he saw waving from hundreds of flag-poles.
“Gee, fellows! That looks interesting to me, for those flags tell me there must be a County Fair going on over there, as this is the time of year they always have a big Fair. And I can well remember the one I went to when I was quite young. I never had such an enjoyable, exciting time in my life. What say you that we postpone going into the town and go over to the Fair instead?”
“Fine, just fine! I would like it above everything, for I haven’t been to one for years. I, like you, remember the time I was there, only I was such a little puppy that I was under everybody’s feet and was nearly run over several times, until at last my little master took me up in his arms and carried me. But I have always thought I should like to go back and see what it was like when I was old enough to take care of myself.”
“As for me,” replied Button, “I am ready for anything, just so I get something to eat pretty soon, for I am as hungry as a hedgehog.”
“That settles it!” said Billy. “And I can promise you the best things to eat and plenty of them. The country women bring all their good things to the Fair to contest for prizes, from the best roast chickens, cured hams all roasted and garnished with cloves stuck in them to make them tasty, to pickles and jellies of all sorts. As for pies, they would just melt in your mouth. But I forget you don’t care for jelly and spices. Very well then, there is a dairy exhibit where you can bathe in cream, there is so much of it.”
“Come along, come along! The very sound of cream makes my mouth water.”
The Chums soon arrived at the fairgrounds and it being so early, the only ones going in were the owners of exhibits and the men to feed and water the live stock, chickens, geese and ducks that were on exhibition. They watched their chance and slipped in when no one was looking, Billy walking in under a load of hay while Button rode in on a pole sticking out from the hay load and Stubby trotted in fearlessly as if he belonged to a man driving a wagon full of milk cans.
BILLY AND NANNIE WERE ON EITHER SIDE OF THE BULL,
STICKING THEIR LONG HORNS INTO HIM.
Once in, they hid under the seats of the grandstand until they laid their plans—what they would do, where they would go and where they would meet.
“There is no use of our trying to keep together,” said Billy, “for if we do we will be stoned and clubbed and have no fun, so I say we separate and each amuse himself in the way he likes best, but that we all meet the other side of the town where we are to join Nannie.”
“The plan suits me to a tee,” said Button.
“And me too,” said Stubby.
“I think the first thing I will do will be to look up that dairy you were speaking of,” said Button.
“As for me,” replied Stubby, “I shall smell out those roast chickens and ducks. Where do you plan to go first?”
“I was just thinking I would go over to the fat stock show and while I looked around for old friends I would incidentally eat up some of the corn and oats that had been given to them. There is sure to be plenty left as their owners will be stuffing them to keep them fat.”
“Gee! Look at the crowd pouring in. And it is so early. We better get started before the crowd is so great we can’t get near anything. Au revoir, fellows, until we meet again! And be sure you turn up at the trysting-place!” And with a whirl of his tail Billy was off, running under the seats toward the fat stock exhibit.
Button followed him for a way, then he spied the dairy building to his left and made a bee line for it. When he reached the door, he found two dairy maids standing in the open door talking, and they were so excited over what they were saying that he sneaked in right beside them and was lapping the cream first from one pan and then from another. All of a sudden one of them turned round and seeing Button, she gave such an outlandish scream that it startled him and he fell headlong into the pan. In a minute he came out dripping, cream streaming into his eyes so he could not see. In his endeavor to get away, he fell into another as there were several pans cooling in a vat of ice-water. One of the maids grabbed up a broom and came for him. He jumped straight toward her and as she dodged him she slipped and fell into the vat of cold, cold water, upsetting every pan in the vat. Button landed on the floor and the jar shook the thick cream from his eyes so he could see. And you just better believe it did not take him long to escape. He had his fill of cream for once.
On his way to the fat cattle, Billy chanced to pass a pastry show and the delicious odor of hot molasses cakes floated to his nostrils through the open door.
“Oh my! Don’t those cookies smell good? I shall just have to have some for I haven’t had any old-fashioned molasses cookies for ages and I adore them. I also smell pumpkin pie which I like just as well. Guess I’ll just tarry here a while and eat some. Think they would taste better than corn or oats at this particular time. How I wish Nannie was not so timid! Then she would be here so she could get some, for I know she adores molasses cookies. If that big fat cook doesn’t stop standing in that doorway wasting his time, I shall have to butt him out while I go in and eat what I want. There, he is moving, and I smell something burning. Serves him right when he neglects them and wastes his master’s time and money standing at the door instead of attending to business. But ‘It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good’ for now he will be so busy looking after his things that he won’t see me helping myself.”
When Billy arrived at the front door, the cook was disappearing out the back door with the pan of burned cookies, mumbling to himself:
“Gott in Himmel! See what happens to me when I just step to the door for one breath of air! My Gott! My Gott! Mr. Swabenbach will kill me for wasting his butter und eggs und sugar und flour.”
“Yes, and he will feel like beating you to a jelly when he sees what has happened to his pies, for I have already tasted four different kinds,” thought Stubby.
Just then the cook returned, still muttering to himself. But when he saw Billy up on a table eating a pie and several others ruined by being trampled upon he nearly fell backward in alarm. Then with a roar like a bull he started for Billy, throwing his empty cookie pan at him. He threw it so hard that when it hit Billy’s sharp horns, they made two holes in it and it stuck to Billy’s head and slipped half over one eye. Billy immediately jumped to the floor, hitting the pan a bang on the side of the table and completely covering one eye. This made Billy angry and when he saw the cook approaching him with a long-handled soup boiler in his hand, Billy turned and, running between the short fat legs of the cook, he upset him, sending hot soup all over him, for it turned upside down on his head and spilled carrots, turnips and potatoes all over him. Billy ran out the back door and jumped a fence which brought him into a chicken yard. As he went over, the cookie pan on his head hit the fence in just such a way that it knocked it off his horns, much to Billy’s delight.
