...the monkey was trying to pull him through the bars by his short horns.
Cautiously the little mischief crept up to where the big monkey was sitting with his back to them, tail swinging outside the cage. But the Twin pinched it harder than he meant to, and the next thing he knew his head was being banged against the bars of the cage and the monkey was trying to pull him through the bars by his short horns.
The only thing that really saved the Twin was that his horns were short and slippery and the monkey could not hold on to them. Seeing this, he let go to grab hold of the kid's ears, but he was not quick enough, for just as he let go one horn the kid gave a lurch and fell to the ground. It took but a second for him to regain his feet and baa for his brother. But what was his dismay to see his brother running down the path like mad, trying to shake off a tiny monkey that was sitting on his back!
While one Twin had been biting the big monkey's tail, the other had been watching a baby monkey squeeze itself between the bars of the cage and escape. But he never would have watched had he known what that little monkey intended doing when he got out. It was this: to get a ride on the kid's back, for it had no sooner slipped through the bars of the cage than it made a bound and landed on the kid's back. As its claws dug into his flesh, he kicked and butted to shake it off, but it only clung the tighter.
...his brother running down the path like mad, trying to shake off a tiny monkey that was sitting on his back!
"You'll stick to my back in spite of me, will you? Well, we'llsee!" and off the kid started for a duck pond near by. He was in the water and swimming for the opposite shore before the monkey realized what had happened. He could not jump off now as he did not know whether he could swim or not, this being the first time he had ever been near water. He did not know that all animals can swim by instinct.
He chattered and called in monkey language for the ducks and thegeese to save him, but they were much too busy saving themselves from this stranger in their pond to give him any help, and they flew squawking in all directions. At last after the kid had dived two or three times and the monkey had come up with his eyes and mouth full of water, he decided to jump onto the back of one of the geese or swans when he got near enough one. Just then a stately swan that had refused to be frightened or even disturbed by the entrance of the kid in his particular pond sailed majestically by with his head up, neck curved and wings slightly raised to show them off to the very best advantage.
"That is a good safe place for me," thought the little monkey. "I'll jump and sit on that swan's back between his wings. They will shelter me and keep me from falling off."
As the swan approached the kid, it hissed a warning for him to get out of the pond. His second hiss died in his throat with surprise when the monkey landed on his back. At first the swan was too much taken back to do anything but sail on by the kid, but when he had collected his senses, he tipped himself upside down with head and half his body under water, and remained in this position so long that the monkey fell off and had to swim for shore.
When he came out of the water, he happened to come out beside the kid, who stood shaking himself. He stopped in a hurry when he saw the half drowned little monkey coming out of the pond lookingmore like a drowned rat than a monkey. He did not wait to give himself another shake, but dove into the water and swam for the place where he had first entered the pond, and there he found his Twin awaiting him, laughing as if his sides would split.
...the monkey landed on his back.
"Come along! We must hurry away from here before we have hissing geese and quacking ducks bring the guards down on us. I smell sweet peas! Let's go eat some. I just love the blossoms—they are sweet as honey."
People driving along the parkway thought it strange that the Park commissioners would allow goats to run loose through the flower beds and pull the sweet peas off their trellises. Had they driven by a few minutes later they would have enjoyed the fun of seeing a big fat guard as broad as he was long, a long handled rake in his hand,trying to drive two innocent looking kids out of those very same flower beds.
People driving along the parkway thought it strange that the Park commissioners would allow goats to run loose through the flower beds and pull the sweet peas off their trellises.
They were too spry for him, however, and when he drove them out of one bed they simply ran into another and stood eating until he was again within striking distance of them. Then they would scamper away and begin on another bed. They did this until the man was so angry that his face was as red as a turkey cock's, while his breath came in gasps. At last he tripped over the hose and fell sprawling in a puddle of water. This, however, gave him an idea, and he determined to turn the water on the kids. Up he got and without looking to see if they were still there, he turned the hose where they had stood but a second before. But alas! the stream of water hit his best girl who was walking between two of the flower beds pushing a baby carriage. The kids were nowhere in sight!
"Oh, Rosy, Rosy, forgive me, forgive me! I thought you was a goat!"
