r enough to stick his head between the
crowd of people, what do you suppose he saw? There were Stubby and
Button flying round and round, being chased by Fourth of July nigger
chasers or snakes, as some people call this kind of fireworks. They
are funny looking things that when set on fire twist and turn like
live snakes, and no one can tell where they are going next. The
consequences are that they are always surprising one and coming after
them when they least expect it. The crowd had conceived the idea of
making a circle so Stubby and Button could not run away, and then
setting off a lot of these to chase them. It was Stubby's and Button's
frantic efforts to escape that had caused all the fun and laughter.

[Illustration]

"Here is the goat!" called out a lad. "Let's get him in the ring too!"

But instead of getting him in the ring as proposed, that lad found
himself going up in the air like a balloon, one of Billy's mighty
butts having sent him.

This broke up the party and when all had disappeared and the three
friends were alone again, Billy said, "Didn't I _tell_ you the Fourth
of July was a bad day for animals?"

CHAPTER VI

BILLY WHISKERS MAKES TROUBLE AT SCHOOL

The next morning Mr. Noland took Stubby away out into the country with
him in his auto, and Nellie carried Button over to her friend's to
show her the big, fine cat she had found out on the rocks.
Consequently Billy was left alone to amuse himself as best he could.

He wandered around for a while and at last went down to the lake and
took a swim, coming out as clean and white as a fresh bale of cotton.
Then not knowing what to do with himself, he decided to go up into the
town and see how it looked to him. Not being a very large town, he had
no difficulty in locating the main street and then the largest church,
the movie theater and the schoolhouse. As he walked down the street,
he stopped to help himself to a peach here and a plum there at the
different fruit stands, as well as to several bunches of asparagus and
a peck or two of green peas that he saw in baskets outside the grocery
stores.

When he reached the schoolhouse he found it was recess time and all
the children were out in the yard playing tag, leap frog,
crack-the-whip and such games as children always play at school. Billy
stood watching them for some time and as they seemed to be having such
great fun, he thought he would go in and join in a game of
pussy-wants-a-corner