"There, Billy," said Stubby, "your life work is laid out for you. You travel and lecture while Button and I will be your press agents and go ahead and find a place for you to lecture in all the big cities and towns. If you did this, then Nannie could travel with you all the time. And I know you would both like that. Then too you would not grow so restless as it would keep you on the move all the time, for we would plan it so that you would give only three lectures in any one place and then go on to the next."
"The more I think of it, the more the idea appeals to me," said Button.
"Why not make our journey north into that kind of a trip right now?" said Stubby. "We could send word to Nannie to journey south to meet us."
"It does sound rather attractive," admitted Billy.
"Of course it does!" seconded Button. "And you owe it to the poor untraveled animals to give out some of your experiences to them, to enliven their humdrum lives and tell them about the outside world. Just see what a lot of pleasure the Dog and Cat Club give those stay-at-homes who have never been outside the suburbs of New York City—and most of them have never ventured ten blocks from where they were born."
"Hark!" exclaimed Billy. "I hear the most peculiar whistling, whizzing sound. It sounds up in the clouds, but I can't see a thing."
"It must be an aeroplane then, but I can't see a thing in the sky," said Button, but as he spoke a huge dirigible balloon poked its nose out of a cloud over their heads. It was so directly overhead that they could see every part of it distinctly.
"Isn't it a whale of a balloon? I never saw as large a one even in Europe," said Billy.
"Nor I either," said Stubby, full of wonder at its size.
"Look! It is slowly coming to earth. I believe they are going to land over in that clover field," said Button.