Frances Trego Montgomery

“ Harold held up a golden sceptre in the shape of a wand.
All this time they had been floating along on this silent, silvery stream with its myriads and myriads of silver stars, so tiny and closely packed together that they looked like molten silver.
The first country at which they landed was called The Land of Peace and Quietness. Soft, gentle breezes blow across this land, laden with the perfume of thousands of flowers. No destroying electric storms ever rage here to disturb the peaceful, quiet, sunlit days. This is the land where the tired people of Earth come to rest and have peace ”

“ I know, dear, but you are a girl and like the quiet, while I am a boy and like adventures. Why! I like to get into scrapes just for the fun of getting out of them. Besides, there is another reason why you like it here. You need not think I have not noticed how that handsome goat with the long hair and curved horns almost as long as my own, makes sheep’s eyes at you, for I have. And so, Miss Day, you are in love. I see you are blushing, for the inside of your ear is as red as blood, and that is a sure sign a goat is in love. ”

“ I will go ahead to the outskirts of the next town. There I will wait for Stubby, Button, Duke and yourself, if you still feel like risking your life with us, and taking all the hardships that come along without a whimper or complaint. For it is our motto never to complain or cry over spilt milk. What is done is past and gone; why spoil the present and becloud the future by dwelling on it? ”

“ If the time ever comes when I catch a monkey alone, I’ll make mince-meat of him if it is the last thing I ever do. But the monkeys were not all. I can hear yet, in my dreams, the roars of the lions, the snarling tigers and wild-cats, can see the crowds of people and feel the canes that were shoved through the bars of my cage and punched into my ribs, and can hear and see that fool of a clown saying and doing the same silly things day after day. Oh, it was awful! It makes me faint to think of it.”
Billy thought he was going to keel over again, but he didn’t. ”

“ The first look showed him a ragged tramp with battered hat, unshaven face and a bundle of clothes tied up in a dirty, faded red handkerchief strung on a cane over his shoulder. That one look was enough, for if there was one thing Zip despised and detested more than any other, it was a tramp. And for this one to dare to try to come in the front gate—the gate he never allowed anyone to enter unless they were well dressed—was more than he could stand, and he flew at the fellow as if he were the size of a lion and was going to devour him on the spot. ”

“ In less than half an hour, had you stood on the brow of the hill in the Watson barnyard and gazed down into the valley, you would have seen cows, horses, pigs, goats and sheep all standing in the pond into which the stream widened. Every animal had a happy face, for was not the water washing off the grime in fine shape? Billy’s and Nannie’s long white hair would soon look like spun silk. As for Button, he sat on a flat rock on the bank and licked his fur until it shone as if made of black satin. ”

“ Everything about a circus is systematized so that the minute the evening performance is over, everybody jumps to his or her appointed task and works with a will, so that where there were tents with flags and banners flying at night, the next morning there is only a deserted sawdust ring. Circuses spring up over night like mushrooms and disappear as quickly as the dew on the grass when the sun comes up.
By midnight the circus train was well under way and Billy and Nannie found themselves in a cage between the zebra and giraffe. ”

“ Faster and faster sailed the balloon, dragging the Elephant after it until they were within a minute’s distance from the island. Bathed in beautiful clear, greenish-white atmosphere, hundreds of people were standing on the beach of the island, which is swept by mighty currents of air even as our sea shores are swept by the tides, and were watching the approach of the queer-shaped, clumsy object from an unknown world. ”

“ When Billy saw her go he ran down the altar steps, upsetting a near-sighted deacon who was coming up to help drive him out, and bleating to Betty that he was coming he rushed through the door.
They trotted along side by side down the street until they came to a beautiful place surrounded by a tall, iron fence. Through the fence they could see a large, brick residence with a cupola on top. On one side of the house was the flower garden, while on the other a fruit patch and vegetable garden. And oh, how good the fresh, green lettuce and beet tops looked to these tired, hungry travelers. ”

“ Zip belongs to Dr. Elsworth, who lives in the big, white house with the green blinds on the edge of the village of Maplewood. And at the present minute he is asleep on the front porch on a soft cushion in an old-fashioned rocking-chair that is swaying gently to and fro, dreaming of the days when he was a puppy chasing the white spot on the end of his tail, thinking it was something following him. ”

“ Just as the sun lighted the tops of the mountains, the Chinaman rang a large bell that hung on a high pole near the well, to call the cow-boys to breakfast, and as its peals rang out on the morning air it was answered by the barking of what seemed to be dozens of coyotes, although, in reality, there was perhaps not half that number; a peculiarity of their bark being that it seems to double itself and to sound as if coming from twice as many throats as it really does. Billy did not like to hear the coyotes, for their dismal cries made him feel both lonesome and homesick. ”

“ Billy hesitated no longer, but marched boldly in and back of the counter.
Have you ever wished you could be in that wonderful place—back of the counter in a candy store? Back where all the cases are standing open inviting you to come and take and eat to your heart’s content, instead of in front where the glass is between you and all the goodies so temptingly spread out? There were piles of chocolate creams, peppermint chews, peanut brittle, caramels, shining jars of sunshine sticks, and pan upon pan heaped high with taffy, that favorite confection of all fair-goers. ”

