Billy goat

“ That was what the big Billy Goat said; so he flew at the Troll, and thrust him with his horns, and crushed him to bits, body and bones, and tossed him out into the river, and after that he went up to the hillside.
There the Billy Goats got so fat that they were scarcely able to walk home again, and if they haven't grown thinner, why they're still fat; and so,—
"Snip, snap, stout. ”

“ And the goat looks it, too. His appearance suggests immediately that you had better look out for him if you happen to be a ram with beautiful useless horns—useless, that is, against any such apparatus as the goat carries. One day I stood watching a good specimen billy-Oreamnus. The nanny, less conspicuous, lay in the shade on some flat ground, asleep. But the billy sat hunched on the peak of a built-up pyramid of rocks. It was in the Zoölogical Gardens at Philadelphia where this pair, taken into captivity in 1901, have grown and thrived, but have not bred. The billy shows his formidable nature ”

“ Every man and woman on the place had been looking for him, but though they had hunted everywhere and inquired of every one if he had seen a large, white goat with long whiskers, no one had seen him and they were about to substitute something else for his performance when one of the men, coming into the ponies' tent for something, saw Billy lying down by the little Burroetta. ”

“ There, just inside the show window, was a big, brown goat. Billy did not know it, but this was a wooden goat, poised on its hind feet and ready to make a spring to butt somebody. The Swiss woodcarvers are the finest in the world, and they carve animals so naturally that one would think they were alive. If even human beings can be fooled, there was very good excuse for Billy's believing this to be a real, live goat, particularly as it had very natural looking glass eyes ”

“ THE next we hear of Billy Jr. he is in San Francisco living, as his father did before him, with an engine company near the outskirts of the city. When first we spy him, he and another goat are stealing vegetables out of the firemen’s garden. This other goat is an old fellow with a stubby tail and a single horn, and although he eats a great deal every day, anything and everything, from tin cans to rotten potatoes, and has a digestive apparatus like an ostrich, he still looks thin and shows every rib in his anatomy. ”

“ Windlass, what will you take for him? I have been looking for a big jet-black billy-goat to lead my flocks for a long time. The wolves are getting pretty bad out West on the range and a goat makes a good leader. I want a black one, as his color would distinguish him from the white sheep immediately. Besides, your goat [18] has other points in his favor; he is strong, large, a good fighter you say, and has long, sharp-pointed horns. Name your price and I will take him and have him shipped West in the same car with my horse when I go. ”

“ But on the way they passed some goats who cried: "Oh, see the dude!"
And then they had to go back home for Billy got real rude.
Her coat is soft as velvet, of a lovely yellow-brown,
With a bit of fawn for trimming and a lining white as down.
Her eyes are large and kindly, she is gentle, too, as well,
You would love a little playmate as sweet as Miss Gazelle.
A sturdy young American is Rocky Mountain Goat
With big, strong horns upon his head, and shaggy, furry coat;
He loves to scramble over rocks or leap a mountain brook,
And should you chase him he will fly into his hidden nook. ”

“ And I did not bother myself about either the cat or the billy-goat.
Finally we rumbled into the city and to the station platform.
But Mother was altogether right in saying that it would never do in the world to have a billy-goat in the city. When we got to the hotel where we were to spend that night, there stood the host at the door. He is a very cross man. When he saw Billy-goat in Karsten's arms he was furious at once. He had not [Pg 238] fitted up his rooms for animals, he said, and the goat would please be so good as to keep itself entirely outside of them. ”

“ Not having a handsome head or wonderful horns he has not been hunted by man quite so much as has Bighorn, and therefore is not so alert and wary. Both he and Bighorn are more easily approached from above than from below, because they do not expect danger from above and so do not keep so sharp a watch in that direction. The young are sometimes taken by King Eagle, but otherwise Billy Goat's family has little to fear from enemies, always excepting the hunter with his terrible gun. ”

“ Trip trap, trip trap, his little feet pattered upon the boards.
“Who is that tripping over my bridge?” called up the Troll in a surly voice.
[Pg 59]
“Oh, it’s only I, the tiniest Billy Goat Gruff, going over to the hillside to make myself fat,” the Goat called back in a wee small voice.
“I am going to gobble you up, Billy Goat Gruff,” said the Troll.
“Oh, no, pray do not take me,” said the tiniest Billy Goat Gruff; “I am too little, that I am. Wait until the second Billy Goat Gruff comes along. He is ever so much bigger than I.”
“Well, be off with you,” said the Troll. ”

“ Maddened by this, Billy butted the harder, but when he found [140] there was no hope of opening a way to the outer world and freedom, he turned and faced his tormentors from the rear, and then there was wild scrambling. Many are those who are willing to pursue a fleeing foe, but few there be brave enough to prosecute the attack on an advancing enemy in such battle array as this Billy goat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He had been there about half an hour when his pet fireman came out with a large plate in his hand heaped full of good things to eat and as he walked toward Billy, the goat could smell the cabbage, turnips, apples and carrots. He bleated a friendly greeting to let the fireman know that he would not hook him if he came nearer and the man came up and set the plate down under Billy's nose and Billy gave him a goat smile showing that all was forgiven and began to eat. ”

