At last Lightfoot, finding he could not get the iron bit out of his mouth, and could not shake off the harness, and looking back and seeing Mike being dragged about on the ground, thought:
“Well, I guess I’m tired. I seem to be held fast no matter what I do. I’ll quit.”
And that is just what Mike wanted, for he was tired of being pulled about in this fashion.
“Well, I guess he’s learned that part, anyhow,” said Mr. Murphy. “Now we’ll hitch him to the wagon.”
While Mr. Murphy was bringing up the wagon, and Mike was holding Lightfoot, Blackie came up and asked:
“Oh, I guess it was a new kind of game. I can’t say I like it though. I had rather jump on the rocks,” answered Lightfoot.
“No, it was not a game,” said Grandpa Bumper, coming up just then. “You are being taught to let yourself be harnessed up to draw a cart, Lightfoot, and here they come with the cart now.”
“What does that mean?” asked the leaping goat. “Will it hurt?”
“No, not if you behave yourself. Once I was a cart-drawing goat, and I worked in a nice park. I’ll tell you about it so you’ll know what to do.”
And when the cart was brought up, and the shafts, one on each side of Lightfoot, were being fastened with straps, the younger goat stood very still, listening to Grandpa Bumper tell, in goat language, just what it all meant.
“Why, he seems to like it,” said Mike as he fastened the last strap. “He didn’t try once to get away, Mr. Murphy.”
“I guess he’s getting used to it,” said the kind Irishman.
But if he and Mike had known, it was what Grandpa Bumper had said to Lightfoot that made the young goat stand so still and allow himself to be hitched to the cart.
“Well,” said Lightfoot to the old goat when the harnessing was finished, “it may not be so bad after all. I guess I’ll be good and not run away. I’ll pull the cart nicely.”
“It will be best, I think,” said the old goat.
So, when Mike took his seat in the cart, and pulled on the reins, calling to Lightfoot to “Gid-dap!” the goat started off, pulling the little wagon as though he had done it all his life.
“Oh, this is great!” cried Mike. “I never thought he would learn as easily as this.”
“He is a smart and sensible goat,” the Irishman said. “Now look out if he gets going too fast.”