“That would be easy,” declared Ted. “All we’d have to do would be to let him swim in the brook.”
“Dere’s a brook over here,” said Trouble, waving his hand to show where he meant. “I frowed stones in it, an’ den I found de bossy-cow-goat. I wash myse’f in de brook.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Jan. “Maybe we can wash off some of the egg before mother sees him, Ted. She’ll blame us for not keeping watch of him.”
“He ran out of the barn before I saw him,” said Teddy. “Well, come on, let’s go to the water. Wait, though. I don’t want this goat to get away. I’ll tie a piece of string to his horns and lead him along with us.”
Ted found a piece of thin cord among the many things in his pockets, and fastened a bit to the horns of the goat. If the animal had not wanted to go along with the children the string would not have pulled him, for it could have easily been broken. However the goat seemed to have taken a liking to the Curlytops, and it followed Jan and Ted as they led their little brother toward the brook.
It was not far from where Trouble had sat down in the hen’s nest, and then, tying the goat to an old stump near by, Ted and Jan started to clean Baby William’s bloomers of the egg stains. They stood him on the edge of the brook, and by using bunches of grass for wash cloths they got off some of the sticky whites and yellows. Trouble was kept quiet while this was going on by being allowed to pet the goat which came and stood near him.
“Him’s a nice goat,” said Trouble, and Ted and Jan thought the same thing.
Jan was scrubbing rather hard with a bunch of grass at a very eggy-yellow spot on one leg of Trouble’s bloomers when, all of a sudden, the little fellow slid backwards, and before his brother or sister could catch him he sat down “splash!” in the shallow water of the brook.
“Oh, oh!” gasped Ted, almost slipping into the stream himself, he was so surprised.
“Oh, Trouble!” murmured Jan. “Oh, dear!”