Billy and the Big Stick, a short story

According to Wikipedia: "Richard Harding Davis (18 April 1864—11 April 1916) was a popular writer of fiction and drama, and a journalist famous for his coverage of the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War. Davis, whose mother Rebecca Harding Davis was also a prominent writer in her day, made his reputation as a newspaper reporter in May to June 1889 reporting on the devastation of Johnstown, Pa. following the infamous flood. He also reported on other events like the first electrocution of a criminal (the death of William Kemmler in 1890). Davis became a managing editor of Harper's Weekly, and was one of the world's leading war correspondents at the time of the Second Boer War in South Africa. As an American, he had the unique opportunity to see the war first-hand from both the British and Boer perspectives. Davis also worked as a reporter for the New York Herald, The Times, and Scribner's Magazine. He was popular among the leading writers of his time, and was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, Dodsworth as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero."