Billy Whiskers, Jr.

by Frances Trego Montgomery

“No, you had better stay here. You are so big they will see you, while I am little and so near the color of the sand that I can sneak in and not be seen, and after finding out who lives there and getting a piece of meat, I will come back and tell you all about it.”

“Very well, but bring me back a bunch of carrots or a cabbage if you find any for I am as tired of eating leaves as you are of going without meat.”

Stubby crept cautiously round the bend and then laid down behind a bush out of sight so that he could watch and see who lived in the house. On the doorstep sat a stoop-shouldered man smoking a stubby pipe, while in front of him on the sand played three or four little children, bare-headed, bare-footed, with only faded calico slips on.

Through the open door Stubby could see the wife and mother leaning over the stove cooking, yes, he knew it by the smell, the selfsame steak he was longing for. He sneaked cautiously and quietly round to the back of the cottage and there—Oh, be joyful—he spied the remnants of the heifer that had been killed so that the family could have a taste of fresh meat, which was as great a treat to them as to Stubby, for they generally lived on salt meat and fish, which the father caught, for he was a fisherman, and took to a little town ten miles up the coast for shipment to large cities.

After Stubby had eaten all he wanted of the fresh meat he ran back to Billy and told him there was a small garden of vegetables back of the cottage where he could go as soon as it was dark and have a feast.

The tired, sleepy heads of the fisherman and his family had hardly touched their pillows when a large, black goat could have been seen in the midst of a vegetable garden, eating cabbages, turnips and lettuce, while a little yellow dog sat on a brown speckled rock and licked his chops after a meal of fresh beef and cold boiled potatoes he had found just inside the kitchen door, nicely chopped for breakfast.

Presently Stubby gave a sudden, sharp bark of alarm which made Billy throw up his head to see what was the matter, when what should he see but the rock Stubby was sitting on, walk off with four legs with a queer flat head sticking out from one side. Stubby jumped off in a hurry and was nearly bitten in two by a quick snap of the jaws of this queer looking beast, bird or fowl. They did not know which to call it as they had never before seen or heard of a snapping turtle, and that is what this was. Stubby had taken its shell for a large stone, as it had its head and feet drawn in out of sight when he jumped upon it.

This turtle was a huge one that the fisherman had caught the day before and was going to take to town in the morning to sell to a hotel-keeper to make turtle soup of.

The next morning Billy and Stubby kept out of sight until the fisherman had loaded his wagon with fish, vegetables and his turtle, and had started on his way to town. Then they ran out of their hiding place and followed him, taking great care to keep out of sight and in this way they soon came to the seaport town and followed him down to the wharf. When they reached the town they both walked under the wagon so that people would think that they belonged to the fisherman and would let them alone.

When they arrived at the wharf where lay a vessel ready to sail for San Francisco, the fisherman got off his wagon to unload and then, for the first time, he spied Billy and Stubby who were still under it and he was very much surprised to see them there I can tell you.