Then Janet caught up some snow in her hand and threw it at the dog, which gave a surprised bark and ran away, with his tail between his legs, the way dogs do when they know they have done something wrong for which they deserve a whipping.
Perhaps, too, this dog was so surprised at seeing a goat ride downhill that he ran away on that account, and not because Janet threw a snowball at him. For a goat riding down a snow hill in a sled is certainly a funny sight. I never saw one myself, though I have seen a goat in a circus ride down a wooden hill made of planks and this goat sat on a seat in a wagon that, afterward, he drew about the ring with a clown in it.
So, I suppose, if a goat can ride downhill in a wagon it is not much harder to do the same thing in a sled.
At any rate, Nicknack rode down the hill, and the big sled kept going faster and faster as it glided over the slippery snow.
"Get out, Nicknack! Get out!" cried Janet, as she saw what was happening to her pet. "You'll be hurt! Jump out of the sled!"
Ted ran down the hill after the sliding sled, but as it was now going very fast, the little boy could not catch up to it.
"I guess your goat won't be hurt," said Ford Henderson to Jan. "Goats can climb rocks and jump down off them, so I guess even if his sled upsets and spills him out Nicknack won't get hurt."
"The snow is soft," said Lola.
"Look, he is going to upset!" cried Ted, who had stopped running and, with the other children, was looking down the hill. Nicknack was half way to the bottom now.
Just as Ted spoke the sled gave a twist to one side and Nicknack cried: