d once something came
pushing hard against the side of the white canvas house with force
enough to make a bulge in it. Teddy jumped up from his cot and ran over
to his mother, who was sitting up on her bed.

"Oh, Mother! It's coming in!" cried Teddy.

"Nonsense!" and Mrs. Martin laughed as she put her arms around her small
son.

"What is it?" asked Grandpa Martin from the curtained-off part of the
tent where he slept.

"It's a bear!" cried Janet.

Just then, from outside came a loud:

"Baa-a-a-a-a!"

Teddy looked very much surprised. Then he smiled. Then he laughed and
cried:

"Why, it's our goat Nicknack!"

"I guess that's what it is," added Grandpa Martin. "But he seems to be
in trouble. I'll go outside and look."

Taking a lantern with him, while Mrs. Martin and the children waited a
bit anxiously, Grandpa Martin went to see what had happened. The
Curlytops heard him laughing as they saw the flicker of his light
through the white tent. Then they heard Nicknack bleating again. The
goat seemed, to those inside, to be kicking about with his little black
hoofs.

"Whoa there, Nicknack!" called Grandpa Martin. "I'll soon get you
loose!"

There was more noise, more tramping in the bushes and then, after a
while, Grandpa Martin came back.

"What was it?" asked Ted and Jan in whispers, for their mother had
begged them not to awaken Trouble, who was still sleeping peacefully.

"It was your goat," was the answer. "He had got loose, and his horns
were caught between two trees where he had tried to jump. He was held
fast by his horns and he was kicking his heels up in the air, trying to
get loose."

"Did you get him out?" asked Jan.

"Yes, I pried the trees apart and got his head loose. Then he was all
right. I tied him good and tight in his stable, and I guess he won't
bother us again to-night."

"Then it wasn't a bear after all," remarked Jan, laughing at her
brother.

"No, indeed! There aren't any bears on this island," said her
grandfather. "Go to sleep."

Nothing else happened the rest of the night, and they all slept rather
late the next morning, for they were tired from the work of the day
before. The sun was shining over Clover Lake when Nora rang the
breakfast bell, and Ted and Jan hurried with their dressing, for they
were eager to be at their play.

"What'll we do to-day?" asked Janet, as she tried to get a comb through
her thick, curly hair.

"We'll go for a ride with Nicknack," decided