As the family sat down at the long table, Paul whispered to Maureen, "I like the smell of goats better'n people, and we got two—a nanny and a kid."
"Oh, Paul, how beautiful!"
"They're not beautiful; they're really kind of funny-looking with their eyes so different from horses'."
"I know. They're bluey-yellow, and they look glassy, like marbles."
Paul and Maureen could hardly eat for all they had to say to each other.
"Misty's at Doctor Finney's, Maureen. She can't keep on postponing forever and she can't go on living in Grandma's kitchen. Ain't healthy and airy for her. And besides...."
"Besides what?"
"I overheard the doctor say there could be complications."
Grandma and Grandpa were deep in conversation, too. Grandpa seemed to have forgotten he was hungry. "Idy," he said, "Pony Ranch is now the owners of a nanny goat and her kid. A billy-kid, at that! It's got whiskers as long as yer sea-captain pa."
"Clarence Beebe! Don't you talk like that. I'll not have ye comparin' my father to a billy goat!"