His arrival in the chicken yard caused a fresh commotion as it surprised the fowls so they flew in all directions and set up a loud cackling which brought the owner to see what was the matter. When he spied Billy he thought one of the prize goats had escaped from the cattle show, so hurried over there to tell them their goat was in his chicken yard. A man with a rope came back with him to capture Billy, never even stopping to see whether or not one of their goats had disappeared.
But when they returned not a goat was to be seen or a chicken either, for that matter, as the chickens had coaxed Billy to butt down the fence so they could escape and he had done so. And the minute it was down, the chickens in the yard flew and ran through the opening out into the fairgrounds and made for the outside fence.
Billy hurried away from this scene of mishaps and as he was now nearly to the fat stock pavilion, he decided to follow the crowd a way and see where all the people were going. He soon discovered that they were on their way to the race track to see a game of auto polo.
“Gee, I bet that will be exciting! As I never saw one, I think I will stop and watch it for awhile.”
Around the field, in and out, went the small polo autos after the ball. It was the most exciting thing he had ever watched and he wondered how in the world the players were not all killed, for the autos turned upside down, collided, skidded and ran head-on into each other. But after each mishap the men seemed to get up, shake a little dust off their clothes, wipe the dust from bleeding noses, and go right on with the game.
He was wildly excited and was watching with straining eyes a brilliant player when a heavy hand was laid on him and a gruff voice said: “Here you, old fellow, come along with me! You have caused all the trouble you are going to since your escape. And don’t you know it is almost time for your race around this ring in the donkey and dog race?”
“Gee! He takes me for some goat that is down to run a race with some donkeys and dogs, I take it. Well, I am game! I’ll go along and race to suit him. And I bet on myself to win that race.”
Billy was right. That was just what the man wanted of him, and with little preliminaries Billy was led to the starting place and hitched to a little racing sulky that a little darkey boy was to drive. Near by he saw two little donkeys, two big dogs and one goat hitched to sulkies like the one to which he was being harnessed.
He was led into the ring, the others were led up also and all of them stood in line. Then a bell rang, and they were off. It had been a long time since Billy had been in a race. Being out of practice running, he was left behind at first as his legs felt stiff and he was a little out of breath. But his pride got the better of his short breath and stiffness when he saw they were all ahead of him. He could not stand it to be beaten. He who had won every race he ever had been in. Oh, no! He would show them he was not too old and stiff to beat them. This was to be a three-lap race, which gave him encouragement.
“They can have their first lap; I’ll have my second wind and all my stiffness will be gone on the second. Besides the ones who start off the briskest often come in last.”
“Here, Billy, what is the matter with you? You must be sick to lag so on this race. Get a move on you or your rival, the slate-colored donkey, will beat you!” urged the boy that was driving him, never doubting that our Billy was the goat he had always driven.
With a bound forward that nearly threw the boy off his seat, Billy started on a mad run. Off he went, rounding corners and ever increasing his speed until he had passed all but his rival, the slate-colored donkey. When he came abreast of him, it was nip and tuck to the poles, but Billy came in a neck ahead.
But what was the surprise of the boy, his keeper and all the racing people to see another goat exactly like Billy standing in the gateway to the racing ring!
“Well, I’ll be switched!” exclaimed the boy. “Where did that goat come from that is so much like ours? We better nab him; he would make a great mate for ours.” Then he attempted to take hold of the collar on Billy’s neck, expecting to find the collar their goats always wore, but there was none. His surprise was unlimited, and he called to a man standing near their goat to feel for the collar and there it was.
“Well, I’ll be hanged! If I haven’t driven a strange goat and never known it was not our own!”
Everyone thought it was the strangest thing they had ever heard of and many followed the boy and Billy into the yard where he was unharnessed and then led away and tied up with some other goats and sheep.
They had just left him alone when whom should Billy see but Stubby sticking his head through a hole in the fence near him.
“Billy, I came to congratulate you on the race. I never saw a prettier one, but my heart was in my mouth for awhile, you were so long getting started. And now what are you going to do? Here you are tied up and it is time we were going on or Nannie will be looking for us.”
“Why, I am going to start in a few minutes, just as soon as they give me a drink and I eat a bite or two. I am rather tired and thirsty from my race.”
“But you are tied and they won’t untie you for a while, I can tell you.”
“Oh, Stub, you make me tired at times! Especially when you think any old rope will keep me from escaping. Here comes my drink of water. Vamoose to the other side of the fence and as soon as I have eaten and drunk my fill I will baa and then you crawl under the fence and come and help me chew this rope in two.”
“All right, I will,” barked Stubby.
After twenty minutes Stubby, who was about to fall asleep, heard Billy baa and under the fence he went. Within a very short time they had chewed in two the rope that held Billy and he had run to the fence where he butted a couple of boards off to make a hole big enough for him to crawl through. No one noticed his escape, for at that time of the day that part of the grounds was almost deserted.
Billy and Stubby proceeded toward town and they decided to sleep outside the village that night, and not go in until morning.