"So I look like a goat, do I, you miserable old clumsy fellow, you! Take that—and that—and that!" as she struck him over the head with one of the baby pillows, and then began to cry. Blinded by her tears, she pushed the baby carriage right over the flower beds, heedless of where she was walking, sobbing, "He thought I was a goat! I don't look like a goat, I don't! Boo hoo hoo!"
By this time the gardener had collected his wits enough to go to her and explain. The last the kids saw of them as they bounded away, he had his arm around her and was loving her, much to the amusement of passersby.
"I smell something good," said one of the Twins.
"So do I! Let's go see what it is."
"It comes from over by that big red brick building."
They trotted over and found it came from a popcorn wagon.
"Yum, yum! It is popcorn with butter and salt on it!"
"Oh, I just love it, don't you?"
"Yes, but I like it best with chocolate on it. Wait until the man who owns the stand is not looking and then we will run up and grab a bag."
"I know a safer plan. Here come two little girls with bags in their hands. One has a bag with buttered corn in it and the other has one with chocolate poured over the corn. I saw the man fixing it for them. We will hide behind these bushes and when they areopposite us we will jump out, grab the bags and run. Which girl do you think has the buttered corn and which the chocolate?"
"The girl with the pink bow has the buttered corn, so you take her bag, while I go for the other one."
"Oh, oh! You horrid things! Where did you come from?" wailed one little girl when the kids jumped out of the shrubbery at her and grabbed her bag of chocolate popcorn.
The other little girl held onto her bag and began to run, holding it high above her head, but she squeezed the bag so tightly that it broke and the corn scattered on the ground. Then the kid quickly gathered up a great mouthful and ran off.
The little girl went wailing to a park policeman and told him her troubles and the kids saw him turn and run toward them. They raced off, chewing the paper bags as they ran, seeking a good place to hide, which they found in a thick clump of lilac bushes. After devouring the very last bit of paper that had either butter or chocolate sticking to it, they fell asleep. And here they were found by the night watchman who carried them off and shut them in a pen with some Angora goats from across the sea.
Billy Junior, Daisy and Nannie visited the cages of all the animals, and gave no more thought to the runaway Twins until hour after hour went by and the Twins did not come back. Neither had they seen them playing in the Park and Daisy began to grow nervous about them. At last she said to her husband,
"Billy, I can't stand this suspense any longer. I am beginning to fear that something has happened to the Twins. You know they might have wandered over to the lake and been drowned. You and Nannie may go on calling on the different animals, but I am going to hunt for the kids."
"You are quite right," said Nannie. "I have been uneasy about them for some time, but did not like to mention it for fear of alarming you. We will go with you and help hunt for them."
"Yes," agreed Billy Junior, "it is high time we were finding them. There is no knowing what they might do, they are so daring and mischievous. We'll outline a systematic plan for the hunt. Each one will go in a different direction and scour all the paths in thatsection of the Park, looking around every cage that we see. Then when the clock strikes twelve we will meet in front of the yard where the elephants are kept."
Billy Junior went to the south, Nannie to the east and Daisy to the north.
Every step Daisy took, she grew more worried, and when she passed a cage of ferocious tigers and panthers who she knew lived on kid meat, she shivered to think that perhaps they were licking their chops because they had just finished eating one of her darlings who in some way might have squeezed between the iron bars of their cage.
On, on she went, her knees knocking together from fear and fatigue, when she thought she heard their voices calling, "Mamma! Mamma!"
She hastened in the direction from which the sound came and there, sure enough, shut up in a yard with other goats she saw her two darling babies. There was no mistaking them as they were the handsomest kids you ever saw, one being white as snow like Daisy and the other black as night like its father, Billy Junior.
"Oh, my darlings, my darlings!" she called when she saw them, and both kids came running to the fence to be kissed on the ends of their saucy little noses which they stuck through the bars of the iron fence. "Where have you been and how does it come you are shut up here?"
"Oh, mamma, get us out for we are afraid of that big, horrid black goat over there with the great horns. He said if we did not stop calling for you, he would hook us over the moon with his big horn."
