"Maybe one of his legs is broken," suggested Tom Taylor, a boy who lived near the Martins.
"If it is he'll have to run on three legs. Our dog did that once, when one of his legs had been run over," said Lola Taylor, Tom's sister.
"Come on, Nicknack, get up!" cried Ted. "Stand up and give us a ride on the ice."
But the goat only went: "Baa-a-a-a!" again, and he seemed to shake his head as if to say that he could not get up.
"His legs are all right," Teddy said when he had looked at them as well as he could, and felt of the parts that stuck out from under Nicknack's body. "Why doesn't he stand up?"
"What's the matter, Curlytop?" asked Harry Morris.
"My goat won't stand up on the ice," Ted answered. "He fell down and his legs are all right, but he won't stand up."
"Maybe it's because he knows he can't," said Harry. "Goats aren't made to stand on slippery ice you know. Their hoofs are hard like a cow's. They are all right for walking on snow or on the ground, but they can't get a good hold on the ice. I guess the reason Nicknack won't stand up is because he knows he'd fall down again if he tried it. Here, I'll help you get him over into the snow, and there you'll see he'll be all right."
With the help of Harry, the goat was half led and half carried off the pond to the snow-covered ground. There Nicknack could drag the sled easily, and he gave Ted and Jan a nice ride, also pulling Lola and Tom.
Ted offered the big boy a ride behind the goat, but Harry said: