"I think you'd better get your goat ready now and take him over to Bob's
house. I spoke to Mr. Newton about it, and he said there was plenty of
room in his stable for a goat. Bob is delighted to have him."

"But he'll give him back to us when we come home, won't he?" asked
Janet.

"Oh, yes, of course! You won't lose your goat," said her father with a
laugh.

But when they went out to the stable to harness Nicknack to the wagon,
Ted and Janet rubbed their eyes and looked again.

"Why, Nicknack is gone!" exclaimed Ted.

"He is," agreed his sister. "Maybe Bob came and got him."

"No, he wouldn't do that without telling us," went on Ted. "I wonder
where that goat is?"

He looked around the stable yard and in the barn. No Nicknack was in
sight.

When the Curlytops were searching they heard their mother calling to
them from the house, where their father was waiting for them to come up
with Nicknack. He was going over to Mr. Newton's with them.

"Ho, Ted! Janet! Where are you?" called Mrs. Martin.

"Out here, Mother!" Teddy answered.

"Is Trouble there with you?"

"Trouble? No, he isn't here!"

"He isn't!" exclaimed his mother. "Where in the world can he be? Nora
says she saw him going out to the barn a little while ago. Please find
him!"

"Huh!" exclaimed Ted. "Trouble is gone and so is Nicknack! I s'pose
they've gone together!"

"We'll have to look," said Janet.

CHAPTER III

OFF FOR THE WEST

The Curlytops hurried toward the house, leaving open the empty little
stable in which Nicknack was usually kept. They found their father and
their mother looking around in the yard. Mrs. Martin had a worried air.

"Couldn't you find him?" asked Daddy Martin.

"We didn't look--very much," answered Teddy. "Nicknack is gone, and----"

"Nicknack gone!" cried Mrs. Martin. "I wonder if that little tyke of
ours has gotten into trouble with him."

"Nicknack wouldn't make any trouble," declared Jan. "He's such a nice
goat----"

"Yes, I know!" said Mrs. Martin quickly. "But it looks very much as
though Trouble and Nicknack had gone off together. Is the goat's harness
in the stable?"

"We didn't look," answered Teddy.

"The wagon's gone," Janet said. "I looked under the shed for that and it
wasn't there."

"Then I can just about guess what has happened," said Daddy Martin.
"Trouble heard us talking about taking Nicknack over to Mr. Newton's
house, where he would be kept while we are at Uncle Frank's