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Updated: May 6, 2025
Taking a lantern with him, while Mrs. Martin and the children waited a bit anxiously, Grandpa Martin went to see what had happened. The Curlytops heard him laughing as they saw the flicker of his light through the white tent. Then they heard Nicknack bleating again. The goat seemed, to those inside, to be kicking about with his little black hoofs. "Whoa there, Nicknack!" called Grandpa Martin.
He knows where he wants to go, and the shortest way to get there!" Surely enough Nicknack was swimming toward the island. When he jumped out of the boat he floundered a little in the water, and splashed some on Teddy. Then he struck out, paddling as a dog does with his front feet. Nicknack turned himself about until he was headed toward the island, and then he swam straight toward it.
I wish we had Nicknack." "It would be fun if we had our goat here, wouldn't it?" asked Janet of her brother. "Yes, but I'd rather have a pony. I'm going to be a cowboy, and you can't be a cowboy and ride a goat." "No, I s'pose not," said Janet. "But a goat isn't so high up as a pony, Ted, and if you fall off a goat's back you don't hurt yourself so much."
When Nicknack had been put in the new stable which Grandpa Martin had built for him, Teddy, followed by Jan and Trouble, walked a little way into the woods. Ted carried with him a piece of old carpet. "What's that for?" his sister asked. "For a swing board," he answered. "But where's the swing rope?" "Here!" cried Ted suddenly.
Teddy turned to look, but, as he did so, he gave a cry of surprise. "It's a goat! It's our goat! It's Nicknack!" yelled Teddy. "He's stuck his head right through the bower and, oh, Jan! he's eating it!" And so Nicknack was. His head was halfway through the side of the tree-tent nearest Jan and the goat was chewing some of the green leaves.
"He jumped in," Ted answered. "Isn't he a good swimmer?" "I should say so! Here, Nicknack! Come here!" Janet called. The goat, which had been headed toward a spot a little way down the island from where Janet and her mother stood, turned at the sound of the little girl's voice and came in her direction.
The Curlytops, looking back, had a last glimpse of the flickering blue light as they hurried toward Cherry Farm, and they were a little frightened. "What do you s'pose it is?" asked Jan. "I don't know," answered Ted. "We'll ask Grandpa. Go on, Nicknack!" "Well, where in the world have you children been!" "Didn't you know we'd be worried about you?" "Did you get lost again?"
There's room for you, too, Mary, in the wagon." "Can Nicknack pull us all?" Mary asked. "I guess so. It's mostly down hill. Come on!" The four children got into the goat-wagon, and if Nicknack minded the bigger load he did not show it, but trotted off rather fast.
"Yes, but Nicknack is there in his stable. He isn't loose at all, and he'd have to be loose to come here and knock over Trouble's playhouse. The goat is tied fast just where he was last night." So Nicknack was; and Grandpa Martin, who was the first one up in the camp that morning, said the goat was lying quietly down in his stable when he went to give him a drink of water.
There lay the little fellow, sound asleep in the goat-wagon, his head pillowed on his arm, while Nicknack was bleating now and then between the bites of grass and weeds he was eating. "Oh, Trouble!" cried Mrs. Newton as she took him up in her arms. "Yes dis me I's Trouble," was the sleepy response. "Oh, 'lo, Teddy," he went on as he saw his brother. "'Lo, Bob. You come to find me?"
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