this hope was destroyed by the eventual discovery of his sex. Nothing
remained now but to accept him as an ordinary kid, and to find amusement
in his accomplishments,--eating, climbing, and butting. It must be
confessed that these were of a superior quality; a capacity to eat
everything from a cambric handkerchief to an election poster, an
agility which brought him even to the roofs of houses, and a power of
overturning by a single push the chubbiest child who opposed him, made
him a fearful joy to the nursery. This last quality was incautiously
developed in him by a negro boy-servant, who, later, was hurriedly
propelled down a flight of stairs by his too proficient scholar.
Having once tasted victory, "Billy" needed no further incitement to his
performances. The small wagon which he sometimes consented to draw for
the benefit of the children never hindered his attempts to butt the
passer-by. On the contrary, on well-known scientific principles he added
the impact of the bodies of the children projected over his head in his
charge, and the infelicitous pedestrian found himself not only knocked
off his legs by Billy, but bombarded by the whole nursery.
Delightful as was this recreation to juvenile limbs, it was felt to be
dangerous to the adult public. Indignant protestations were made, and
as Billy could not be kept in the house, he may be said to have at
last butted himself out of that sympathetic family and into a hard and
unfeeling world. One morning he broke his tether in the small back yard.
For several days thereafter he displayed himself in guilty freedom on
the tops of adjacent walls and outhouses. The San Francisco suburb
where his credulous protectors lived was still in a volcanic state
of disruption, caused by the grading of new streets through rocks and
sandhills. In consequence the roofs of some houses were on the level
of the doorsteps of others, and were especially adapted to Billy's
performances. One afternoon, to the admiring and perplexed eyes of the
nursery, he was discovered standing on the apex of a neighbor's new
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