“Oh, de goat’s goin’ t’ swim!”
But Lightfoot was not going to do that. He was only looking for a good place to hide. Pretty soon he saw it. Floating on the water was something that looked like a little house. Smoke was coming from a stovepipe in the roof, and beyond the house, and seeming to be a part of it, were two big, long black holes.
“Those holes would make a good place to hide,” thought Lightfoot.
He ran up alongside of them and looked down. There was nothing in them, and no one was in sight. The boys chasing after him were behind some freight cars just then and could not see the goat.
“I’ll hide down there,” said Lightfoot to himself. “It isn’t as far to jump as it was from the top of the rocks to the roof of the shanty. I’ll hide there.”
Down into the dark hole, near the funny little house, leaped Lightfoot. And where do you suppose he was now?
He was down in the bottom of a canal boat, down in the big hole, in the hold, as it is called, next to the cabin, or little house. In the hold, though it was empty now, is loaded the cargo the boat carries—hay, grain or coal.
For the first time in his life Lightfoot was on a boat.