received a wound upon one side
of his face that did not improve his looks at all. And while he had been
so lively and pugnacious up on the hillside, now he splashed about in
the lake quite helplessly.

The shore of the island just here was altogether too abrupt to afford
the unlucky goat any foot-hold. And the goat is not naturally an aquatic
animal.

"Come on!" urged Bessie. "Let's leave him. We can't do any good here."

"Of course we can help him," cried Wyn. "Grab him by the other horn,
Frank!"

She had driven her own canoe to the far side of the goat and now seized
the beast's horn. He could not fight in the water and Wyn and Frank
slowly guided him along the shore until they reached a sloping piece of
beach where he could, at least, get a footing. But he lay down, half in
and half out of the water, seemingly exhausted.

"He can never climb that bank," declared Mina.

"We'll boost him up, then," said Frank, with confidence. "Having set out
to be twin Good Samaritans, we'll finish the job properly; eh, Wyn?"

Her friend agreed, laughing, and both girls sprang ashore. They didn't
mind getting a little wet, considering how they were dressed.

The goat bleated forlornly as they seized upon him; he was quite all the
two girls could lift, and they actually had to drag him up the steeper
part of the hill by his legs.

Their friends below chaffed them a good deal, for it was a ridiculous
sight. Soon, however, Wyn and Frank got their awkward burden to the
mouth of an easily sloping gully, that led toward the interior of the
island. As soon as he could, the animal scrambled upon his feet.

Once firmly set, however, this ungrateful goat's temper changed most
surprisingly. Or he may have felt that his dignity had been ruffled by
the treatment he had received at the hands of his rescuers.

So he began stamping his little sharp hoofs and lowered his head,
shaking the latter threateningly.

"What did I tell you?" called Bess, from below. "Next you two sillies
know he'll butt you."

"Oh, come along, Wyn!" gasped Frankie. "Plague the goat, anyway!" as she
dodged the enraged animal's first charge.

The goat was headed up the gully, away from the shore, or he might have
gone head first into the lake again. As the girls escaped him, Wyn,
laughing immoderately, looked back. A big beech tree cropped out of the
bank not far away, and under this tree she descried a figure lying.

"Oh, Frank!" she cried.

Her friend turn