Billy Whiskers' Travels Read online

  *CHAPTER II*

  *HE LOSES HIS MOTHER*

  It was a mountain lynx that had sprung upon Billy from the rocks above.This lynx often came down to the highest of the goat farms, and had manytimes annoyed fat Hans Zug and Farmer Klausen by stealing nice, fatyoung kids for his supper. This time, however, he had met his match,for Billy's mother no sooner saw the animal light upon her offspringthan she scrambled to her feet, and, with a short, quick jump, plungedher sharp horns into his side. The lynx screamed, and loosing his gripon Billy, turned to fight with the mother goat. The moment his weightwas lifted, Billy, quick as a flash, ripped at the underside of thebeast with his sharp horns. That made the animal snarl and loosen hishold upon Billy's mother, and between them they soon, in this way, gavethe lynx more than he had bargained for, so that presently he fledhowling up the steep rocks with the two goats chasing him as far as theythought it safe. Then they came back to their grassy spot, and bathedtheir hurt places in the cool, running water.

  "Now, Billy, you see what the world is like," said his mother. "Don'tyou wish that we were safely back in Farmer Klausen's pasture?"

  Billy dipped his scratched hind leg in the water and held it there whilehe shook his head.

  "No," he said, "this is better. Only I'm glad that I didn't get achance to run away until I was so big and strong."

  His mother sighed, but looked at him proudly.

  "You are a brave young goat," she said, "and it would be a shame to keepyou shut up in a pen."

  In the morning they were a little stiff from their hurts, but Billy wasstill eager to travel and see the world, so they went on into themountains. About noon they followed a little ravine down to a plateauwhere there was a whole herd of chamois. These graceful animals areabout the size of a goat, but they are not so heavily built and are muchswifter. At first the chamois did not want to let the goats join them,but old Fleetfoot, the leader of the herd, said that they might stay ifthey were not quarrelsome, but that they would have to look out forthemselves if hunters came that way.

  This little plateau was a beautiful place, all carpeted with grass andbacked up by towering rocks. At one end was a cliff looking out over avalley, at the further end of which was a little village. Billy, in hiseagerness to see the world, ran at once to the edge of the cliff.

  "You reckless Billy!" cried his mother, running after him. "Don't go soclose to that cliff or you will surely fall over and break your neck!"

  "I'm not afraid," boasted Billy, and actually stood on his hind legs atthe very edge.

  Stood on his hind legs at the very edge.]

  Just then a few loose stones came rolling down the ravine, and like aflash the entire herd of chamois were gone, leaping across a broad chasmto a little ledge upon the other side, where there was a second paththat led among the rocks.

  "Oh, what shall we do?" cried Billy's mother. "Here come two hunterswith guns, and we can't jump where they did. Why, it's twelve feetacross there!" She was frightened half to death but not for herself,for she threw herself squarely between Billy and the hunters.

  The hunters were ignorant fellows, and as soon as they caught sight ofthe two goats they thought that these also were chamois, and one ofthem, lifting his gun, shot at them, grazing the head of the mothergoat. She toppled over against Billy, and that knocked him over thecliff. If it had not been for a small tree which grew out of the cliffabout half way down, Billy would have been dashed to death, but the treebroke his fall and so he only lay in the valley stunned, while thehunters picked up his mother and in great glee carried her away,thinking they had shot a chamois.

  When they got back to their guide he told them their mistake, and saw,too, that the goat was only stunned; so they gave it to him and he soldit next day to a man who was buying some extra goats for Hans Zug, tostock a goat farm in America.

  In the meantime poor Billy lay almost dead at the base of the cliff,where a man found him about an hour later.

  "You poor goat!" said the man, looking up at the cliff. "Did you falldown from that dizzy height?" and he put his hand on Billy's sleek coat."At least you are not dead," he went on, feeling Billy's heart beat."I'll get you some water."

