ogether, so suiting the action to the
thought, he vaulted over the fence, landing in a kettle of
scarlet dye, that had been left there to cool. When he got out of
the kettle the fore-part of him was scarlet, and the hind, white,
but he did not mind that, so after shaking the drops from his
eyes and beard, he was as ready to explore as if nothing had
happened.

[Illustration]

Seeing the kitchen door open, he went up the steps softly and
looked in. He could see no one in the kitchen, and smelling some
nice sweet-cakes, which had just been taken out of the oven and
placed on the table, he walked cautiously across the floor and
began to eat them. From the floor he could only reach a few, so
he mounted a chair, and from that stepped onto the table. As he
did so, he stepped into a large loaf cake with frosting on it.
While kicking that off, and licking the frosting off his feet, he
caught sight of a nice red apple that one of the children had put
on a small shelf for safe keeping. This he quickly packed away
where moth and rust doth not corrupt. Hearing some noise, he was
about to get off the table, when raising his head, he faced
another goat. But this goat must have come from the infernal
regions for in all his life he had never seen such a villainous
looking fellow. Billy was no coward, so he backed off as far as
the table would allow, and then butted forward as hard as he
could. A crash! a bang! and the other goat was upon him, and they
both rolled off the table.

Where had the other goat disappeared when he had butted him, and
what was this thing around his neck? A looking-glass frame, with
little pieces of glass sticking in it. Backing out of the frame,
Billy went in pursuit of the other goat; for he did not know that
it was his own image he had butted in the kitchen looking-glass.
Seeing a dark hall-way, he went boldly in, and walked on toward a
light he saw at the other end. Arriving there, he found that the
light came from a window in the parlor. He marched in, still
looking for his rival, but soon forgot him in gazing at the
things in the room, especially a fancy basket of fruit under a
glass cover. Now Billy was very partial to fruit of all kinds, so
he upset the marble-top table the basket was setting on and out
rolled all the luscious looking fruit. He bit into a rosy cheeked
peach, but of all fruit he had ever eaten, this was the most
tasteless and tough. It stuck to his teeth so he could not
separate hi