“And I’m going to butt that boy who is beating me with the stick!” thought Lightfoot. Before Henry knew what was happening Lightfoot rushed straight at him with lowered head, and the next thing Henry knew he found himself falling backward head over heels in the grass. The goat had butted him down good and hard.
For a moment Henry lay dazed, hardly knowing what had happened. Then, all of a sudden, Lightfoot felt sorry.
“My master would not want me to do this,” he said to himself. “Maybe he will punish me when he comes back. I know what I’ll do; I’ll run away.”
With a strong jump, and a leap, Lightfoot broke off, close to his neck, the rope that held him. And then, before Henry could get up, off through the bushes in the park bounded Lightfoot. He had run away.
CHAPTER VII
LIGHTFOOT ON A BOAT
The park where Lightfoot, the leaping goat, had worked with Mike for several weeks, giving rides to children, was quite a large one. There were many paths in it, and driveways. There were also patches of woods, and places where the bushes grew in tangled clumps, making many hiding places.
“I’d better hide myself for a while,” thought Lightfoot, for, though he was a tame goat, he still had in him some of the wildness that is in all animals, even your pussy cat; and this wildness made him want to hide when he thought himself in danger. And the danger Lightfoot feared was that he would be beaten with a stick for knocking over the boy who had tormented him.
“I’ll hide under these thick bushes,” said the goat to himself, when he had run quite a distance from the stand in the park where the small wagons were kept.