BILLY BISHOP. 25 



followed the directions of Dr. Getty and took his medicine 

 frequently, as I could testify; but he did not seem to be 

 as disgusted with it as I was when the same doctor pre- 

 scribed his great tablespoonful doses for me. I men- 

 tioned this fact to mother, and she said that Mr. Bishop 

 was older and more accustomed to medicine, and knew 

 the importance of following the doctor's orders better 

 than I. No doubt mother was right, but I can't help 

 thinking that what Dr. Getty gave Billy must have tasted 

 better to him than what he gave me ; but I was young. 



Several times afterward Billy Bishop took me with 

 him when he went eeling. Mr. John Ruyter, the tanner, 

 said it was because Billy was afraid to go alone, but it is 

 possible that a luncheon which mother left on the table 

 for us on our return may have had its influence. Father 

 said that Billy was not good company for a boy, and be- 

 sides that, "It would be better for Fred to stay at home 

 and read or study instead of being out bobbing for eels ; 

 his mind runs too much on such foolishness." But 

 mother argued that a boy must have some fun and could 

 not study all the time, and Billy Bishop was a kind- 

 hearted man who had never done anything wrong, and 

 the result was that we had eels for breakfast many times. 



Billy occasionally played the fiddle for dances, not for 

 the balls and parties of the more fashionable sort, but just 

 dances, where the musician did not become wealthy all at 

 once. I was too young to know much of this, but once 

 he told me in a low voice, while putting on a fresh bob 

 when the water was warm and the old one was spoiled, 

 that he had played for a dance a few nights before, and 

 the big boys had been "pizen mean. They asked me out 

 for 'freshments an' I laid down my fiddle an' bow, an' 

 when I come back they'd sawed that bow 'cross a candle 

 an' it was that greasy that it sp'iled the strings, an' I was 



