SNOWED IN
Nicknack was indeed having a ride. Whether he knew it or not, or whether he wanted it or not, he was sliding downhill in the very sled in which he had pulled the Curlytops a little while before.
"Oh, look!" cried Janet.
"You'd better catch him 'fore he gets hurt!" added Tom.
"I never knew a goat could ride downhill!" laughed Jack Turton, a funny, fat, little fellow.
"Did you teach him that trick, Curlytop?" asked Ford Henderson, the big boy who had carried Janet home the day she went through the ice.
"I guess he must have learned it himself," answered Ted.
"That bad dog made him do it," said Janet. "Go on away, you bad dog!" she cried, stamping her foot.
Then Janet caught up some snow in her hand and threw it at the dog, which gave a surprised bark and ran away, with his tail between his legs, the way dogs do when they know they have done something wrong for which they deserve a whipping.
Perhaps, too, this dog was so surprised at seeing a goat ride downhill that he ran away on that account, and not because Janet threw a snowball at him. For a goat riding down a snow hill in a sled is certainly a funny sight. I never saw one myself, though I have seen a goat in a circus ride down a wooden hill made of planks and this goat sat on a seat in a wagon that, afterward, he drew about the ring with a clown in it.
So, I suppose, if a goat can ride downhill in a wagon it is not much harder to do the same thing in a sled.
At any rate, Nicknack rode down the hill, and the big sled kept going faster and faster as it glided over the slippery snow.
"Get out, Nicknack! Get out!" cried Janet, as she saw what was happening to her pet. "You'll be hurt! Jump out of the sled!"
Ted ran down the hill after the sliding sled, but as it was now going very fast, the little boy could not catch up to it.
"I guess your goat won't be hurt," said Ford Henderson to Jan. "Goats can climb rocks and jump down off them, so I guess even if his sled upsets and spills him out Nicknack won't get hurt."
"The snow is soft," said Lola.
"Look, he is going to upset!" cried Ted, who had stopped running and, with the other children, was looking down the hill. Nicknack was half way to the bottom now.
Just as Ted spoke the sled gave a twist to one side and Nicknack cried:
"Baa-a-a-a!"
Then, just as the goat was about to leap out, the sled ran into a bank of snow, turned over on the side and the next moment Nicknack went flying, head first, into a big, white drift.
"Oh, our nice goat will be killed!" cried Jan. "Oh, Teddy, you'd better go for a doctor!"
"No, Nicknack won't be hurt!" said Ford Henderson, the big boy, trying not to laugh, though Jan did make a very funny face, half crying. "Goats often land head first on their horns. Anyhow, I've read in a book that they do, and they don't get hurt at all. Goats like to fall that way. He's all right. See! He's getting out of the drift now."
And so Nicknack was. He had not been in the least hurt when he jumped, or was thrown, head first into the soft snow, though he might have broken one of his legs if he had rolled downhill with the sled. For that is what the sled did after it upset.
Kicking and scrambling his way out of the snow bank, Nicknack climbed up the hill again. He could easily do this, even without the pieces of rubber tied on his hoofs, for they were sharp hoofs, and he could dig them in the soft snow, as boys stick their skates into the ice.
Up came Nicknack, and then with a little waggle of his funny, short, stubby tail he walked over to a little hay still left near his feeding place, and began to eat.
"Say, he's a good goat all right!" cried Tom Taylor. "He's a regular trick goat! He ought to be in a circus."
"Maybe we'll get up a circus and have him in it some day next summer," promised Ted.
"You'd better go an' get our sled 'fore it's broke," called Janet to him.
"That's right," agreed Ford. "Some of the coasters might run into it and break it, or hurt themselves. I'll get it for you."
Ford was not coasting on the little hill, being too big a boy. But he liked the Curlytops and was always helping them when he could, even before he helped get Janet out of the frozen pond when she broke through the ice.
The heavy sled, to which Nicknack could be hitched, was not easy to pull up the hill, but Ford managed to do it. Then, after Ted, his sister and their playmates had coasted all they wanted to, the goat was harnessed again, and back home he trotted over the snow, pulling the Curlytops.
Ted had fastened some sleighbells to his pet, and they now made a merry jingle as Nicknack trotted along. The goat went quite fast, for I suppose he knew a nice supper of the things he liked was waiting for him in his stable. And it was not altogether pieces of paper off tin cans, either, though some goats like to chew that paper because it has sweet paste on it.
