CHAPTER XII
THE TWINS ARE STOLEN
IN the forenoon of the next day Billy, Nannie, Daisy and Billy Junior were under the big elm tree in the barnyard listening to Billy describe all that had happened to him the day before while he was in town, when Stubby came running down the lane. On reaching them he panted out this message:
“Do you know where the Twins are while you are all chatting here?”
“I thought they were down by the stream playing”, answered Daisy, their mother.
“No, they are being carried off to Milwaukee in a butcher’s wagon!” announced Stubby.
“You don’t mean it!” exclaimed Billy.
“How do you know?” asked Billy Junior, their father.
“Just saw them! I was running along the road, coming home from visiting the dogs over on the Samuelson farm when I heard the most pitiful crying as a wagon passed me. Stopping to listen, I recognized Judy’s voice saying, ‘I want to go home to my mama! You’re a naughty man to carry us off! If you don’t let us out of this wagon, my grandpa will butt you when he catches you!’
“‘Yes, he will!’ cried Punch. ‘And my papa will help my grandpa butt and hook you! Stop and let us jump out!’
“It was while they were crying the wagon passed me, and I barked, ‘Stop crying, Punch and Judy! I will bring your grandfather!’
“‘Oh, Uncle Stubby, do get us away from this naughty man! He is a butcher and we are afraid he will kill us. Oh, oh, oh! Do hurry and get us out of here before he makes us up into chops!’
“I trotted along behind the wagon and talked to them, telling them to cease crying or they would make themselves sick, and that I would go along with them and see what I could do.
“When we were passing the mill, who should come out but Button. He followed too, and I explained the situation to him and told him to stay with the Twins and find out where the butcher took them; that as soon as he knew this, he was to hurry back here and tell you; that if someone did not go along with them and tell us where they had been taken, we never could find them in a big city like Milwaukee. While he was doing that, I would return to the farm for you and then we would all go and rescue the Twins from the butcher. Picking them up on the road the way he did was nothing less than stealing.”
“Come, let’s not stop to talk another minute,” said the Twins’ father, as he kissed his wife good-by and told her not to cry, assuring he would bring their darlings back with him when he came.
“I know, Billy Junior, but it is a butcher who has them, and he will probably try to kill them to-night so that in case anyone searches for them it will be impossible to find them, while if they were alive it would be comparatively easy to locate them.”
“Oh, mother, isn’t it awful to think of those darling babies being butchered? And they are all alone! I shall go crazy if they are not brought back,” wailed Daisy to Nannie after Stubby, Billy and Billy Junior had departed.
“I know, my dear, just how you feel,” answered Nannie, “but let us trust in God and wait. I feel sure Billy and their father will reach the Twins in time to rescue them. Probably while the butcher is eating his supper they will butt down the stable door and save them. Let us hope so, at any rate.”
While Daisy and Nannie were trying to cheer one another, the two goats and Stubby were running like mad down the road towards Milwaukee. The sun was setting when they saw a big cloud of dust in the distance, and at last who should they discover to be making it but Button! He had followed the butcher home and as soon as he had seen the Twins taken from the wagon and put in an open pen in the stable yard, he started back to tell the others where the Twins were. Button reported all this the moment they met on the road and he turned to hasten back to Milwaukee with them. When they arrived at the butcher’s home, they were glad to see that his house was on the outskirts of the city and quite detached from those of his neighbors. It was now dark, but through the lighted window they could see the butcher eating his supper.
“Now is our time,” said Billy. “I’ll just butt down a rail in this fence and make a place large enough for us to crawl through. Then I will do the same thing with the pen where the Twins are imprisoned. We will have them out of here and on the way home in a jiffy. Billy Junior, you stand at the foot of the kitchen steps and if the butcher starts to come outdoors, butt him hard enough to make him senseless so as to give us ample time to get away.”
Just then a dog came bounding out of the barn, but he soon wished he had stayed where he was for in a moment Stubby and Button both were on him. His howl brought the butcher to the kitchen door. Seeing two dogs (he supposed Button was a dog) he grabbed a mop that stood beside the door and ran to the dog’s rescue—but what was that which first struck him in the middle of the back and then chased him into the barn, where he received a butt that sent him up into the haymow?
The moment Billy Junior saw the butcher land in the hay, he gave the dog Stubby and Button were fighting a butt that sent him sky high, landing him on the roof of an outshed where he stood for a while too dazed to know what happened to him. Then Billy Junior hurried to help his father, but Billy Whiskers and the Twins had disappeared, so he knew they were already on the road toward home. Maybe you think those kids did not run fast when once they found themselves free!
As for the man who had stolen them, he was so bruised, he never even looked in the direction of the pen where he had put the kids. All he thought of was to get some liniment for his back. His poor dog stayed on the roof of the shed all night, much too frightened to attempt to get down.
When the Whiskers family was all together once again, Judy said, “And what do you think, mama, the old naughty butcher said as he leaned over the pen and looked at us before he went in for his supper? ‘You are two pretty fine looking kids, and if I was not so tired and it was not so dark, I would butcher you to-night and sell your nice fat tender little chops in the morning. But I guess I will wait until it is light to-morrow and then kill you before anyone comes around looking for you. So ta-ta until then, my tender young kids!’”
“Yes,” said Punch. “That is just what he said. He had the meanest face you ever saw. When I grow up I am going to go to Milwaukee and look for him, and butt him until he cries for mercy, so I am!”
“I wish you children to promise me now that you will never go out in the road alone again. Some member of your family must always be with you, for you see now how easily you can be kidnaped. If Uncle Stubby had not just happened to be on the road, you would never have been rescued,” said their mother.
“We promise! We promise! And cross our hearts we never will go in the road alone!”