“Changed your opinion about me since two days ago,” thought Billy, remembering this same boy’s wish that they might rid themselves of his goatship upon the arrival of the automobile.
“Hurry along, boys,” urged their father. “Let’s get home before the crowd kidnaps him.”
“Or goatnaps him, papa.”
“Where shall we put him?” uneasily asked Mrs. Treat.
“Why, that’s the easiest thing of all. Where but on the front seat?” answered Harry, unhesitatingly. “That’s the honor place, you know, and Billy Whiskers is the honor goat of Licking County to-day.”
And this is how it came that Billy really kept his promise to old Browny, and rode back to Cloverleaf Farm in state, occupying the front seat, while the boys, Tom, Dick and Harry, were crowded into the tonneau with their mother.
CHAPTER XIV
THE REWARD
THE next morning things at Cloverleaf Farm had settled back into their accustomed groove. Breakfast was over by half past six, and soon after a wagon arrived bringing home the Duke, more vain than ever since his beauty had been publicly recognized, and Toppy, still somewhat ruffled owing to the long chase she had led her keepers the day previous ere she had been captured and returned to the coop she had deserted with Billy Whiskers’ aid.