"Who said they would hook you?" asked Billy Junior, who had just come up to the fence with Nannie.
"That old fellow over there asleep by the house," said one Twin.
"I should like to see him try to do it. If he did, he would see himself flying over the moon," said Billy angrily.
While the goats had been talking to the kids, several men with rakes and pitchforks in their hands had come up behind them and formed in a semicircle. Hearing a crunching of the gravel on the walk behind him, Billy looked around and knew in a second that they were trapped. There was no use of trying to fight men armed with pitchforks, so when they began to drive them toward an open gate that led into the pen where the kids were, Daisy, Nannie and Billy Junior showed no fight, but went quietly as lambs. After the men had left, Billy Junior said,
"Well, this is a pretty how-de-do! Here we are locked up and father coming to see us after being away two years. Now we can't greet him except through the bars of a fence! It really is too bad. We should have had sense enough to leave the kids at home, knowing as we do how mischievous they are."
They were shut in this pen three days and were growing heartilysick of the monotony of walking around their small yard in the daytime and being shut in a stuffy little room at night with the other goats who paid little attention to them.
"If that fence were not so very high, I could jump it," said Billy Junior. "But should I try and fail, I might fall back on the long, sharp spikes and hang there."
"Or if only the bars were not so close together, we would starve ourselves and squeeze through," remarked Daisy.
"Or dig under," suggested Nannie, "if the bars did not go down into the ground so far."
"Oh my, oh my, oh me! Isn't this life awful, with nothing to do but wander around this old yard where the grass is all tramped down and burnt by the hot sun, with people walking by and looking at you all the time? Only an occasional kind-hearted person gives you a peanut or the core of an apple," grumbled Billy Junior.
"I wish your father were here," said Nannie. "When everything looked hopeless, he always found a way out."
"So do we wish he was here," chimed in Daisy and Billy Junior.
"Mercy sakes alive!" exclaimed Daisy the next moment. "See where those kids are! In the elephant yard!" and she jumped to her feet and ran to the fence which separated the yard where the goats were confined from that of the elephants. "How did you two getover there?" she asked severely. "Come straight out of that yard! The elephants may not like kids and kill you."
"You are perfectly correct, madame," said an elephant. "I dislike goats of all kinds, and so would you if in my place. Forced to live month in and month out next to a goat pen where the disagreeable odor all goats have is carried to my nostrils until I am sick from it and cannot eat is far from pleasant."
"Did I hear you say," said Billy Junior, stepping up beside his wife, "that you do not like the smell of goats?"
... he was so big and they so small that they simply ran between his legs ...
"That is exactly what Ididsay," replied the elephant. "And I will repeat it if you wish me to do so."
"Oh, don't take the trouble! Saying it once is enough. But allow me to inform you that the odor of a goat is as sweet to the nostrils as roses and lilies compared to the odorfrom an elephant. That resembles the smell from a garbage pile!"
Now Billy Junior had done it! The elephant became enraged and tried to break down the fence between them. When he found he could not do this, he trumpeted and pawed the earth, throwing great clods of dirt all over them.
"Come out of there! Come out of there!" called Daisy to the kids. "He will kill you!"
But the Twins could not get out as the elephant was between them and the hole through which they had crawled. Seeing them, he charged but he was so big and they so small that they simply ran between his legs when he tried to catch them up with his trunk.
Daisy, Nannie and Billy Junior all stood panic-stricken at the chances the kids took. First they would run under his body from side to side, then between his hind legs. Had he moved a foot, they would have been crushed between his great legs. There being two of them and both so small and frisky, they confused the beast so he did not think as quickly as usual. He had been out of the jungle for years where he had had to think fast, and now he found himself rusty and unable to cope with frisky little pests like these two kids.
"I'll fix them," he said to himself, and he walked over to where his tub of drinking water stood, and filled his trunk. Then he charged down on the Twins where they stood in one corner, waiting to seewhat he would do next. The little rascals were enjoying the rage of the elephant very much and were not afraid of him at all as they thought they could trust to their wits to save themselves.
