“Whatever is happening?” screamed Silly Will. “Let me get a light.” He found a match and struck it, but his candlestick was empty. “Ba-a-moo-oo” said some faint voices. “I take back my fat!”
By this time Silly Will was thoroughly frightened and shivering with cold besides.
“I’d better get dressed,” he thought, and groped his way to the chair where he had left his clothes. He could find only his cotton underwaist and his cotton shirt. His wool undershirt and drawers, his trousers and stockings, and his silk necktie were gone. And so were his leather shoes. Just the lacings lay on the floor. “Mooooo” he seemed to hear a faint sound almost like the little girl’s cow he had made fun of in the afternoon. “I take back my hide.”
He put on the few cotton clothes that were left, but there were no buttons to hold them together. “Moooooo,” he heard a faint voice say. “I take back my bones.”
Terrified he ran to the closet to see what more he could find. “I’ll surely freeze,” he thought as he lighted another match. “I’ll slip on my coat and get into bed.” But his warm coat with the fur collar was gone, too. “Chee, chee, chee,” he seemed to hear a faint sound almost like the squirrel he was fond of frightening. “I take back my skin!”
But he did find some cotton stockings and some old overalls. These he put on relieved to find they had metal buttons. Then poor Silly Will crawled back to bed wearing his cotton clothes and waited for morning to come. He didn’t sleep much for the wire spring cut into him. He was cold, too.
As soon as it was light he hunted around for more clothes. He found some straw bed-room slippers. His rubbers too were there and he put them on over his slippers. Then he ran downstairs to get something to eat.
“Anyway,” he thought, “those old animals can’t get me when it comes to eating. I never did care much about meat.”
The pantry door squeaked as he opened it. It sounded for all the world like a far away barnyard—hens, cows, and pigs. He looked around. No milk, no eggs, no bacon! “Bread and butter will do me,” he thought.
But the butter had gone too! He opened the bread box. The bread was still there! He almost wept from relief. By hunting around he found a good deal to eat. Cocoa made with water instead of milk was pretty good. Then there were crackers and apples. His oatmeal wasn’t very good without milk or butter. But he ate it. He knew he would have plenty of vegetables and fruits and cereals.