Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-12-11
Bil'y's "Expedition."


| Billy lived in Chicago. 1 dare say
you may have heard of Chicago though
perhaps you have never heard of my
friend Billy, the buffalo hunter, who
lived in Chicago, away down on the
South Side, where he could hear the
waves of Lake Michigan breaking upon
the gravelly beach.
| In the winter these same waves piled
up q curious ice-wall against the break
waters. But Billy got tired of listen
ing to this thunder of the waves winter
| and summer. He did not care for the
ice-wall on the b.eak-water. He just
thought Chicago was the most I'M
interesting town fellow ever lived in.
Many country boy would have been
delighted to see what Billy saw every
day, but Billy didn't care for it. We
all of us incline to think our own sur
roundlngs the dullest of all, and to
wish we were somebody else, or thatw
were somewhere else, or that we did
! something else, or knew somebody else,
or had something else, or that some
how we could kick this world about us
into a cooked hat, and have things
different from what they are.
| Billy thought he would like to go to
Colorado and hunt bulaloes, or do any
other wonderful thing that offered
itself
| He never stopped to think how much
easier it is for a boy to build railroad,
or command canal-boat, or go to sea,
or kill an elk in story than it is for a
real boy to build q real railroad.
| We folks who write stories do not Of
| ten feel sorry for our boys when we get
them into scrapes. We know how easy
it is to get boy out of q scrape, if the
boy is only q story boy. But when %
real boy gets into real scrape, it is
| quite another thing.
But Billy was bound to 80 to the
plains and shoot o buffalo. He had
saved his small change until he got
quarter.
| SO one day it was made up between
him and Ben Clark and Tommy Oates
that they would go to Colorado. They
Were in the loft of Billys fathers st =
bic when the plan was fixed upon.
Then they told all the wonderful In
dian stories and robber stories they
could think of, and when these gave
out, they came to ghost sto les.
Poor Billy got his head so full OF
these things that he was afraid to blow
out the lamp when it came to lie bed
time. He awOke iii fright, sure that
burglars were climbing in at the win
dow, and he covered up his head, and
kept it covered for several hours; and
when at last he peeped timidly out, he
found that it hal been daylight for an
hour. The sun was blazing down on
the waves Of Lake Mi hi9an, and maxi
ing it look like sea OF gold.
But Billy was bent on his "eXpcdi-
ton" Ben Clark had some money in
the bank, and it would not cost much to
go in an emigrant train.
Billy had watch which nis uncle
had given him because Billy was named
for him. He could pawn that for
money.
Tommy had good many plans for
raising money, but they never came to
anything. lie read over all the stories
about boys who had become sailors and
butfalo-hunters, and money always
seemed to come to the boys in the
stories Just in the nick of time. Tommy
did not doubt that he also would find
some old man that he had never heard
of, or some benevolent robber or some
doting aunt, or somebody who would
put the money in his pocket before the
appointed time should arrive.
But when the first day of April came
the time appointed for setting forth
Tommy had no money. Billy, who had
talked so much about buffaioes and
hunters that the boys called him al
ready "the buf1alo-hunter, was all
ready TO go.
Poor Tommy could not go! But
never mind, the Others would ship their
butfalo-skins to Tommy, who could sell
them and come out to Colorado on the
proceeds. Then the three friends
would form an invincible band, which
no Ind an or buffalo could resist or
eyade.
Billy and his friend Ben were to go
on the midnight train. Tommy was
coming down to see them OIL. Billy
got an old revolver cut OF the drawer,
whore the harmless thing was kept, and
put it under the head of his bed. He
went to bed early. But when his mother
kissed him gentle goodnight, a lump
came in his throat. How could he
give her so much pain?
Never mind, he thought, he would
write to her; and then she would be
glad when he should come back, in
three years. and tell her all his adven-
ventures. Women never could under
stand boys, anyhow. They were such
cowards! If q boy We're to stay by his
mother always, lie migAt as we'll be a
fool at once-ora girl.
Eut it was an unluckly night for
Billy. The more he thought of it, the
worse he felt about leaving his mother,
and the more he thought of how she
would feel when he was gone. He
turned over restlessly on his bed 80
often that his mother grew uneasy, ard
came into the room.
Why, Billy, what's the matter?"
she asked.
Il don't feel very well, mother" said
Billy.
Unlucky word! His mother felt his
pulse, which, indeed, was beating at a
furious rate from excitement. She We
sure that he had a fever, and she
thought of calling DOCTOR but Billy
would not consent to it. At least his
mother could give him q little sweet
spirit of inter, which she said was very
cooling in fever. Then she fixed
! billy's pillow for him. so that he could