“ If one route of retreat is blocked he starts for another without losing his head. If finally cornered, he makes a stand.
Hunters and dogs cornered an old billy near me in the head of a glacial cirque, in what is now the Glacier National Park. The goat made his stand on slide rock at the bottom of a precipitous wall. He watched for an opportunity [Pg 4] to escape, and made one or two himself. The dogs surged round him. He leaped at one, and with a remarkably quick move of head struck and impaled him on his sharp horns ”

“ After taking a nice rest and nap under the trees, he awoke, and feeling thirsty thought he would go and quench his thirst at a sparkling fountain he saw before him. He was quietly drinking and every once in a while swallowing a goldfish that swam too near his mouth, when someone from behind gave him a hard hit with a rake.
"It is a pity a goat can't take a drink without being pounded," [44] thought Billy. "But as I have had enough I guess I will move on for I don't like the looks of this man's face, and I know he will give me no peace." ”

“ He is so vain he’d do it, just to show that he could. He’d probably come in the evening. Does any one know him here? So many people pass through Kowatin every day. Has any one seen him?”
“Only Billy Goatry,” he answered, working his way to a solution of the dark problem. “Only Billy Goatry knows him. The fellow that led the singing—that was Goatry.”
“There he is now,” he added, as Billy Goat passed the window.
She came and laid a hand on his arm. “We’ve got to settle things with him,” she said. “If Dorl comes, Nett—”
There was silence for a moment, then he caught her hand in his and held it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Wild sheep are easily and quickly exterminated.
The mountain goat has no protection except elevation and precipitous rocks, and to the hunter who has the energy to climb up to him he, too, is easy prey. Usually his biped enemy finds him and attacks him in precipitous mountains, where running and hiding are utterly impossible. When discovered on a ledge two feet wide leading across the face of a precipice, poor Billy has nothing to do but to take the bullets as they come until he reels and falls far down to the cruel slide-rock. ”

“ Well, I guess not," and he kicked up his heels in their faces and skipped off to the other side of the stream where they could not get him.
"It takes three to make a bargain where there is a goat in the case," said Billy to himself, "and I will give them a good chase if they try to catch me. And should they catch me, I pity the men and animals at the circus when I get there for I shall use my sharp horns to advantage and split a hole in their old tent and come back to Nanny. Now they are looking at Satan, maybe the man will buy him. ”

“ Billy introduced himself and then Nanny to the old goat who in return told them his name was Satan and that he would be glad to have them join his flock, adding that he was always glad to get ahead of boys, as he had received some rough usage at their hands when younger. ”

“ Don't stop or turn to right or left no matter how hard they pull or scream. Keep right on and we will give Mr. Tim a ducking he won't forget. I'll teach him to stay out of any cart I am pulling!"
They were now ten feet from the pond and Billy gave Nanny the signal call, and with one accord both goats put down their heads and commenced to pull and run for dear life. At first the boys thought it great fun going so fast and neither suspected what the goats were up to, until Billy gave a quick turn and into the water they went before either boy could jump out. ”

“ They tell me they’re so dull and stupid you can go right up on them.”
“I’m not so sure about their being stupid,” replied Uncle Dick. “I think it’s more likely that they just are not afraid of anything. A big billy will kill any dog in the world, and [Pg 129] some hunters declare that they will even fight a grizzly bear. Their little black horns are sharp as needles, and they can hit a hard blow with that neck of theirs, backed by a couple of hundred pounds of bone and muscle.
“Whatever a goat may be as to wisdom, he won’t run away, and you can never hurry him. ”

“ 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.
"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." ”

“ Peering over I saw the goats moving [144] off, they may have got our wind, for heavy gales were eddying round the top of the hill.
The two nannies fortunately went first, the billy was moving on pretty quickly behind. I had just time to get a shot, another moment and he would have disappeared behind some rocks, and I heard the welcome thud of the bullet; he stood for a moment, and as the extraordinary vitality of the mountain goat had been impressed on me by Kirby, I gave him a second shot, and he came rolling down the hill like a rabbit, stone dead. ”

“ Of course his horns hit the top of the box and pained him. The man laughed at the funny motion and poked the goat again. This time, Billy, afraid to jump up, merely danced, and the man laughed aloud. Again and again he repeated his trick until the goat was nearly frantic. Billy tried to burst out the side of his cage so that he could get at the man, but the crate was too stout for him to do it any damage and he only hurt himself by trying, so after a while he gave it up. ”

“ By that time the soda-fountain man had recovered his breath and came at Billy again with his broom raised ready to strike. Billy saw him coming and left the boy he was standing on, and ran behind one of the tables. Then the chase began; round and round the tables and chairs went the goat with the man after him, upsetting everything as they went, until the store looked as if a cyclone had struck it, with the foaming soda-water and ice-cream running all over the floor. ”

“ Goat Number Two likewise advanced, stepping just as high and lifting his head and tilting it provokingly to one side.
“Ah, ha! So he’s going to show me he’s a thoroughbred, is he? Perhaps it might be well for me to make his acquaintance and have him for my friend,” weakening a little. “He’s sure to be a power wherever he may live.”
Billy always did believe that it was a wise thing to make friends with those who occupied prominent positions. ”

“ In the morning they were a little stiff from their hurts, but Billy was still eager to travel and see the world, so they went on into the mountains. About noon they followed a little ravine down to a plateau where there was a whole herd of chamois. These graceful animals are about the size of a goat, but they are not so heavily built and are much swifter. 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 if they were not quarrelsome, but that they would have to look out for themselves if hunters came that way. ”