The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-05-16
THE STORY OF ''WISE BILLY.

I
sion, for Wise Billy was witless There
were some of the Bowmanville people who
have it that Billy was entirely
witless, and it was in the expression OF
this belief these people showed that they
We're to be cssssed with the wiser ones.
Wise Billy had ben hit on tho head
when he was nothing more than tod
dler and 1t was the blow that set his
mind cropping for things that it could new
er fully grasp. Bowmanville, while 1t Is
part of the great city. has green fields
and great forests yet untouched by the !
AK of natures tyrant Silly roamed the
fields and threaded the forest. Like Little
Hiawatha he learned of the birds and the
squirrels their secrets. They were play
mates that never made sport of his men
tai shortcomings. He loved them and
they loved him. The streams beyond the |
little stream which farther on its course
becomes the Chicago river, were the |
haunts of bobolinks. 1t was there that
the Italian bird catchers hired by the big |
city dealers We're in the habit of setting
their traps to catch rollicking Robert of
Lincoln that he might be cooped up in a |
I by cage to pine away for few brief
summer months for the supposed pleasure
of some one whose ideas of liberty did
not include bird and beast.
One afternoon the Italians set their
call bird in the lower compartment. The
men went to a hedge by the roadside to
watch results. They saw boy start on
a keen Jump across the meadow. His feet
were winged Before the trappers could
realize what was UP the lower door of
the first trap in line was open. boblink
was freed and the trap itself was
crushed mass of wire and sticks. They
tried, but they could not catch this grey
| hound of lad. He liberated twelve birds
and smashed twelve traps, and then shot
into the Budlong woods. 1t was Wise
Billy who had done this turn for his bob
link friends.
Wise Billys father and mother sent him
| to school. The teachers did not want to
| receive him, but he was quiet, and he
showed shortly that impression could be
| made upon his disordered mind. He knew
| more about the pictures than he did about
| the words, but in the course of a year or
! two he wrote sentences disjointedly. 1t
was poetry that Wise Billy loved. espe-
| cially the poetry in which the words sang
| of birds and trees and flowers. 1t was an
inspiration to hear Billy repeat Bryant's
| 'Boboiink and the Lines to a Water
fowl. There was place iii his heart for
these, and the heart seemed to speak to
| some little sound section Of his muddled
mind
Wise Billy reported at the school one
| morning lHdC ne was gong 10 De d poet.
| He stood at his desk and made the an
nouncement out loud. The pupils laughed
and laughed The teacher tried to look
! kindly, but there was a bit of merriment
in her face. 'I'll bring some verses and
show you" cried Billy. He was keenly
alive to ridicule witless though he was.
Wise Billy had found a friend. He was
a man whoetramped the field with round
box in which he put leaves and flowers,
and with an opera glass, through which
he stared at birds. Billy had come across
the stranger near the rivers edge just
west Of the Budiong wood The man was
picking marsh marigolds. Billy told him
he would show him where there were
some prcttier ones If the man would
promise not to pick them. The stranger
seemed struck by this appeal from the
boy with hating tongue and vacant eye
You're a second edition of Ralph Waldo
Emerson, my boy" said he little quizzi
cally.
They're pretty by the water" sait
Billy, land the wind whispers to then
and they tell me what the wind says"
You're poet" said the man with tht
box. II wouldn't pick your flowers nov
were they the real gold they seem to be
but I'm after birds, too"
Bang 'em and put EN- In boX?"
mo, Just look at them"
"Tll show you lots said Billy.
The man came to the meadows Otter
after this and met Billy. The lad kney
where the lark finch built, where the wire
placed its paper-lined home and wher
the orole swung It's cradle. He showed al
his treasures to the man who was willin
to look and to spare. One day Bill
. brought some papers to his botanical
pathological acquaintance. They 7
poems" he said like what the man wit
the gray beard wrote about bobolinks an
he l<a sal
about the yellow swamp flowers
; Billy's naturalist friend took the mar
uscripe Rhythm there was none; tn
spelling would make photographic
n weep, but there was poetry. The boy sal
in essence that the margold didn't d
because he thought of it all the yea
J. through, and thinking Of things max,
q EN- live"
One of Billy's schoolmates had trappe
i a shore lark The bird sings as 1t soar
a and in that respect is like unto the lal
!" that Eat heavens gate sings" Billy he
: fought a good fight for the trapped lal
when the trapper was taking it HON
ward, but crowd of schoolmates who r
garded larks as fair prey made numbe
carry the day.
One day Billy and the stroller afie
20 were tramping the meadow that edges t
Is Bowmanville road that runs along al
re crosses the rustic bride over the nor
a. branch of the river. They heard sor
a. shouts, and turning saw that buildi
~ facing the road was on fire. 1t was
Of frame structure, with the two upper st
of ries occupied by families. It was on t
Oy ledge of the front window Of the upr
co apartment that the Gagged lark which 3
er ly had tried 20 save had been imprison
to for several days. The man and b
: started for the scene of the fire. T
" building was a furnace. sEverybod
out" called man in the crowd that h
gathered.