Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove Part 14

"Nonsense!" exclaimed the young man ticket-taker. "It isn't one of the wooden animals! It's a real goat from the ones over by the ponies. He's alive, of course."

The frowsy girl giggled.

"And I'm alive, too!" added Bunny, his hands wound in the goat's long hair. "But I didn't want to ride the goat up here!"

"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" shouted Sue from the outer edge of the merry-go-round, which she and Uncle Tad had now reached. "Look out, Bunny, or you'll fall off!"

There was a laugh from the crowd of evening pleasure-seekers that had gathered at the sh.o.r.e resort.

"I am holding on!" cried Bunny. "Whoa now, goat!" he called.

"Stop the machine!" exclaimed Uncle Tad.

"All right; we'll stop it," said the ticket-taker, who still held to the frowsy young person on the back of the lion.

The goat seemed quiet enough now. After it had jumped up on the moving platform, with Bunny on its back, the animal just stood there, looking around. Perhaps it felt quite at home with the wooden horses, the ostriches, lions, tigers, camels, and other creatures so gaily painted and with pieces of looking gla.s.s stuck all over them.

Slowly the merry-go-round came to a stop, and the ticket-taker, letting go of the girl, who had not fallen from the back of the lion, hurried to Bunny's side.

"I'll lift you off," he said.

"Thank you," answered Bunny. A moment later he was walking over to join Sue and Uncle Tad, while a man stepped from the crowd and took charge of the goat, which he led to the edge of the platform. The goat leaped down and off as Bunny had done.

"I hope my goat didn't hurt you when he ran away with you," said the man, walking up to Bunny, Sue, and Uncle Tad and leading the horned creature.

"Oh, no, he didn't hurt me," Bunny answered. "But I didn't think he'd run away with me just 'cause I got on his back."

"He isn't used to having boys and girls on his back unless he wears a saddle," the man explained.

"Did you jump on the goat's back, Bunny?" asked Uncle Tad.

"Well, I didn't exactly _jump_ on," replied the little boy. "I was leaning over, looking at him, and I sort of wanted to see how it would feel to get on his back. And I did, and then he ran up on the merry-go-round with me. But I held on so I wouldn't fall."

"It's a good thing you did!" declared Sue.

"How did it happen?" asked Uncle Tad.

"All I know about it is this," said the man who owned the goat. "I have a few of these Billies and Nannies for children that don't want a ponyback ride. But I was getting the goats ready to put in the stable for the night, and I'd taken off the saddles. I had my back turned, and the first I knew I heard a shout. I turned and saw this boy on Nero's back, heading for the merry-go-round. I followed as fast as I could.

Nero is a gentle goat, but I couldn't tell what he'd do when he got mixed up with the wooden animals," he finished.

"No," said Uncle Tad, "that's so. You did wrong, Bunny, to get on the goat's back without asking permission."

"I--I didn't mean to," said the little boy. "When you and Sue were looking at the gla.s.s-blower I went over to look at the ponies and the goats. And I just sort of leaned over this goat, and, first I remember, I was on his back and he ran away with me."

"There's no harm done," said the goat's owner, as the people in the crowd smiled and laughed at what had happened. "Come over in the morning and I'll let you have a regular ride on a saddle--you and your sister,"

he added as he looked at Sue.

"Thank you," she answered. "I'll come if mother will let me."

"I guess we have to go on to Christmas Tree Cove in the morning,"

announced Bunny. "Anyhow, I'm much obliged for this ride," he said.

"Nero's a good goat," and he patted the head of the animal.

"Yes, he's a good goat," agreed the owner.

Then he took his horned steed back to the pony stand, the merry-go-round started off again with the loud music, and Uncle Tad took Bunny and Sue back to the _Fairy_.

Of course there was considerable talk and some laughter on board the boat when the story was told of Bunny's goat ride. His mother, laughing, told him never to do such a thing again, and, of course, Bunny said he wouldn't.

"Did you like that ride?" questioned Sue, when they were getting ready to go to bed.

"I did and I didn't," was Bunny's answer. "I got on the goat so sudden-like I didn't have time to make up my mind about it. He was an awful quick goat, Nero was."

"I guess most goats are quick. Once I saw a goat go after a man who was pasting up bills on a board. My, but that man had to run to get out of the way!"

"Maybe the goat wanted his bills or his paste," said Bunny. "I once heard that goats love to eat billboard paper just for the paste on it."

"Maybe so."

Bright and early the next morning Bunker Blue arose and began to wash down the decks of the boat. As he was splashing the water around in his bare feet with his trousers rolled up, a young man with a bundle under his arm came down to the dock.

"Here are the dresses and things Mrs. Brown lent to the young ladies,"

said the young man. "They are very much obliged. I brought them early, for I thought maybe you'd want to get an early start."

"Yes, I believe we are going to leave soon," answered Bunker. "But I don't like the looks of the weather," he added. "It seems to me we are going to have a storm. If you get another canoe and paddle out in it,"

he said, "I wouldn't go too far from sh.o.r.e."

"Thank you, I'll be careful," was the answer.

Bunny and Sue awakened and got ready for breakfast, and Bunker told about the visit of the young man. Then the children went out on deck to look at the sea and sky.

I say the "sea," though really it was all part of Sandport Bay, and not exactly the open ocean, though it was a very large body of water.

"Do you think it's going to rain, Bunker?" asked Sue.

"I think it's going to rain and blow, too," answered the fish and boat boy, who had learned to read the weather signs. "But the _Fairy_ is able to stand it, I think. How are you after your goat ride, Bunny?"

"Oh, I feel fine!" declared the little boy. "But I want to get to Christmas Tree Cove before long."

"So do I," added Sue. "I'm going to make a little bungalow there for my dolls."

"And I'm going to make one to camp in," declared her brother.

They started off right after breakfast, and as Bunny and Sue played around on the deck they could see their father and Captain Ross talking together and looking up at the sky every now and then.

"We'll keep near sh.o.r.e," they heard the captain say. "Then if the storm breaks we can tie up."

But, though the clouds scudded across the sky all day, the storm did not break. It was black and lowering when evening came, but, after another look all around, Bunny heard the captain say to their father and mother: