Billy Whiskers in France

by Frances Trego Montgomery

“Just step here where the water is clear and look at yourself,” said the Red Cross dog.

This Billy did, and then he too began to laugh, for he was a most comical sight. One side of his face looked twice as large as the other, and on this side the eye was swollen shut with a bump as big as a hen’s egg standing out above it. And this whole side of his head was as brown as could be while the other was white, which made him look exactly as if his head had been made in two parts and they were misfits.

“Hurry!” said a hound that was with them. “We better get to the woods. I hear some one coming!” and away scampered the dogs and goat to the grove, their old trysting place.

I should like to have had a picture of them as they stood beside the clear stream, with the dogs surrounding the mumpsy looking goat, laughing at his discomfort.

There was the big St. Bernard, majestic and tall; the long, sleek, black hound with tan ears and feet; the fluffy white French poodle with pinkish eyes; and the Red Cross Belgian dog with his short, sharp ears, wide-awake face and short, glossy black hair, while over his breast was still the white band with the Red Cross on it.

Once in the woods and comfortably fixed, Billy related to them the story of his life and how and where he first met the big black cat they had just seen, and the little yellow dog that was now wounded and in the hospital.

“Before you begin, Billy,” said the Red Cross dog, “I want to ask if the pains in your ear and eye are better?”

“Why, bless my soul, they don’t hurt at all! Even the swelling is going down. You sure are some doctor!”

“Now go on with your story, and excuse me for having interrupted you.”

“Well, to begin with, all three of us—the little yellow dog named Stubby, the big black cat called Button and myself—were born in the United States of America. We have known each other for years and been great chums. Why, we have scarcely been out of sight of one another for years until I joined the army. My regiment left so unexpectedly for France that I had no way of letting them know I was going, as they were away at the time on a vacation. And I bet you we will find out when I get a chance to talk to them that the minute they got home and found I was gone they managed to make friends with some of the soldier boys and made themselves so useful that they brought them along. Why, do you know that we three have crossed the big American continent twice, and we have been from Northern Wisconsin away down to the Gulf of Mexico? Not being satisfied with that, we have crossed the Pacific to Japan and we all three were in the war between Russia and Japan as mascots. Before that we crossed the Atlantic Ocean, sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar and over the Mediterranean Sea to Constantinople. We are some little globe trotters, don’t you think?”