, she accompanied her husband and
children to the stables after tea.

"Take care!" cried Captain West, with his hand on the latch of one of
the stable doors; "take care it doesn't jump out!"

"Is it alive? Can it run? Will it bite?" asked the children in
astonishment.

But before they had time to say more the door was opened, and they
caught sight of two most graceful little goats shrinking timidly into a
corner.

"Are they for us?" inquired Madge, in a wondering tone of voice; for,
so far, they had never owned anything larger than a pet rabbit, and the
idea of having these beautiful goats for their own seemed almost too
good to be true.

"They are absolutely your property," said Captain West. "I have
nothing to do with them at all, except that I suppose I shall have the
honour of paying for what they eat and break."

"Oh, Papa! They look much too dainty to break anything with their tiny
little hoofs," said Madge reproachfully. "And I can see they will eat
very little. But how do you think we had better divide two between
three of us?"

"There are several ways," replied her father. "You might have the
heads, Betty the bodies, and John the tails."

But this suggestion did not give entire satisfaction.

"If Madge wanted to feed her heads in the stable just when I had my
bodies out walking on the road, how should we manage?" asked Betty.

"That is indeed a difficult question to decide," said Captain West
thoughtfully. "I see that it is a much more difficult matter to keep
goats than I had ever imagined. Perhaps after all it would be safer to
send them back to America?"

"Oh, no! But I see you don't mean it!" cried Madge. "You are only
joking."

"I don't know about that," said her father. "It isn't a very joking
matter. One of my old friends who has been lately travelling about
America just writes to say that he has brought back a charming pair of
little goats, and as he can't keep them in his London house he is
sending them as a present to my children. He might have consulted me
first, I think, especially as the goats arrived a few hours after the
letter."

"Oh, but you wouldn't have stopped them? They are such darlings!"
cried Madge. "They won't give any trouble, and they will draw a little
cart."

"Well, they look rather wild for that kind of work at present,"
observed Captain West; "but I dare say they will grow tamer. And as
they are here I suppose I must make the best of them, as I