lear,
Billy wheeled around and ran out on deck, where he saw Stubby and
Button eating up the bacon that had spilled out of the frying pan as
it went through the window.

"Leave me a slice of that bacon and then run, for we shall have to get
off this boat in double quick time if we expect to save _our_ bacon,"
said Billy, thinking the slang expression very fitting indeed.

"Why, what is up?" asked Stubby.

"Didn't you hear a racket going on in there?"

"No. We just came down from the upper deck."

"Well, take my word for it and vanish before you are hit with a club
or thrown overboard. I'll be with you as soon as I lick up this
grease. Since you have eaten all the bacon I had so much trouble to
get, I am not going to lose this grease anyway."

Splash bang! came water, bucket and all down on Billy's head. Quick as
lightning, Billy jumped through the window through which it had come,
and found himself standing face to face with the cook, who had the
most astonished expression on his face you ever saw when he beheld
Billy coming through the high, small window.

Billy stood on his hind legs and knocked the jaunty little white
cook's cap off the man's head with one of his fore legs before the
cook could defend himself or turn to run. They were in very close
quarters as a ship's kitchen is not the largest room in the world. At
last the cook got up enough courage to strike out at Billy. He
intended to hit the goat in the stomach as he stood towering before
him, but alas! his knuckles hardly touched Billy's stomach when he
found himself flying backwards across the long, narrow room, out
through the opposite door and hit the railing of the boat so hard it
broke and let him fall splash into the water.

[Illustration]

On perceiving this, Billy turned and ran off the boat, and soon found
Stubby and Button, who were waiting for him. When they had gotten far
enough away for safety, they stopped under a large shade tree and had
a good laugh at Billy's recital of how he butted the cook overboard.

"It will do him good," said Button. "I bet it will be the first bath
he has had in weeks."

"Bet so too," agreed Stubby.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" asked Billy. "That bacon has made
me more hungry than ever. The salt in it has just whetted my
appetite."

"Mine too," said Stubby. "I feel as if I could drink the river dry, I
am so thirsty."

"Say we trot along this drive that runs by the river until we come to
som