The elephant walked up to within five feet of them. Then he stopped and squirted the water at them with such force that it knocked one of them over when it hit him broadside. The other kid it blinded so he could not see where to run. Then they heard a bellow of rage and pain. Shaking the water from their eyes, they saw a big white goat run under the elephant's stomach and scratch the skin with his short horns so badly that it made the monster cry out with pain and turn to see what had attacked him so suddenly. When he faced about whom should he see but old Billy Whiskers himself in front of him. At the same moment he felt a cat on his back and a dog snapping at his heels.
But what had changed the enraged elephant so quickly? For now he was as docile as a lamb, and the kids saw him go up to Billy and wind his trunk around Billy's beard and playfully pull it, at the same time saying,
"Billy Whiskers! My old friend Billy Whiskers of the circus! Where by all that is wonderful did you come from? I supposed you were dead long ago."
Elephants live to be over a hundred years old, but goats not so long, and as it had been many years since these two had traveled andperformed in the same circus, the elephant had taken it for granted that Billy was dead.
"Excuse me a minute until I throw out these smelly young kids. I can't stand their odor," said the elephant.
"If you don't mind, I will put them out myself, as I think I can do it more gently than you could, and I happen to have an interest in those particular kids as they are my well beloved grandchildren whom I have not seen for two years," replied Billy.
...the kids saw him go up to Billy and wind his trunk around Billy's beard and playfully pull it...
"Your grandchildren!" exclaimed the elephant. "I beg your pardon. Had I known they were related to you in the most distant manner, I would not have harmed a hair of their skin. I do hope you will forgive me!"
"Certainly I will forgive you. And perhaps they were annoying you and deserved being punished, for as I remember them they were pretty mischievous kids."
"Take after their grandfather, eh?" said the elephant.
"I guess so," said Billy.
"Baa, baa, baa!" came a voice as sweet as music to Billy's ears and turning he saw his darling wife looking through the fence.
"How did you get shut in there?" he asked. "I'll be with you in a minute!" But though he looked and looked he could find no opening leading into the yard where Nannie was confined. He had gotten into the elephant's yard by jumping through an open window in the elephant's house and running out the door that led to the yard, and Stubby and Button had followed him. Billy had recognized the kids, and seeing them in danger he had not stopped to figure how they got there, but had rushed to their rescue immediately. He and Stubby and Button had just arrived in the Park after their long journey from New York State, and were looking for the family when they chanced to turn a corner in the path and came upon this scene.
The kids slipped back into the goat yard the way they had left it, while Billy, Stubby and Button stood and talked to Nannie, the fence between them.
"Oh, if I could only find a way to get over into your yard," baaed Billy to Nannie.
"I have it!" said the elephant. "I can get you all over there if you don't mind being dropped a few feet."
"Certainly we don't, but how are you going to do it?"
"I'll just pick you up with my trunk and drop you on the other side of the fence."
"You can't do it," said Billy. "I am too heavy."
"Indeed, Icando it! I guess you are no heavier than the mahogany logs I used to lift and put in high piles when I lived in Siam. Come here and let me try."
The elephant encircled Billy's body with his trunk and lifted him up from the ground and over the fence as easily as if he had been a feather.
The elephant encircled Billy's body with his trunk and lifted him up from the ground and over the fence as easily as if he had been a feather. When he had raised Billy to the top of the fence, he unwound his trunk and dropped him over into the next yard where his family awaited him.
When the elephant turned to get Stubby and Button to put them over the same way,he found they had crawled through the hole the kids had used.
Such a smelling of noses, and licking of faces you never saw as when the Billy Whiskers family and their friends were once again reunited after this long separation while Billy had been in the war in Europe.
"Isn't it too bad, my dear," said Nannie, "that we are all shut up in this yard with no hopes of getting out? And I was just saying to Daisy that if you were here, you would soon find a way to secure our freedom."
"And I shall, my dear. I shall just wait until the keeper comes in through the gate to look after the goats. Then I shall either butt him over as he comes in or butt down the gate when he takes the padlock and chain off. Anyhow, I shall find a way to get us out of here very soon, I am sure. Now we will think only of the present and enjoy every minute of being together. What fine kids the Twins have grown to be! But I imagine they are just as mischievous as ever."