“ You would be proud then that Billy Whiskers is one of your acquaintances. They tell me that I am famous and I judge that such is the case from the way the crowds cheer every time they see me.
Don’t think that I have become vain and conceited when I tell you that I was never looking so handsome and distinguished as now. Owing doubtless to the great quantity of rich food that I eat daily I have put on more flesh, which improves my figure. Both my hair and beard are longer, whiter and silkier than ever before, while my horns and hoofs are manicured daily. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Think of it! It is 2,791,000,000 miles from the Sun, a distance one cannot realize or grasp from cold figures. It has to be compared to something on Earth for one to form any definite idea of its immensity.
“Now, one, two, three,” said Mercury. “Let us make a last wish and it will surely land us on Neptune’s Satellite Island.”
They complied and in the twinkling of an eye found themselves standing on a high arched bridge facing, well! how can I describe it? A magnificent white temple-like edifice all domes, porticoes, and windows of rainbow hues. ”

“ Billy was about cooled down from his fuss with the monkey, when he heard a bugle call and the elephant told him that it was the signal for the procession to start. While Billy had been put through his paces in the circus ring, the elephants had been decked out in scarlet blankets embroidered with gold and funny little summer houses, as Billy thought, strapped to their backs, in which ladies were to ride. The camels had also been fixed up, and from four to six horses, with waving plumes on their heads, had been hitched to each circus wagon. ”

“ AS Billy Whiskers lay in an American camp somewhere over in France, he became very restless and soon had the blues from thinking of his dear Nannie so far away—away over in America, with that deep, deep, wide, blue ocean between them, infested not only with huge sea monsters belonging to the finny tribe, but also with death-dealing, quickly moving submarines and torpedo boats belonging to the German Kaiser. ”

“ My mother and I were scarcely concealed behind the big trees, drooping vines and low bushes when I saw a tall, slender native with only a breech cloth round his loins push his head through the bushes close beside the place where we had been standing when the leader trumpeted his warning. This man held in one hand a long spear with a sharp arrowhead top, and a coiled rope in the other. And I heard my mother give a frightened sigh and say to herself: ‘The king’s head elephant hunter! He has been on our track for days. We surely are lost for he always gets his prey. ”

“ There’s a good fellow!” Harry called.
And with these words of scant consolation, the machine glided off, leaving Billy a very much disconcerted and crestfallen goat.
Then jealousy crept into his heart, and filled it near to bursting.
“They surely remember that it is my automobile. I am the one who really earned it, I’d have them to know! I am the one who should have had the honor of the very first ride. It is my money they are spending, and yet here I stand, alone and forsaken, while they go whizzing off in such fine style!” ”

“ I seem to be the only one that was hurt or at whom the dog really took a nip. But I don’t regret coming in the least, for I never saw Billy Whiskers before. I had heard so much about him that I wanted to see for myself if he was as wonderful as all the cows, horses, sheep, pigs and goats said he was. And he certainly is. My, but he looked handsome as he stood up on that straw stack addressing the crowd below, with his long white beard blowing in the wind and the sunshine making his silky white hair glisten like silver! Well, here we are back at our pasture. ”

“ The next morning Billy was tied to a wagon filled with groceries and provisions for Mr. Wilder’s ranch, whither they were bound, while Star with his master on his back galloped ahead or followed behind as he saw fit. Once when Star was walking beside him Billy said:
“Star, do you know I feel lonesome for the first time in my life. When I look at those great solemn mountains, whose tops are always covered with snow, I feel about as big as a fly and as if they were trying to teach me a lesson in patience, and dear knows I need it badly enough. How do they make you feel when you look at them?” ”

“ As it fell inside the fence, Billy kicked up his heels, whisked his stubby tail, and started down the road at a fast trot. As he ran, he made up his mind he would find Nanny once more, even if he had to spend the rest of his life looking for her. You know from past experience that if Billy made up his mind to do a thing, that he did it; for Billy's strong points were bravery, perseverance and stick-to-ativeness. These are good qualities for boys and girls to have as well as goats. ”

“ The next morning they again boarded the barge and commenced floating down the Milky Way, admiring the beautiful scenery and castles that bordered its shores until they came to its extreme northern limit, when, chancing to look off toward the North Star, they saw, shining with a splendor that almost blinded them, what seemed to be a colossal human eye surrounded by flashing streamers of light that radiated from it in all directions. ”

“ Billy Whiskers, many of you remember, was a very remarkable goat, larger and stronger than others, with a beautiful white coat that when cleaned and well combed was the color of ivory and shone like silk. His horns, too, always attracted attention, they were so long and shiny. He could run faster, jump higher and butt harder than any goat he ever met in all his travels, so that wherever Billy went he very soon became a leader, though he often had to fight before the other goats found out that they had far better mind than take the consequences of disobedience. ”

“ In fact, there is nothing more infectious than the good spirits of a fair-day crowd. Nothing is sufficient to upset their equanimity, and although in nine seasons out of ten there is a shower or a steady, cold drizzle which plays havoc with new fall millinery, suits and footwear, each year sees everyone bravely arrayed in their best bibs and tuckers as if tempting the weather man to do and send his worst. ”

“ Once in the hayloft they hurried over to the door that was directly under the window where the pigeons went in and out to their nests, but there on the hay, wriggling and crying, were the baby squabs who opened their mouths so wide they nearly fell over backwards when they heard the spotted cat and Button approaching. They thought every sound was their mothers coming to feed them. ”

“ One day when they were trotting along the foot-hills of the Sierra Madre mountains, tired and footsore, hungry and cold, feeling thoroughly discouraged and as if they should never reach their destination, they thought they saw a curl of blue smoke rising from the base of one of the foot-hills in among some tall cacti.
“Look, Billy, look,” cried Stubby, who had been the first to see it; “that smoke means some man is building a fire to cook his supper by. I have seen a little curl of smoke like that before and it always means that, at this time of the day. ”