e rest stood with open mouths. None
of them had ever seen any animal as large as Billy climb a ladder. You
see Billy's old circus stunts stood him in good stead once in a
while. When he traveled with the circus, the clowns had taught him to
climb a ladder halfway to the top of the big circus tent.

"I claim this goat as my own," said Nellie's brother.

"And I the cat!" said Nellie quickly.

"But where do I come in?" said their father. Just then Stubby barked,
and Mr. Noland said, "Well, I'll take the dog and I think I have the
best of the bargain at that, for he can almost talk. If it had not
been for the dog, neither of you would have had a pet. It was he that
led us to this abandoned well."

"You forget, father, that the cat showed you the way too," said
Nellie.

"I think the best thing we can do now is to go home and get some
supper and also give our new-found friends some food. I'll wager that
they are hungry. They must have come a long way, for I never saw any
of them around here before, and I know every dog and cat in the town.
I won't say goat, for no one owns a goat," said Nellie's father.

So it happened that the Chums were given a good supper and beds of
straw in the woodshed and then left to themselves for the night. At
least that is what all of them thought, but the day being the Fourth
of July made a difference for just as they were dropping off to sleep
the stick of a Roman candle fell on the woodshed and burned a hole
through the roof. Some sparks fell down and set fire to the straw on
which the Chums were sleeping and in a few minutes straw, woodshed and
all were in a blaze, and they only escaped with their lives because
they were high jumpers and thus able to escape through the little
window in the side of the shed. Billy was so large that he could not
make it the first time, and he fell back into the fire, but the second
time he went through, taking half the side of the woodshed with him.
His hair was all on fire, but he had sense enough to roll in the sand
and put it out instead of running. If you run when your clothes are on
fire, you only feed the flames breeze you make and the fire burns
faster than ever. When it was all out, Billy went down to the lake and
had a good swim to rid himself of the smell of burnt hair.

[Illustration]

When he came back, he was surprised to see a ring of people
en-circling something that was making them laugh and clap their hands
with delight. When he was nea