"Can you wonder at it when you stop to consider who their father and grandfather are?" said Nannie.
"Gracious! What can be causing all that commotion over in the farther corner of the yard, I wonder?" said Daisy.
"Where are the Twins?" asked Billy Junior.
"I don't know," answered their mother.
"Then I guess you will find that they are at the bottom of the fracasover there. I'll go see," said their father, and off he trotted to find out if the kids were in mischief.
Presently he came back, driving both kids before him. But what had happened to them? They were as dirty as dirty could be and both were crying.
"Oh, my precious darlings!" exclaimed Daisy. "Who has been hurting you?"
"No one has been hurting them. They need a good spanking! Where do you think I found them? In the middle of a ring of Angora goats, having a fight with two kids about their own size. It would have been all right to have had a boxing match, but they did not play fair. They lost their tempers and when they got the other kids down, they hooked and tramped them unmercifully. I don't like that! They must fight fair and keep to the rules of boxing, and not beat up their adversaries when they are down."
"Come here, kids," said their grandfather. "If you will promise to be good all the rest of the day, I will tell you a story of the Great War and of some of the things that happened to Uncle Stubby and Uncle Button and myself when fighting in the army."
The Billy Whiskers family as well as all the Angora goats were enjoying themselves listening to Billy, Stubby and Button tell war stories, when they noticed great excitement among the people in the Park, who began running in all directions, screaming as they ran.
"What can the matter be?" they asked one another. "I'll go over by the fence that leads along the walk," suggested Billy, "and listen and see if I cannot find out what is frightening the people so. Something important must have happened for they all look so scared and palefaced."
The Billy Whiskers family as well as all the Angora goats were enjoying themselves listening to Billy, Stubby and Button tell war stories...
All the larger goats went with Billy, while the mothers and young Nannies stayed behind.
"Where are the kids?" called out Daisy. "They were here just a minute ago."
"I guess they have gone with their father and grandfather," replied Nannie.
"I shall have to go after them then for they are sure to get into trouble, and besides I want them with me if anything happens."
And presently they saw Stubby driving the two kids in front of him.
"Yes, bring them back, and I will look after one and not let him out of my sight a moment, while you look out for the other."
"You stay here," commanded Stubby, who had not yet joined the crowd by the fence. "I'll bring them both back."
And presently they saw Stubby driving the two kids in front of him. If they tried to turn back, he snapped at their heels, and if they tried to separate, he grabbed them by the neck and made them march straight to where their mother and grandmother were waiting.
The Twins were crying and pleading to go back. "Uncle Stubby, do let us go back! We want to see the escaped panther! We never saw one!" they said.
"Escaped panther, did I hear them say?" Daisy asked Stubby.
"Yes. One of the largest panthers has escaped. When his keeper opened the cage door to put in a bucket of water, he opened the door a little wider than usual, and the panther that was lying on a ledge in the upper part of the cage leaped for the opening, hit the door which threw it still wider and he escaped. The keeper had enough presence of mind to slam the door shut as the mate awoke from a nap and also made for the door. When she found herself shut in and her mate gone, she made such a row she has upset all the animals. Anything like this always excites the animals and makes them roar and slash around in their cages trying to break through to freedom too.
"And now I want to tell you to be most watchful. For panthers are fond of goats and sheep—they like them best of all meats. They may smell goats and come over here to eat a kid or two," and Stubby looked straight at the kids, his face very sober, trying to frighten them so they would keep close to their mother and not run away again.
By this time men were running all over the Park with loaded pistols and guns in their hands, while others carried pitchforks and ropes to try to lasso the panther for they really wished to capture him alive if they could.
...a big panther crouching on the limb ready to spring down on the unsuspecting Angoras peacefully sleeping directly under the limb the beast was on.
Mothers with children hurried out of the Park, and soon few people could be seen except the Park guards and the men who were hunting the loose beast. It was about four o'clock when the escape was made and at dusk they had not found him yet. The animals quieted down when they were given their supper, forgetting that one of their number had gained the much-desired freedom. All but the panther's mate. She refused to be comforted, but snarled and showed her teeth when any one went near her cage.
