Then Ted and Jan, by turns, told of wanting something to fix their broken wagon. The blacksmith said he was sorry, but he had nothing, since he mended only big farm wagons or carriages much too large for Nicknack. He had no old wheels or anything that would do, he said.
Ted and Jan stood watching the smith fit a shoe to a horse tied in the shop. Suddenly a fly bit the animal and it gave such a jump that Mr. Decker, the smith, had to let go the leg of the horse and jump back to avoid being stepped on.
“Whoa there!” he called to the frightened horse. “Whoa! Steady!”
Jan and Ted started to run out, but Teddy tripped over a piece of iron on the floor and the next he knew he had sat down backwards in the low tub of water in which the smith cooled the red-hot pieces of iron.
“Oh—oh!” gasped Ted, flinging up his arms and wiggling his feet, trying to save himself from falling all the way in.
“Oh, The-o-dore Martin!” cried Jan, as she sometimes heard her mother say it. “You’re all wet!”
“Huh! I guess I know it,” Teddy announced, as he got out of the tub with the help of one of the men in the shop, while the smith quieted the horse.
“Yes, you are a bit wet,” said Mr. Decker. “But I filled the tub with clean water only last week, so you won’t be very dirty. Here, you can stand near the forge fire and dry out. You’ve got on dark pants and the dirt won’t show.”
Only the seat of Teddy’s knickerbockers were really wet, and though the water ran down his legs he did not much mind. He stood near the warm fire until he was nearly dry, and so hot he could no longer stand it, and then he and Jan went home.
“Well, it’s a mercy you weren’t burned on the red-hot horseshoe,” said Mother Martin, when she heard what had happened. “Why did you go there?”