Billy

“ When Billy heard this he began to be very sorry for having used such bold words towards the little man; and he felt himself, yet could not tell how, obliged to follow the little man the live-long night about the country, up and down, and over hedge and ditch, and through bog and brake, without any rest.
When morning began to dawn the little man turned round to him and said, "You may now go home, Billy, but on your peril don't fail to meet me in the Fort-field to-night; or if you do it may be the worse for you in the long run. If I find you a good servant, you will find me an indulgent master." ”

“ The yellow rose of sunrise touched Cascades and Olympics alike with a splendor he had not before recognized, and lighted the vast reaches between ranges with a clear thin radiance not seen in southern lands.
Billy’s heart ached with this new fulness of life. Visions undreamed before opened his eyes to his own manhood; and the impulse came to put this experience into rhythm,—the impulse that touches every normal young creature. Some may not have the wit to fix it on paper, but all sing the song. ”

“ So Billy, who knew better than to question any order given to him by his master, brought a third rush, much wondered who it might be that would travel back in the company, and whether he was about to have a fellow servant. I have, thought Billy, he shall go and fetch the horses from the bog every night; for I don’t see why I am not, every inch of me, as good a gentleman as my master. ”

“ Out of the trunk came one of the gold-mounted boxes, and out of the box came a package of letters neatly tied with a faded ribbon. Billy lifted the package to his face and inhaled the faint odor of lavender given forth; then he—yes, even he, Billy Little, quaint old cynic, pressed the dainty bundle to his lips and breathed a sigh of mingled sorrow and relief.
"Ah, I knew they would help me," he said. "They always do. Whatever my troubles, they always help me." ”

“ Billy was utterly perplexed. What could she mean?
Slowly, his feet weighing tons, he plodded home, and entered to find the telephone ringing.
He hurried to take down the receiver that the household might not be disturbed. “Who is it?”
“Erminie,” came back over the wire. “Oh, Billy, I’m so glad to get you!”
“Yes?” Billy could not keep the coldness out of his voice. He was hearing again the tender eagerness in her tone as the Kid bent over her twenty minutes before.
“Oh, I don’t wonder you speak in that Alaska voice, Billy; but you don’t know everything. ”

“ When an approaching visit of Billy to his sister had been announced, we had counted the days to it. When his cheery voice was at last heard in the kitchen and we had descended with shouts, first of all he had to exhibit his tattooed arms, always a subject for fresh delight and envy and awe; then he was called upon for tricks, jugglings, and strange, fearful gymnastics ”

“ You already have some idea of my other nephew, if you have noticed that none of us, not even that habitual disrespecter of dignities, Billy, ever called him Dan. It would have seemed as incongruous as to call Billy William. He was one of those youths who never gave their parents a moment's uneasiness; who never had to have their wills broken, and never forget to put on their rubbers or take an umbrella. ”

“ Just once, do, Billy.”
“Shan’t do it,” was Bill’s reply, as he followed Harry, who, as a farewell parting had hurled a stone at a cow across the street, set the dog on his mother’s kitten, stepped on the old cat’s tail, and then left the yard, slamming after him the rickety gate his mother had tried in vain to have him fix before he went.
Billy, however, waited. There was something more human in his nature than in his brother’s. He had not thrown his Testament away, and the sight of it in his bundle had touched a tender chord, making him half resolve to read it. ”

“ After a moment Marie turned to Billy again.
“I'm so glad he wants—just puddings and stockings,” she began a little breathlessly. “You see, for so long I supposed he wouldn't want anything but a very brilliant, talented wife who could play and sing beautifully; a wife he'd be proud of—like you.”
“Me? Nonsense!” laughed Billy. “Cyril never wanted me, and I never wanted him—only once for a few minutes, so to speak, when I thought, I did. In spite of our music, we aren't a mite congenial. I like people around; he doesn't. I like to go to plays; he doesn't. ”

