Large pieces of embroidery likewise were displayed, and show cases were filled with the most expensive and exquisite hand-made laces. Tables were strewn with fine doilies, elaborate handkerchiefs, scarfs and what not.
Billy was plainly amazed, and stood with wide-open eyes gazing about.
“Just look at those handsome pillows and the soft, downy cushions! How fine it must be to sleep on them instead of on a hard bundle of straw or perhaps on the hay beside the hay stack,” and so musing, Billy walked the length of the hall.
People were now beginning to crowd the building, and Billy was scarcely noticed among the throng. Petticoats were much in predominance, as men are little, if ever, deeply interested in such things as were here displayed. Billy rejoiced at this, for he did not hold women in such respect as men—they might shriek louder, but instead of giving chase and inflicting merited punishment, they much more often merely screamed their fright, and then collapsed in a little, limp heap. Therefore his seeming boldness on this occasion.
Once an old lady, dim of sight, patted him on the back, but, bending closer, discovered his horns and drew fearfully away, wondering at her fortunate escape.
As Billy strolled along, he became conscious that he was frightfully hungry, and when he heard a lady exclaim in admiration at a “biscuit quilt,” he edged nearer to that center of attraction.
There on the wall he saw what appeared to be a mammoth pan of many colored biscuit. For a long time he gazed at the sight, lost in happy contemplation of the feast that it would afford. The longer he looked, the hungrier he grew, and the wilder became the desire to sink his teeth in the delicious, puffy looking things.
When most of the crowd had pressed on to another point of interest, he crept up to the toothsome dainty and began to nibble at it.
“Rather tough,” he commented, “but perhaps they’ve baked too hard around the edge and when I get nearer the middle, the biscuits will be more tender. It must have been rather a large pan, and the outer ones had too much heat,” and he ate on with a right good will.
Having consumed all that was within easy reach, he began to pull. With a crash the entire supporting frame fell to the floor, knocking two or three people down and striking Billy a spiteful blow on the head.