billy was only five years old, but he had learned to like candy! you small boys who are hearing this read to you needn't look surprised. it probably was very natural to you to like candy, but that is no reason why billy didn't have to learn. he first began on a peppermint stick; one of those lovely sticks with red lines running curly upwards, and white inside, with hollow tubes running through, so that you can suck an orange with it—well, it was just this sort of a stick that billy first tasted, and at first he didn't like it, but as he got a taste almost every day, he finally was just as fond of it as was his little master. there, i have let the cat out of the bag, or the dog—and there is no use in my telling any more of this story, for you know all about it now. that is, you know who billy is, and that's all there really is to this tale of a little dog.