SHORT STORY.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume V, Issue 1349, 10 June 1905, Page 4

SHORT STORY.

lilll's Moment.

: Fob the twenty-sixth time that afternoon / Tommy Hntrigao, with % whoop and a j: cry, drove hk goat-earriago down the length of Somers-stroet, For the twentysixth time,a discussion followed as to which boy was to ride with Tommy next. That would bo the twenty-seventh weary trip, ' and thero would be a twenty-sighth and a twenty-ninth and -but what did they think it mattered to the goat ? Angrily Billy shook himself and started forward 1 Tommy promply whacked him aoross the ■ back. " Stop 1" he cried. •' What do you want to go on for ?" How should he know ? thought Billy bitterly.. Down the street to the right, flashing in the sunlight, lay in scarlet and silvor glory; an empty tomato-can, E;ich time as he had. passed the goat had aweryccl irresistibly. toward it. Each time the whacking stack across his ribs' had recalled him. Whaokiogs always I They were Tommy's invariable comment upon any attempt of his goat's to vary the prescribed menu, The whacking! Billy could stand, but not tlio injustice, " Oh, if fe/nen could but look into the hearts «f goats I" Billy's ribs wcra still sore as the result of an attempt to lunch upon a delicate ohomise which had tossed in the breeze two Mondays gone in the Hwrigan back* yard. ■ Yet it was only the fierce, passion natural to his race that had d-iven him to seize it. If an occasional can, an old shoe or two, or even a titbit of old iron had been given: bim, he would not have attacked the clothesline. But others judged for him. liecause these things wore caviare to the general, was his natural . ippotite to be thwarted ? The firo of his rage blazed up afresh within the animal, as the gleam .of scarlet and silver again ought his eye. If not that, then soiiio; thing else-he swore to . himself—and soon 1 If gluttony were a vice, be .vould glory in it. Everyone seemed to think ii goat an obstinate;, sapid, bruiuhsed creaturo; why not Do one, and. secure what pleasure life could offer, in that way ? If thore were anyone who believed in. hiiu—thought Billy; «iid then .« softer light came into his eye. Was hi not forgetting the little.'Gwendoline. Tommy's baby 1 sister? '

Perhaps the obild was too young to realise that., lie. was. a goat, Billy's cynical thought had sometimes been, But, fit any rate, she treated him like a dog (the idoal condition for any domestic animul, of course), She patted him, die called him '' goad boy " and once she bad given him to est. a lovely cut steel buckle, which had been her birthday, present from hor rich Auntifulia, But it would be unfair to Billy to say thav for selfish reasons did bo adore her, Tho world does not comprehend tho goat naturo,. wbicli made a fierce flamo of unselfish loyalty blaze up in Billy's, heart at .the touch of a tiny haud. If this simple tale servos to lighten tbe harden of any goat, to mako any ono draw the lines loss rigidly be-

tween his treatment of dumb and of

speaking animals, to convince any reader who may bo moved to tears by it ini essentials, what a goat ho nimself is, it will not have bßcn written in vain. But to return one might almost, though not quite, Buy a nos moutons. Just as Billy had decided to welcome the weary twenty-sov.enih trip lor :he sake, of: a determined dash at the scarlet and silver glory by tho roadside, he heard Tommy Harrigiin onnounco :■ that if he were a'lowtd to pitch he. would not be averse to suspending operations : with the goat carriage for the sako of a . baseball gimo, Billy's head was jorked toward" : h0m0,.. and with renewed wtnicl'.ings Tommy drove his unhappy slave into tho Utile enclosed paddoen, and, unhitching him, left, him, tho hated bnndlo ol hay bang his only provendor.. Within the narrow confines of his pusori -the enraged goat wandered, angrily setting his teeth from time to time against its. itoii bars. Bnt nothing could, ho find, to eat except, at last, tho litilo strap that was sometimes fastened ■ of the carriage. It was a eoai>e-grained, baaly-ritnmed bit of leather, no succulent ltfoMcl, bin Billy devourod. it. eagerly. He felt a littln calmer then. ■' Tbo sunset light whs flooding tboHivrri- ' gan b'lckynW an hour li.er, w.en across thohwu Mill toward the gtw. paddock ciihe tne.lit.le Gwendoline. Billy s heart . swelled, with generous emotion uth'er approach,. aiid at the kind words she addnssod 10 him. For her sake he was docile . when the hated Tommy re-hitched him '.o the cairiago. For on the weaty twentyaoveiith trip lie was to dratv the ono creature who oared for him. Tommy . raised her to her seat. Then suddenly he discovered tba*. tho strap was missing, toe : strap which buckled across nod In-ld tbe ctitld in her seat, Billy slyij chuckled, oven when Tommy gave him a whack or two. . At last ha had anuoyod the taskmaster. . " Stay still, Gwenny," cried Tonimy darting into the house; 111 fetch so mo. string and fix you safely," ■■ ■' -Scarcely was her brother out of sight when "Gtdap," tiio litilo Gwendoline cried " Gwenny drivo herself," she chuckled, as she palied at the reins. Billy smartly pulled the cart down tho drive and out into the street. He'would give tho baby ond himself a happy hour, far from. Tommy and the whip. Gayly they started down Seniors-street, and then they heard the voioe of Tommy in pursuit, . Billy flow, the Mo Gwendelino (Mount- ■ ging him. with gurgles of deligh". Tho ■ goat's blood was stirred by the oxciteinent of the race; then' like a flush oiitue a sadden jolt and an ominous lightening of the loan. liiily fetoppcil mid tauid ltu . heau. Tommy was siill far behind, .and there in the middle of tho stnotlay the litllo Gwendoline, softly crying, while tho dust and blood mixed toopoil the re.-c----pink of her chosk. How had it happened asked Billy wildly of himself, that she had fiillui ? Jolts and paving blocks were not uncommon in Somer-itrcet. Suddenly ho remembered—the strap llt was his fault. . To satisfy his appetite he had eaten away tho'.safeguard of the only thing ho cared for,or whojiared fot him.. ■ ...■ Who cm# bavo guessed that beneath : that hairy joat a heart was breaking ? The ''animal Blood stock still, almost . petrified in his grief, Then ahead if him he heard the. cluitcr of hoofs, and behind ;; hiiii.th'.' tallied ci'y of Tommy, Straight ■■'■ down. Seniorsstreet was coming ahorse, dragging an _cu)p'sy phaeton. Crashing along tbc cngiira of destruction cimc,yet Billy seemed not to ro.iliao what it iniwnt. Tben ho cauo to his Eeuecs. In tho brief '' mOtuoht that wos left ho half turned his head and saw'the flutter of the Gwcndo- ' lino's gingham frock; Men straight at the oncoming horse ho dashed, and about fifteen feet from tho child, tho horse t tbo pbaeion, the goat, and his littlo carriago ; ■pame down in ono heap, The nest day by tbe'paddneli they buricd him. The little Gwendoline was s ill in by-!. In h week she was wi 11, and she *sked for Billy. Tliero v/ir« ft uieinent when si" W'>s in dimgr of crynig, bi.t To ..my showed her his new puppy juthin. TM ft year *go The ow . green mound b: side <he paddock isnm* ; forgo' en, jet -who sii 11 sa> >t is i o ■ ■ ''hern's'' grove;.?- Unison ■ holes, in Col ier'f. .