e house that has a yard around it, where we can hide until we have
a chance to sneak into the house or stable to see what we can find to
eat," proposed Button.

They had to travel several miles to find such a place for they were
still in the suburbs of New York City and not far enough out for the
summer homes with their beautiful grounds. Once they passed a
roadhouse where they got a drink out of a watering trough for animals
and stole a few mouthfuls of food from some baskets a greengrocer had
left outside the kitchen door. Button and Stubby stole only meat and
went running off, Button with a big lamb chop between his teeth and
Stubby with a huge steak, while Billy contented himself with a head of
lettuce. They were just rounding a bend of the road when they heard an
excited Frenchman calling to them. Turning to look, they saw the
French cook wildly waving his arms at them and calling to them to
bring back his things. But they only kicked up their heels at him and
disappeared from his view around the bend in the road.

"Gee!" exclaimed Stubby, "this steak is the best thing I have had to
eat in a fat goose's age."

"Yum! Yum!" replied Button. "It can't beat this chop for tenderness
and juiciness."

"Nor my head lettuce. It is as sweet as sugar and as cold as ice. I
just dote on cold, crisp lettuce. The colder and more crisp, the
better. But I am afraid that cook will have an apoplectic fit if he
isn't careful, the way he was waving his arms and carrying on.
Excitement such as that is very bad for a fat old cook of forty."

"Hark! I hear an auto coming from the roadhouse. We better get back
farther in the bushes and hide until it passes. They might be after
us," said Stubby.

But they were not pursuers, but only two young fellows chatting and
laughing over the dismay of the cook, for he had called to them that
if they saw a big goat, small dog and black cat to run over them and
kill them dead, dead, dead!

CHAPTER IV

AN UNEXPECTED SHOWER BATH

Just at dusk the next day Billy, Stubby and Button entered a small
town to look for some nice quiet place for them to sleep, for they had
traveled far that day and were tired of being chased by dogs and
stoned by boys. So when they came to a small bungalow on the outskirts
of the town with a cellar door open and no one around to drive them
away, the three stepped in as noiselessly as possible and crept down
the cellar stairs to find a place to hide until the fa