Billy Whiskers in France

by Frances Trego Montgomery

When at last he approached the hospital from the back, he saw no one about, not even a dog or cat. But all the windows and doors were open so he knew they were at home and around somewhere. He cautiously approached, keeping a sharp lookout for the cook, for he did not want him to catch him and deliver him into the old General’s hands. He was just rounding the pig pen when he saw driving into the lane one of the field hospital ambulances.

“I expect it has come with a load of wounded dogs. I’ll just stay here and watch,” pondered Billy.

The hum of the ambulance motor was heard in the hospital and presently a young doctor and two trained nurses appeared at the door ready to receive the new patients. Billy could hear the low groans and yelps of pain from the dogs as the stretchers were lifted and the dogs were carried inside. Several dogs tagged in after the stretcher bearers and as Billy had always wanted to have a look about the hospital wards, he determined to follow.

Presently he found himself standing in the doorway of a long ward with tiny beds like babies’ cribs lining the wall all the way around, and in each bed was a dog, either curled up asleep or sitting upon its hind quarters watching the newcomers.

Some of the dogs had their legs in slings; others had bandages over their eyes, while others were in plaster casts. Beside each cot was a little stand on which had been placed the medicine for that particular dog, along with a bowl of drinking water.

“Gee!” exclaimed Billy. “A dog would not mind being sick in these quarters with all this comfort and the pretty nurses and the kind doctors to wait upon him. But what is that? Do my eyes deceive me, or am I seeing things? If so, I am a sick goat and I shall crawl into the first cot I find that is big enough to hold me. If I am not seeing things, then that big, black cat on the window sill is my dear old friend Button from the United States of America. Such being the case, Stubby, the other member of our trio, can’t be far off. Perhaps he is one of these wounded dogs that just came in the ambulance. I know how I’ll soon find out. I’ll just baa and if it is Button sitting in that window and Stubby is in one of these beds, I bet it will surprise them so that even if they are half dead they will come to life long enough to answer my baa.”

Billy gave one long, loud baa that resounded down the big, bare room like a loud clanging bell. Every person and dog in the long hospital ward jumped as if a bomb had exploded in the room, and some of the weaker and more timid dogs fainted dead away from the shock. They were weak from loss of blood, and fatigued from their hard work on the battlefield, having been without anything to eat or drink for many hours. And I am sorry to say that Stubby was among them. Billy listened in vain for a familiar bark, but he was going forward to speak to the cat which meowed with joy in response to his baa when a doctor picked up a window pole and made towards Billy, while another grabbed the cat and threw it out of the window before the cat knew what was taking place. He had been so delighted to hear Billy’s familiar baa that he did not even see the man approaching.

The doctor chased out Billy and all the dogs that had tagged in, and shut the door behind them.

Now Billy had not heard the answering meow, and so was still in some doubt as to whether or not the cat was Button, or if his old friend Stubby was one of the wounded dogs. As he thought of this he walked toward the back of the hospital into the yard. All the dogs which had been driven out with him were following him and telling him how they had enjoyed the commotion he had caused, and were plying him with questions as to how he got away from the General and back so soon, and how far he had gotten on the journey before he was caught. Billy paid not the slightest attention to any of them. In fact, he did not even hear what they were saying, he was so busy thinking of his two friends and wondering how they ever got to France for when he had last seen them they were in New York state.