SILLY BILLY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 109, 1 February 1930, Page 26

SILLY BILLY

One day a dog went for a awim just above Niagara Falls. How like a dog! He always believes that Man will be able to save him if need be. Man, who removes thorns, mends broken legs, and takes away the ache of distemper, cqn also, the dog thinks, switch off a cataract. So Billy, a black-and-white spaniel, jumped into the mighty river from Goat Island and swam about, enjoying the water in true spaniel fashion. Then the rapids seized him and he was swept away like a cork. Down and down went the roaring waters, bearing the dog swiftly to the brink of the Horseshoe Falls and the whirlpool below. That seemed to be the end of Billy. But four days later a. fox-terrier saw him. During these days tourists in ’plenty had been to see the Falls and had noticed nothing. Only when a fox-terrier accompanied a party and showed great excitement did anyone perceive a spaniel cowering on a ledge above the thundering spray, the rocks, and the whirlpool. In the din of those mighty waters no one could possibly have heard his cries. It is something of a miracle that he reached the ledge at all, with a four-million horse-power river sweeping him away. Man justified Billy's faith. A' crowd soon gathered. Finally two men named Donalo and Gray fixed a plank to a jutting ledge forty feet above the dog, and Donalo crawled along it'with a long rope. He slipped and fell into the swift-flowing river. Gray jumped in and brought him ashore. They had been in danger of being swept over the curving Horseshoe Falls, but they did not give up. Donalo crawled along the plank again, got' the noose over Billy, and hauled him to safety. The whole neighbourhood rejoiced, and no one in Canada or America was half so popular as Blily. But soon came sad tidings, for a veterinary surgeon discovered that the spaniel's struggle in the water had led to internal injuries, and he had to be put to sleep. Yet the rescuer’s courage was not in vain. Billy’s last days were spent in warm quarters, where kind hands caressed him and be could have bowls of his favourite food. It was far better than a lonely, terrified death from starvation on a ledge above a whirlpool. Man did his best for poor silly Billy, who thought Niagara a good place for a bath.