“Oh, did you meet him?” asked Mary. “Isn’t he nice? He comes every year, and he’s always the same. I like him!”
“We liked his waffles!” laughed Ted. “But what’ll we do, Jan?”
“I guess we’ll have to go a little farther from here to get money for the Home,” agreed his sister. “And maybe folks what haven’t heard Trouble’s song so often would give pennies to hear him sing.”
“Maybe,” said Teddy. He was not quite sure about it.
“Well, I’m much obliged for my ride,” put in Mary. “And I’ll give you for the Home the first penny I get.”
“Thanks,” answered Jan. “Now we’ll ride ourselves;” and she got in the seat when Mary got out, while Ted took his place in front and then, Jan holding Trouble, away started the Curlytops once more to see what they could do to help Hal and the other little lame boys and girls by making the Home, where they spent so many sad months, a little happier place.
Janet and Teddy were so deeply interested in getting to some stretch of road where they were not known, so that they might ask strange children to have goat rides, and charge for them, that they never thought of sending word back to Cherry Farm that they were going off farther than they usually did. They just drove Nicknack on and on, away from the little village of Elmburg near which Grandpa Martin lived, out past Clover Lake and on to a strange country road that led through the woods.
“There’s a house and some children playing in the yard,” said Janet as they came within sight of a large white farmhouse. “Let’s ask if they don’t want a ride.”
The way in which two boys and three girls crowded to the fence as the goat wagon drove up seemed to show that the children did want a ride very much.
“Down the road and back for five cents,” explained Ted, as he pointed to the sign on Nicknack’s side, while the goat ate grass. “Or you can have a short ride for a penny.”