  He took off his little round hat and ran back to where a tiny waterfallcame splashing and tumbling down the cliff, and, filling his hat full ofwater, brought it and emptied it on the goat's head. The cool showerrevived Billy so that he raised his head a little, and by the time theman got back with the second hatful of water he was able to drink alittle. This revived him still more, and presently he scrambled weaklyto his feet. He stumbled and swayed and nearly fell down, but byspreading his feet out he managed to stand up, and by-and-by he took afew tottering steps. With each step he grew stronger, and after anothergood drink he was able to follow this kind man across the valley to thelittle village.

  Billy was glad enough to lie down and take a nap as soon as he got tothe man's house, and he did not wake up until late at night. After hisgood sleep he felt as strong as ever and thought he would get somethingto eat, then see if he could not find his mother. He found that he wastied to a fence not far from a little whitewashed building, under whichran a stream of water, but it did not take long for him to jerk himselfloose. Going toward the little white building, he smelled somethingthat reminded him of milk. He tried to get in at the door. It wasfastened with a wooden button but Billy did not care for that. He wentback a little piece to get a run, and bumped head first into the door,which flew open at once.

  "Milk!" said Billy, sniffing around in delight. "Nice sweet milk! I'msure that kind man would want me to have some."

  There was a little board walk down the center of this spring-house, andon each side of this were a number of crocks setting in the water, eachone of them covered with a plate and containing milk. A stone was laidon top of each plate to weight the crock down in the water, and intrying to nose off one of these plates Billy reached over too far andfell. He landed right among the crocks, which, of course, bumped intoeach other, breaking and overturning and spilling the milk, and making agreat clatter. At the noise, two dogs came running down and dashed intothe spring-house, where, seeing something floundering around in thewater, they promptly dived in after it and Billy found himself verybusy. The noise the dogs made aroused the man and his wife, and they,too, came down; the noise they made aroused the neighbors on both sides,who came running over to see what was the matter; a young man, who wascoming home late from calling on a girl, passed by that way and saw thepeople from both sides running to this house and thought there must be afire, so he ran to the town hall, where the rope of the fire bell hungoutside, and began ringing it as loud as he could, which arousedeverybody in the village. Hearing the commotion many got out of bed andcame out on the streets to learn where the fire was.

  All this time Billy, the cause of the hubbub, was battling with the dogsamong the milk crocks in the spring-house, and using his horns right andleft as hard as he could, until finally he was able to jump out betweenthem and on to the board walk. Out of the door he dashed, upsetting theman and his wife, butting into the neighbors and, all dripping withwhite milk, ran like the ghost of a goat through the village street,making women and girls scream, scattering people right and left andbeing chased by yelping dogs and halloing men and boys.

  Billy easily outran his pursuers, but he never stopped until he was farout in the country, where he crept under a stone bridge to rest from hislong run. As soon as he had got his breath, he broke into a near-byfield and made a splendid supper from some nice young lettuce heads,then he trotted contentedly back under his bridge and went to sleep. Inthe morning, bright and early, he went back into the market garden andmade a fine breakfast from beet and carrot tops, all sparkling with cooldew. He enjoyed this garden very much and would like to have stayedthere until all the nice vegetables were eaten up, but he remembered howMr. Klausen had whipped him for breaking into his turnip patch one time,and mad
e up his mind that it would not be safe to linger in this part ofthe country much longer, so he jumped the fence and started again on histravels.

  A little dog was trotting down the road, and as soon as he saw Billy hebegan to bark. To ordinary persons the barking would have soundedmerely like a lot of bow-wows, but in the animal language it said:

  "Where did _you_ come from, you big white tramp? You go right on awayfrom here or I'll call the police."

  Billy wasn't going to take that sort of talk from any dog, big orlittle, so he gave one "baah!" lowered his head, and started for thatdog. The dog suddenly found out that he had very important businessback home, and he started up the road as hard as he could go, with Billyclose after him. There never was a dog that ran so hard and soearnestly as that one, and all the breath that he could spare fromrunning he used in howling, to let the folks at home know that he wascoming. All at once he was very anxious indeed to get home in time forbreakfast, and Billy was just as anxious to toss him over a fence beforehe got there. Up one hill and down another went the two, lickaty-split,first a little white streak bent low in the dust, and then a biggerwhite streak coming along close behind in a whirling cloud. Pretty soonthey came in sight of a big square farmhouse with a wide-spreading roof,and then the little dog, his tongue hanging away out, gave an extra wildhowl and ran faster than ever. When they got to the house the dogturned in at the open gate with Billy right at his heels. He tore upthe path and around to the kitchen door, up the steps and into thekitchen, pell-mell, where he dived under the table at which the Oberbippfamily was having breakfast.

