"Put down that stone and what are ye about, Tim Rooney? Don't ye know a fine Billy goat is a nice thing to have in the family? And it is luck he will bring us by coming to us himself. Put him in the shed, and to-morrow you can hitch him to your cart and make him haul the cabbages to market."
Tim pulled up a bunch of nice, fresh carrots and approached Billy. With these he induced Billy to follow him to the shed where he locked him in for the night.
After fastening Billy in, Tim went off and left Billy to take care of himself the best he could, and he soon found a heap of straw which he curled himself upon and was in dreamland in no time.
He had been asleep for several hours when he was awakened by a dog barking at the moon, and he was about going off in another nap when he thought he heard the bleating of a goat in the shed adjoining his.
He pricked up his ears to listen and sure enough he heard it again very distinctly, and at the same time he saw a large knot hole in the board partition that divided his shed from the adjoining one, so he got up and went to look through it to see if he could not see the goat he heard bleating.
Into the next shed the moonlight was streaming, and lying on a pile of straw in the light he saw a beautiful white Nanny goat, that made his old heart palpitate with delight, he was so glad to see one of his own tribe again.
Nanny lay there unconscious of his presence; apparently bleating in her sleep, she lay so still. As she did not move Billy concluded to awaken her so he bleated "Good evening" to her. He had only gotten half through his salutation when she jumped up quickly as if she had been touched with an electric wire, and looking around with a frightened stare, said:
"Good gracious, how you frightened me! Who are you, and where are you, for I see no one?"
"You can't see me, but I am here all the same, at the other side of the shed, looking at you through the knot hole. My name is Billy Whiskers and I come from nowhere in particular and I am bound for the same place. Now, tell me your name and the name of the people you are living with."
"My name is Nanny O'Hara and I live with a family of the same name but I belong to their eldest son, Mike."