"If you mean stopping at a store and getting some lollypops—nopy!" and Ted shook his head quickly from side to side.
"I didn't mean that," declared Jan.
"It's good you didn't," came from her brother, "'cause if you did we couldn't."
"Why not?" Jan asked.
"I haven't got a penny," returned Teddy. "I asked mother for some when I went home to get Nicknack, but she told me to wait a minute while she paid the milkman."
"Didn't you wait?" asked Jan in some surprise. It seemed strange that Teddy would miss a chance like this, as Mrs. Martin did not give the Curlytops pennies every time they asked for them. She did not want them to get in the habit of spending money too freely, especially when it was given them, and they had done no little thing to earn it. Nor did she want them to buy candy when she did not know about it. So the giving of pennies was really an event in the lives of Ted and Jan, and the little girl wondered very much now, why it was her brother had not taken the money when his mother was willing to give it.
"Why didn't you want to wait, Ted?" asked Jan.
"Oh, I wanted to all right," he answered; "but Nicknack didn't want to. I got him—Nora and me—all harnessed up, and I tied him out in front; then I went in to ask for the pennies—one for you and one for me."
"Oh, I wish you'd got 'em," said Jan, rather sorrowfully.
"I would have, only for the goat," explained her brother. "Mother told me to wait; but, just as she said it, I saw an automobile come along in front of our house close to where I'd tied Nicknack.