BILLY AND HANS 



and that Billy would no more respond 

 to his brotherly love, he went away 

 into the remotest corner of his window 

 niche, refusing to lie any longer in 

 their common bed, or stay where 

 they had been in the habit of staying 

 together. All day he would touch 

 neither food nor drink, and for days 

 following he took no interest in any- 

 thing, hardly touching his food. Fear- 

 ing that he would starve himself to 

 death, I took him out on the large 

 open terrace of my house, where, 

 owing to his old persistent desire to 

 escape, I had never dared trust him, 

 and turned him loose among the 

 plants. He wandered a few steps as 

 if bewildered; looked all about him, 

 and then came deliberately to me, 

 climbed my leg, and went voluntarily 

 into the pocket Billy loved to lie in, 

 and in which, even in Billy's com- 

 36 



