The Three Goats
By Jessica Childs
This story, contributed by Miss Jessica Childs of the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Training School for Teachers, is a translation from the Norse Folk Lore. It is very popular, Miss Childs finds, with children in the first school year.
Now you shall hear!
There was once a Boy who had three Goats. All day they leaped and pranced and skipped and climbed up on the rocky hill, but at night the Boy drove them home. One night, when he went to meet them, the frisky things leaped into a turnip field and he could not get them out. Then the Boy sat down on the hillside and cried.
As he sat there a Hare came along. “Why do you cry?” asked the Hare.
“I cry because I can’t get the Goats out of the field,” answered the Boy.
“I’ll do it,” said the Hare. So he tried, but the Goats would not come. Then the Hare, too, sat down and cried.
Along came a Fox.
“Why do you cry?” asked the Fox.