"Well, did you have a nice time?" asked Uncle Frank, as the Curlytops came home.
"Fine!" cried Janet.
"And Nicknack had a ride downhill!" added her brother.
"No!" exclaimed Uncle Frank, in surprise. "Now you're fooling me!"
"Nope!" said Ted earnestly. "He did, honest!" and he told all about it.
Aunt Jo and the other grown-ups also had to hear the story, and there was many a good laugh as the little Curlytops and the grown folks sat in the living-room that evening and talked over the things which had happened during the day.
"It's getting colder," remarked Daddy Martin, as he went out on the porch to look at the thermometer before going to bed.
"Does it look as if it would snow?" asked his wife.
"Well, there are no stars out, so it must be cloudy, and cloudy weather in winter generally means snow."
"Have we any of the roast turkey left from Thanksgiving?" asked Uncle Frank.
"Oh, yes, plenty," answered Daddy Martin. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, so if we get snowed in we'll have plenty to eat."
"Oh, we'll have plenty besides turkey," put in Mother Martin. "But I don't believe we'll get snowed in."
It was not quite time for Ted and Janet to go to bed, and they liked to sit up and listen to what their father and mother, Aunt Jo and Uncle Frank had to say. The Curlytops loved company as much as you children do.
Trouble had been put to bed, though not before he had made his sister and brother tell, over and over again, how Nicknack rode downhill on the sled. Trouble laughed each time he heard the story.
The Curlytops were playing a little game with Uncle Frank, and Aunt Jo, Daddy and Mother Martin were talking about the good times they used to have in winter when they were children, when Mrs. Martin said:
"I feel a cold wind blowing, don't the rest of you?"
"It is chilly," agreed her husband. "The wind must have sprung up suddenly and is coming through the cracks of the windows."
"There's more wind than comes through a crack," said Mrs. Martin. "I think a door is open. It comes from the front. Did you shut the hall door, Dick?"
"Yes, I closed it after I came in from looking at the thermometer," answered her husband.
"Well, I'm going to see what makes such a draft on my back!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin, getting up.
She went out into the hall, and the others did not think much more about it for a little while until Mrs. Martin suddenly cried:
"No wonder I felt a cold wind! Trouble Martin! What will you do next? Oh, dear! You're always doing something! Come in this instant!"
"What's he doing now? I thought he was safe in bed and away over in Dreamland," said Daddy Martin.
"So did I," returned his wife. "But he must have gotten up and come downstairs. I didn't hear a sound, but here the little tyke has the front door open! Oh, how cold it is!"
"What made you do it, Trouble?" his father asked, as he caught the little fellow up in his arms.
"Trouble want to see snow," was the answer.
"It is snowing, and snowing hard!" exclaimed Ted. "Hurray, it's a regular blizzard!"
Indeed it was snowing hard. Those inside had a glimpse of the storm before Daddy Martin closed the door Trouble had opened. It had not been fastened tight and the little boy had managed to pull it open. He had awakened after being put to sleep for the night in his crib, and had crept downstairs. His mother thought the wind blowing the hard flakes of snow against a window near him must have awakened him.
"I'll go up to bed with him now," she said, "and I'll see that he doesn't get up again until morning."
"I guess we'll all go to bed," said Aunt Jo. "I'm tired and sleepy myself."
Ted and Jan looked out of the window as they began to undress.
"It's snowing hard," said Teddy.
"And maybe we'll be snowed in!" added his sister.
All night the storm raged. The wind blew hard and the snow came down in great, white feathery piles. Ted and Jan slept soundly, for they had played hard the day before. It was late in the day when they awakened, and they saw a light in the hall outside their room.
"What's the matter?" asked Janet, as she saw her mother up and dressed. "What you dressed for at night, Mother?"
"Hush! Don't wake Trouble. He was restless all night, but he is sleeping now. It isn't night, it's morning."
"But what makes it so dark?" asked Teddy.
"Because the snow covers nearly all the windows, especially on this side of the house."
"Is it snowing yet?" asked Jan.
"Yes; snowing hard," her mother answered.
"Are we snowed in?" asked Ted.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Martin, "I'm afraid we are snowed in, Teddy boy. It's a terrible storm, and very cold!"