ANY one who has ever lived in the country and kept turkeys and peacocks knows the moment a stranger drives by, those fowls give the alarm as surely as a good watchdog barks, only they set up a terrible clatter, the peacock by jumping on something high and screeching out his discordant call that carries a long way, it is so penetrating, and old Mr. Turkey Gobbler spreading his tail and wings so wide they drag on the ground as he puffs himself out with pride until he looks as if he would surely burst.
Consequently when Hiram, the hired man on the Watson farm, heard the racket in the barnyard, he walked to the door to see who was coming. There turning in the drive was a delivery wagon bringing the new electric washing machine Mr. Watson had bought. Hiram put down his pitchfork and went to help the men unload it and set it up. Of course, Billy Whiskers, that old Curiosity Shop, had to go too, for it would never do to have anything new come to the farm and Billy not know about it. Neither would it do to have Billy do or see anything Stubby and Button missed. And of course when the Twins saw their grandfather and their Uncle Stubby and Uncle Button going any place, they had to go along. So when Hiram thought he heard footsteps behind him and turned his head to look, what should he see but quite a procession tagging behind him.
“Well, I declare to goodness if that old Billy isn’t the most curious animal I ever ran across! He tags me from morning until night, so I almost feel I had a tail tied to me!”
“Oh, Hiram!” called Mr. Watson, “come and help us put up the washing machine!”
“Coming! Coming!” answered Hiram.
After an hour of pulling, hauling and lifting, with everyone bossing everyone else and stepping on one another’s fingers and toes, to say nothing of Billy Whiskers adding to the confusion by being under their feet, the necessary electric wiring was completed and the washing machine was in place.
Button had climbed on top of a cupboard in the laundry, thinking this would be a fine place from which to see all that went on and still escape being kicked or put out. Stubby had run under the table and jumped into a clothes basket where he would be out of the way and still could watch every move made. As for Billy, he was here, there and everywhere, under everyone’s feet and running across their paths and getting in the way generally, being put out of the laundry one minute and returning the next when they were busy over the machine.
At last it was set up and ready to start, and the man who had brought it from town walked over to the wall and touched a black button. The water began to churn round and round a piece of clothing the man had put in the washer to show them how quickly it would be washed clean.