ce of wood was taken off, the goat stepped out of his crate in
which he had traveled from a distant city, and gave a loud,

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

Then he stamped his forefeet on the platform, and shook his head, on
which were two horns.

"Oh, look out! He'll run away!" cried Freddie, who was afraid of losing
his goat before there was a chance for a ride.

But the goat seemed tame, kind and gentle, and after walking about a
little, stood still beside the crate and let the children pat him, while
Mr. Bobbsey paid the express agent.

There was a piece of paper pasted on the crate in which the goat had
traveled. One end of the paper was flapping loose, and, seeing it, the
white animal nibbled at it, and finally ate it, chewing it up as though
he liked it; as indeed he did, not so much for the paper as for the
dried paste by which it had been stuck on.

"Oh, look!" cried Nan. "The goat's eating the label off his crate so we
can't send him back. He likes us, I guess."

"We like _him_, anyhow," said Freddie, laughing and patting the billy.
"Come on, Bert. Hitch him up and give us a ride."

"Shall I?" asked Bert of his father.

"Why, yes, I guess so. Might as well start now as any time. The man I
bought him from said he was kind and gentle and liked children. Harness
him up, Bert."

A complete harness had come with the goat and wagon, and when the white
animal had been given a drink of water and fed some grass which Flossie
and Freddie pulled for him, Bert, helped by his father and the express
agent, put the harness on.

"What are we going to call him?" asked Nan. "We'll have to have a name
for our goat. We don't want to call him 'it,' or 'Billy.'"

"Name him Whisker," said Bert. "See, he has whiskers just like an old
man."

"Oh, that's a nice, funny name!" laughed Flossie, and Freddie thought so
too. So the goat was named Whisker, and he seemed to like that as well
as any. What he had been called before they got him, the children did
not know.

Whisker did not seem to mind being hitched to the wagon, and when Mr.
Bobbsey had made sure that all the straps were well fastened, Bert took
the front seat, with Nan beside him, while Flossie and Freddie sat in
the back. They set off, Mr. Bobbsey walking beside the goat to make sure
he did not run away.

But Whisker seemed to be a very good goat indeed, and went along nicely,
and so slowly and carefully that Freddie, several times, begged to be
allowed to drive.

"I wil