It was just that hour between twilight and darkness when shapes can still be distinguished moving about that Billy chanced to look up in the big tree that stood near the fence of the goat yard. He thought he saw two yellow balls of fire about the size of big marbles shining up among the leaves in the tree. As he looked, they seemed to move slowly toward him. Then looking more closely, he madeout the outline of a big panther crouching on the limb ready to spring down on the unsuspecting Angoras peacefully sleeping directly under the limb the beast was on.
Billy gave the alarm, but too late. The panther had made a spring and landed on the back of a young Angora goat and was now devouring it greedily, while all the rest of the goats ran over to where Billy and his family stood in an opposite corner of the yard.
Billy gave the alarm, but too late. The panther had made a spring and landed on the back of a young Angora goat...
"All of you big goats with horns get ready to fight," commanded Billy, "for the minute that panther has devoured that victim, he will come over here for another nice young, juicy goat."
"Oh, my darlings! He will pick them out," wailed Daisy, "because they are the very youngest and will make the most tender eating."
"Don't cry, Daisy. He hasn't gotten them yet, and he won't while I am alive," said Billy Whiskers.
"Nor while I breathe either!" exclaimed Billy Junior, not to be outdone.
When the panther had finished his meal, he stood up, lookedaround, licked his chops, switched his tail, and called for his mate to come and join him in the feast. But that call was his undoing. His mate could not get out of her cage, but the panther's keeper recognized his voice and hastily calling some men and guards, he started to find the panther by going in the direction of the call. As the moon had come up in full glory, they had no trouble in locating him.
They found him none too soon, for just as they appeared at the fence, the panther started toward the goats to select another victim. He had his eye on one of the Twins, that Billy Whiskers could see. Brave as could be, Billy walked out of the herd and straight at the panther, intending to try to drive him away at least, but he knew it would be almost impossible as these beasts are strong, as quick as a cat and are bloodthirsty fighters.
When Billy Junior saw his father advancing on the panther, he too left the herd and walked out by Billy. Then Stubby and Button followed. This in no way frightened the panther. He still advanced on them, crouching as he came and ready to spring at any moment.
Billy Senior whispered, "We must make a rush at him or he will spring over our heads and we can't reach him. When I say three, spring at him prepared to rip him open with your horns. I will do the same. We can't both miss him. And, Stubby, you go for hisneck, and, Button, you try to scratch his eyes out, so he can't see where to jump. One, two—"
But what had happened? The panther was jerked back off his feet and lay sprawling on his back, his feet in the air. This is what had occurred:
The men had come up to the yard behind the panther and goats so none of the animals had seen them. The man with the lasso had climbed the fence and thrown it, catching the panther around the neck just as he was about to spring, while the other men stood with pistols aimed and ready to fire did the lasso fail to go around the panther's neck and pull him back in time to save the goats.
"Gee! Those two goats and that dog and cat had nerve to face that beast," said one of the men. "I should like to own them for pets."
"So should I," replied one of the others. "Let us get that panther out of their yard and then give the goats a rousing good supper to show we admire bravery in animals as well as in people."
So it happened that the men all came back carrying bunches of clover and other things they thought the goats would like to eat.
When they dragged the panther out they closed the gate, but neglected to close it tightly. They had no sooner gotten out of sight than Billy said, "Now is our chance for freedom. The gate can easily be pushed open far enough for us to squeeze through."
...he, his family and friends filed out the gate and started on a run toward their old home in Fon du Lac, Wisconsin.
He told the Angora goats about it, but they had been in captivity so long they did not yearn for freedom, as they had no homes to go to. Besides, they were well treated where they were and so they decided to go out into the Park and roam around a little, but not to run away.
"Well, we are all going to make our escape and skedaddle for home. So good-by to you all!"
"Here is wishing you and your family a safe and happy journey," bleated the leader of the Angora flock.
"The same to you and yours!" baaed Billy as he, his family and friends filed out the gate and started on a run toward their old home in Fon du Lac, Wisconsin.
Typographical errors corrected in text:Page 35: litle replaced with littlePage 145: dish replaced with wish
Typographical errors corrected in text:
Page 35: litle replaced with littlePage 145: dish replaced with wish