think we could persuade thim
t' come out whin we wanted t' come home? Not thim, Dugan! 'Twas all me
an' Fagan could do t' pull thim out by main force, an' th' minute we let
go of thim, back they wint into th' wather. 'Twas pitiful t' hear th'
way they bleated t' be let back into th' wather agin, Dugan, so we let
thim stay in for th' night."

"Ye did not let thim loose in th' lake, Mike?" exclaimed the big mayor.
"Ye did not let thim be so they could git away?"

"No," said Toole. "No! They'll not git away, Dugan. We anchored thim
fast."

"Ye done good, Mike," said the big mayor.

The next morning Keeper of the Water Goats Fagan was down sufficiently
early to drag the bodies of the goats out of the lake long before even
the first citizen was admitted to the park. Alone, and hastily he hid
them in the little tool house, and locked the door on them. Then he went
to find Alderman Toole. He found him in the mayor's office, and beckoned
him to one side. In hot, quick accents he told him the untimely fate of
the dongola water goats, and the mayor--with an eye for everything on
that important day--saw the red face of Alderman Toole grow longer and
redder; saw the look of pain and horror that overspread it. A chilling
fear gripped his own heart.

"Mike," he said. "What's th' matter with th' dongolas?"

It was Fagan who spoke, while the little alderman from the Fourth Ward
stood bereft of speech in this awful moment.

"Dugan," he said, "I have not had much ixperience with th' dongola
wather goat, an' th' ways an' habits of thim is strange t' me, but if I
was t' say what I think, I would say they was over-soaked."

"Over-soaked, Fagan?" said the mayor crossly. "Talk sense, will ye?"

"Sure!" said Fagan. "An' over-soaked is what I say. Thim water goats has
all th' looks of bein' soaked too long. I would not say positive, Yer
Honour, but that is th' looks of thim. If me own mother was t' ask me I
would say th' same, Dugan. 'Soakin' too long done it,' is what I would
say."

"You are a fool, Fagan!" exclaimed the big mayor.

"Well," said Fagan mildly, "I have not had much ixperience in soakin'
dongolas, if ye mean that, Dugan. I do not set up t' be an expert
dongola soaker. I do not know th' rules t' go by. Some may like thim
soaked long an' some may like thim soaked not so long, but if I was to
say, I would say thim two dongolas at th' park has been soaked a dang
sight too long. Th' swim has been soaked clean out of thim