“ An hour later Billy, struggling with the broom and the drawing-room carpet, was called to the telephone. It was her husband's voice that came to her.
“Billy, for heaven's sake, take pity on me. Won't you put on your duds and come and engage your maid yourself?”
“Why, Bertram, what's the matter?”
“Matter? Holy smoke! Well, I've been to three of those intelligence offices—though why they call them that I can't imagine. If ever there was a place utterly devoid of intelligence-but never mind! I've interviewed four fat ladies, two thin ones, and one medium with a wart. ”

“ And Billy ought to talk of something else, too! Bertram, Jr., wonderful as he was, really was not the only thing in the world, or even the only baby; and other people—outsiders, their friends—had a right to expect that sometimes other matters might be considered—their own, for instance. But Billy seemed to have forgotten this. No matter whether the subject of conversation had to do with the latest novel or a trip to Europe, under Billy's guidance it invariably led straight to Baby's Jack-and-Jill book, or to a perambulator journey in the Public Garden. ”

“ He sprang up and was at Billy’s side in one movement. What pain such activity must have cost him it would be hard to tell; his weather-beaten face turned almost pale, and drops of moisture stood on his forehead. He seized the tiller and gave Billy a sharp succession of orders, which the poor boy was too bewildered to more than half understand. ”

“ Prepare till I kill you," says he; "you're too big for one bite, and too small for two; what will I do with you?" "I'll fight you," says Billy, shaping out and winding the bit of stick three times over his head. The giant laughed heartily at the size of him, and says he, "What way do you prefer being killed? Is it with a swing by the back, a cut of the sword, or a square round of boxing?" "A swing by the back," says Billy. So both of them again laid holds, and my brave Billy lifts the giant clean off the ground, and fetching him down again, sunk him down to his arm-pits in it. ”

“ Billy Worth, fun-loving and jolly, but an earnest young fellow, too, is a little younger than Phil and in general appearance quite his opposite, being short and stout. Yet let none suppose that that stocky frame of his carries an ounce of anything but bone, muscle and good, red blood—good, red blood that glows in his cheeks, and helps to place that alert, snappy expression in his twinkling brown eyes. ”

“ In all the weeks since Billy's purchase of Hillside, Cyril had been there only twice, and it was nearly Thanksgiving now. Billy had seen him once or twice, also, at the Beacon Street house, when she and Aunt Hannah had dined there; but on all these occasions he had been either the coldly reserved guest or the painfully punctilious host. Never had he been in the least approachable.
“He treats me exactly as he treated poor little Spunk that first night,” Billy declared hotly to herself. ”

“ Why didn't you telephone? Why didn't you get somebody?”
Like an irate little tigress, Billy turned at bay.
“Bertram Henshaw,” she flamed angrily, “if you don't go up-stairs and tend to that man up there, I shall scream. Now go! I'll be up when I can.” ”

“ Roy grinned steadily and watched Billy as though he feared the latter was going to make him disappear.
“In doing these tricks,” said Billy, rolling the handkerchief between his palms, “it is necessary to demand of the audience the very closest attention. ”

“ In a moment, to Billy the balloon fish was as though he had not been.
"That's a pretty little boy," said I. And then I asked Billy one of those senseless routine questions which must make children look at us, regarding the scope of our intellects very much as we look at Bushmen.
"How would you like to play with him?"
"Him!" replied Billy scornfully, "that's his first pair of boots; see him pull up his little breeches to show the red tops to 'em! But, crackey! isn't she a smasher?" ”

“ And that night I told Billy all about it. "Isn't it beautiful, Billy? They are going to live on the old Davenant place, and it is to be their home."
Everybody calls on us now. You see, Lady Crusoe's family is older than any of the others, and then there's her husband's money. And I shine in her reflected light, for our friendship, as she says, is founded on a rock. But Billy says it is founded on a wreck. Yet while he jokes about it, I know that he is proud of his friendship with Robin's father. ”

“ Billy laughed happily.
“If it was, he can't say anything,” she reassured her. “He's done the same thing himself—and so have I.”
“HE has done it!”
“Yes. It was at his home last Thanksgiving. It was then that he found out—about my improvising.”
“Oh-h!” Marie's eyes were wistful. “And he cares so much now for your music!”
“Does he? Do you think he does?” demanded Billy.
“I know he does—and for the one who makes it, too.”
“Nonsense!” laughed Billy, with pinker cheeks. “It's the music, not the musician, that pleases him. Mr. Cyril doesn't like women.”
“He doesn't like women!” ”

“ At this moment I came up as Billy's reinforcement, and fearing lest in his enthusiasm he might forget the canon of society which introduces a gentleman to a lady, not the lady to him, I ventured to suggest it delicately by saying,—
"Billy, will you grant me the favor of a presentation to Miss Pilgrim?"
"In a minute, Uncle Teddy," answered Billy, considerably lowering his voice. "The older people first"; and after this reproof I was left to wait in the cold until he had gone through the ceremony of introducing to the young lady his father and his mother. ”

“ Billy scrambled up and began throwing the wreckage into the bushes. “You’ve got to face it!” he kept saying. “Brace up, bluff it, be a man!”
He left the dishes and stalked doggedly back to the wharf, where he stood waiting, disheveled, dirty, and very grim. Handkerchiefs waved from the boat, wherein Addie and Aline were now plainly to be seen. Billy had no handkerchief, so he waved his dish-cloth.
“Hello, Billy boy!” cried his sister, still some distance away. “Here we are at last! Are you all ready for us?”
“Hel-lo! Hello!” called Billy in reply, discreetly ignoring the question. ”

“ With a motion to Bertram to lead the way with Billy, William frenziedly gripped his sister's arm, and hissed in her ear for all the world like a villain in melodrama:
“Listen! You'll sleep in Bert's room to-night, and Bert will come up-stairs with me. Get Billy to bed as soon as you can after dinner, and then come back down to us. We've got to plan what's got to be done. Sh-h!” And he dragged his sister downstairs.
In the dining-room there was a slight commotion. Billy stood at her chair with Spunk in her arms. Before her Pete was standing, dumbly staring into her eyes. ”

“ Indeed, many a time and oft have Billy and I speculated as to whether, were he suddenly shorn of his proboscis, he would also find himself deprived of his strength of mind. He is calm, and decidedly well-bred, both in manner and expression—two charms we do not appreciate, as, on such frequent occasions as when disgrace falls upon one or all of the household, the calmness and breeding become so terrible that, without so much as a frown, he can wither us beyond recognition. ”

“ Billy started off in fine spirits with a basket his mother had prepared, and a proud feeling that he would not be ashamed to open it in the presence of any girl. He had begged Erminie to let him bring the luncheon for the two of them; and when he met her as agreed at the trolley line transfer point, care-free, erect and strong, his eyes shining with anticipation, it was little wonder that he saw an answering look of pleasure and pride in her eyes. He was a young man any girl might feel it a privilege to know ”

“ That night Billy went to bed having a secret his mother could not share, for it was Erminie’s rather than his own. Life seemed very portentous, big with duties and prospects that belonged to a new world. All his past was but a flash, a gleam of childish nonsense. Now he was a man!
CHAPTER III
“POP” STREETER’S PROPOSITION FOR the first time he could remember, Billy was sleepless till the sun rose. All night long he thought and thought. He had considered his life rather complex—he was leader of one of the patrols of his troop, the Olympics ”

“ Billy began,—and Rudy was looking up at him! Rudy with face like chalk, and the soul of her broken and bleeding.
[Pg 7]
God! but there is one thing no man can face—the faith of a woman struck back into her heart!
Billy and the revolver wavered in one blindness, and the messenger sprang to his feet.
"Get him," he cried, and his bullet went wide of the mark. Confusion came with the moment. Men leaped to their pockets for weapons and signaled the team coming up.
Billy wasted nothing of the aid Betty held for him. ”

“ Billy and his father faced each other—one was sixteen, the other forty. They did not stand looking at each other as father and son, but as man and man.
"Billy," said his father, "you don't remember your mother; she died while you were still a baby. If she were living, I would not hint of this to you, but—I go to South Africa with the very first Canadian contingent. You are the best bugler in Canada. What do you want to do?"
For an instant Billy was speechless. His nerves shook with a boy's first fear of battle. His old gun-shyness had him in its grip. ”