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Show A GOAT AND TWO CHAIRS. The day that Stanley Granttm was 8 years old his father made him a present pres-ent of a wagon, goat and harness. Never Nev-er was there a prouder fellow than Stanley as he drove up and down the road, followed and talked about by an admiring crowd of all the small boys and most of the small girls in the neighborhood. The goat, Billy Buster by name, was a fine specimen of goathood, a brown and white animal, with two -formidable horns and a twinkle in his eyes, which Stanley admired very much. "He looks full of fun, papa," said Stanley, critically, when he first saw Bully Buster. Billy's twinkle did mean fun, and it meant investigation, too, and a decided fondness for having his own way. The goat was kept in a shed at the foot of the garden, and Stanley fed him and played with him whenever he was not driving him down the road. Soon Billy grew so fond of Stanley that it was hard to keep the goat from following the boy to school every morning, like Mary s little lamb did to her mistress and he grew so bold that he often came into the house without with-out an invitation, too, and once, to her dismay. Mollie, the parlor maid, was obliged to drive him out of the parlor, Billy objecting strongly at every step. On this occasion, Stanley's mother said to the little boy: "If you can't keen Billy Buster out of the house, Stanley, he will have to be kept at the stable down by papa's, factory." After that, Stanley tried very hard to remember to .tie up Billy whenever he lef t Mm, and Billy, on.higjgarJgd . ,pipij iniw in wnrnwiTfiirrBir awn to run away whenever he saw a rope in Stanley's hand. So there came a day when Billy Buster, Bus-ter, behind the shed, kicked up his heels with joy to see Stanley walk off to school and forgot all about him. "No rope for me!" cried Billy Buster. "Ki-hi!" Then he strayed around the house and saw the cook busy preparing vegetables veg-etables for dinner and Mollie walking down the road on an errand. And then the front door stood invitingly open, and Mr. Billy Avalked into the cool, pleasant hall and looked around with a twinkle to see what he could do next. Just inside the parlor door, which was also open, stood two little rush-bottomed rush-bottomed chairs. They had belonged to Stanley's great-grandmother. Stanley's Stan-ley's mother would scarcely let any one of the family sit upon these chairs, so careful of them was she. But when she came down to luncheon lunch-eon that day she beheld a strange scene from the parlor door. The parlor floor was strewn with bits of yellow straw. The two little slender great-grandmother chairs were snapped into twenty pieces upon the carpet, ami in the midst of the wreck sat Billy, calmly chewing at a few bits of straw, which hung out of his mouth! "Oh, Billy! Billy! Billy!" cried Stanley's Stan-ley's mother. And Billy got up with a disgusted air, at being interrupted in an agreeable agree-able meal, and walked out of the house before she could get her breath to tell him to go. After that exploit Billy did have to go and live at the stable down the road, and Stanley, missing his playmate, sometimes wished Billy didn't have such a very funny twinkle in his eyes. Brooklyn Eagle. |