  Billy did not know where he was going and did not very much care. Allhe knew was that he was chasing that dog and meant to catch him, sowithout looking, he followed, too, up the steps and under the table.Such shrieking and howling never was heard. Herr Oberbipp jumped up soquickly that he upset his chair, and in trying to catch the chair heupset himself, turning a back somersault on the floor and landing in atub of soapsuds in which the clothes were soaking to be washed. FrauOberbipp grabbed a loaf of bread in one hand and a sausage in the other,and never left off screaming until she was out of breath. GretaOberbipp sprang up on her chair and shook her skirts as hard as shecould, while she helped her mamma scream. Baby Oberbipp jumped up onthe table at first, but the snarls and howls and "baahs" from underneathexcited his curiosity so much that he soon jumped down to the floor andlooked under the table. Then he began to dance on one foot and yell.

  "Hang on, you Flohbeis!" he cried, for the dog, now full of couragebecause he was under his own table, had grabbed Billy by the nose.Shake his head as hard as he might, Billy could not loosen Flohbeis, orFleabite, as his name would be called in English, so he reared straightup, and the table began to dance across the room toward the father ofthe family, while Frau Oberbipp and Greta screamed louder than ever.Herr Oberbipp was just getting out of the tub when the table got over tohim, and he made a grab at it when Billy gave an extra strong jump. Thetable overturned, and all the breakfast things, with a mighty crash ofdishes, slid on Herr Oberbipp and knocked him back in the suds again.By this time Billy had unfastened the grip of Fleabite from his nose andhad butted that yelping dog into the bottom of the tall clock case; thenBilly started for the door, but Herr Oberbipp was already yelling toCaspar not to let him out.

  "Grab him, Caspar! Hold him!" yelled the man. "He is a nice younggoat. He spoils our breakfast and we make a dinner of him."

  When Billy heard that, he was more anxious than ever to get out, butCaspar had slammed the door shut, and Billy, seeing it closed, tried tobutt it down. The door was too strong and Billy grew desperate. Casparran after him and Billy suddenly turned, running under Caspar's legs andtoppling him over; then he made for the window, meaning to go throughit, sash and all. But Caspar had already jumped up, and, as the goatwent through a pane of glass, Caspar grabbed him by the hind legs andheld him, while Billy, fairly caught and pinched in between the windowbars, could only struggle with his fore feet.

  Herr Oberbipp in the meantime got himself out of the tub of water, tookthe butter out of his hair and the mush out of his shirt front,untangled himself from the table-cloth, wiped the coffee from his faceand ran outside, where he grabbed Billy by the horns and pulled him onthrough the window. Herr Oberbipp was a big, strong man, and, holdingBilly by the horns, he carried him at arm's length down to the barn,letting him kick and struggle all he wanted to, and there he tied thegoat in a stall with a good stout wire, after which he went back to thehouse and washed himself. Frau Oberbipp and Greta were still screaming.

  The glass had given Billy two or three little cuts, but they did notamount to much and he had already licked them clean when Caspar came outwith some water and a plate of cold potatoes which Billy was very gladto get. While the goat was eating, Caspar examined the cut places, and,running into the house, brought out something which he put on the cuts.It smarted at first, and Billy tried to butt Caspar for putting it on,but by-and-by he could feel that the smarts were being soothed and thatthe cuts were healing by reason of the stuff that the boy had put on, sohe began to see that Caspar was not such a bad sort after all. He hadsomething to worry about, however, when, after breakfast, the farmercame out and looked the goat over.

  "Roast kid is a very fine dish," said the farmer. "I don't know to whomthis goat belongs, but whosever it is he owes us a meal, so we're goingto roast him."