Peering cautiously in, he found the field clear, much to his satisfaction.
“Deserted! I’ll now eat the supper I didn’t have a while ago.”
And into the pantry walked the naughty Billy, to pilfer the results of Mrs. Treat’s day spent at baking and brewing.
“Dear me! there surely are doughnuts somewhere about. I never make a mistake in that regard, for they are prime favorites with one B. W. Ah, there they are, and a two-gallon crock piled high with the brown beauties! I’ll try just one, and then that pumpkin pie on the next shelf looks a bit toothsome, too. I really think that all these doughnuts, six pies all in a row, a chocolate cake, and then another that they call a sponge, though I never could see the reason for the name, besides three fried chickens in that earthen bowl are just a little more than the boys ought to be allowed to eat to-morrow. It might make them sick, and so I’ll play the good fairy and remove temptation from their path,” and Billy fell to with a will.
His stomach was commencing to bulge with the goodies, and even his goatish appetite was half satisfied, when Whack! Whack! resounded a broomstick on Billy’s broad back, wielded vigorously by the mistress of the household. Discouraged and back beaten, his goatship scurried to the barn, there to nurse his many grievous wrongs.
“Small use in my trying to do right,” he cogitated. “Somebody is always against me, and as soon as I am up, they are sure to knock me down. I am getting sore,” and he rubbed his poor back against Browny’s stall. “Anyway, there’s a good time ahead to-morrow.”
Now Billy had heard a great deal of this annual county event, for the Treat boys had discussed it at length. Nevertheless, it would all be new to him. As he sought his bed of fragrant hay, his thoughts ran:
“Wonder what a Fair is like. Maybe just a miniature Circus, and then it will be a bore to me. But I’ll go in the auto. That will be a new experience, anyway. Will sit on the front seat, too; if not going to the Fair, at least on the return trip. There will be room for me somewhere. I have always managed my own affairs with a fair measure of success, and I believe I can this time. They say where there’s a will there’s a way, and I am the Will in this instance. With a good night’s rest and an early breakfast, I will be in trim and—and—” but Billy was off to the land of dreams.
CHAPTER II
FAIR DAY DAWNS
