“The little rascal!” laughed one of the bystanders who had listened to the tale. “I don’t believe you hurried so much after that enlightening speech, did you?”
“Well, hardly. You see,” beaming, “I wasn’t so sure that his neck was broken after that!”
“Hump!” thought Billy, disgust written on his face. “These mothers are the queerest things. They tell stories by the full hour of their children as if they had the most wonderful boy or girl in the whole world. And, after all, they prove to be just about the average—nothing so exceedingly bright about any of those stories that I can see,” and off he strolled, for he meant to make his way out of the building without further delay.
He would likely have carried out this determination, but before he had proceeded half way to the door, all his sympathies were aroused by one of the exhibited babies. For whatever other faults Billy possessed, a hard heart was not one of them, and any sign of suffering brought quick sympathy from him.
“Deary, deary me! That child must have the whooping cough! What a crying shame to bring it here. It is black in the face already, and there sits its mother doing absolutely nothing for its relief. I’m sure she doesn’t know what ails the poor baby!”
Now it happened that the Treat trio had had a long siege of the disease the winter before, and Billy knew very well what to do when a paroxysm of coughing wracked the sufferer. Had he not seen Mrs. Treat, who was usually so gentle a mother, vigorously pound her offspring on their backs? And hadn’t the boys come out as hearty as ever?
So Billy resolved to take the same measures in the present case, and thereupon he backed away, gained a start, and gathering momentum with every forward step, he hurled himself pell-mell against the child. Off it went, rolling and tumbling from its mother’s lap to the floor, emitting shrill screams, though they were more from fright than from injury.
“There! It’s recovered its breath, at any rate, and that is the main thing,” was Billy’s self-congratulatory thought, but alack and alas for the philanthropically inclined goat, punishment swift and sure followed.
Cries of alarm, a general stampede among the onlookers, and an umbrella wielded by a hearty farmer hastened Billy’s ignominious flight from the scene.