“Oh, Master Peter!” cried Marie.
“Well, I am,” he said. “It’s ever so much more fun than making an automobile go. Anybody can do that.”
[Up and down the block Mike drove Lightfoot, giving the little boy and his nurse a fine ride.] Then the other children wanted rides, and their parents or nurses, seeing how gentle the goat was, and how well Mike managed him, let their boys and girls get in the cart. Mike was kept busy all the afternoon giving rides to the little tots, and when he had finished he had nearly two dollars, in ten- and five-cent pieces, for some children took more than one ride.
“Talk about your luck!” cried Mike as he drove toward his shanty, a happy smile on his freckled face. “I’ll soon be rich.”
“Look at that, Mother!” he cried, as he poured the money from his pocket on to the table. “That’s what Lightfoot earned for us to-day!”
“Thanks be!” exclaimed Mrs. Malony. “Sure an’ the money will come in handy, for I have the grocer to pay to-night. Tell me about it, Mike darlin’.”
And Mike told, while Lightfoot, unharnessed, ate a good supper, and then told the other goats of his new adventures.
For several weeks Mike went about the different streets of the city giving rides to children, and hardly a day passed that he did not make a dollar or a little more. Of course when it rained he could not do this. And then one day Mike came home with bright eyes and a laughing face.
“What do you think, Mother dear!” he cried. “I have a regular job with Lightfoot!”
“What is it, Mike?”