said Billy. "There is no safe place for men or
beasts on the Fourth of July if there is a boy within a hundred
miles."

"What shall we do?" asked Stubby. "If we stay here we will be blown up
or maimed for life. And if we run out, the whole pack will probably
set upon us."

"I say we show fight anyway," said Button. "In the first place, they
don't know we are here and in the second we have the advantage of
taking them by surprise. Billy, you can butt them while Stubby bites
their heels and I will run up their backs and scratch the shirts off
their shoulders."

"Good idea, Button!" commended Billy. "You should have been a General,
at least, in the army."

"Oh, stop your fooling and mind when I hiss we all jump out of the
bushes at once and attack our victims. Select the boy you will attack
as they come toward us."

"All right," replied Billy. "I'll attack that big, red-headed boy who
seems to be the leader."

"And I'll go for that snub-nosed, freckled-faced urchin with the
ragged pants, as he seems to be displaying a fine amount of shins at
present," said Stubby.

"Then I'll go for that boy who runs with his head and shoulders down.
It gives me a good expanse of back to scratch," said Button.

On came the boys, whooping and hallooing with all the power of their
lungs. But when they were within twenty feet of the trees and bushes
that concealed our Chums, they jumped out at them. The leader stopped
in his tracks, too dazed and surprised to move at seeing a strange
goat come flying out of the bushes straight toward him with head
lowered to butt. He scarcely had time to know he _was_ surprised when
he was hit in the pit of the stomach and sent sprawling in the sand
fifteen feet away. As he picked himself up he saw a funny sight--a big
boy running straight for the lake with a big, black cat sitting on his
shoulders scratching the shirt off his back. Button never moved, but
stuck to him as the boy swam farther and farther out. At last it
seemed to occur to the boy to dive, which he did and Button, hating
the water as all cats do, jumped for a big rock that was sticking out
of the water. There he sat and meowed for Billy to swim out and carry
him to shore on his back as he had often done before. But Billy was
nowhere in sight. After butting the boy he had disappeared as
completely as if the earth had opened and swallowed him.

As for Stubby, he had chased all the boys up town, first biting one
boy's shins and then