The young lady showed very keen interest in the affair and stroked the
little rescued creature, which now lay quietly in Moni's lap and looked
very pretty, with its white feet, and the beautiful black pelt on its
back. It was very willing to be stroked by her.
"Now sing your song again for me, while you are sitting here," said
Paula. Moni was in such a gay frame of mind that he willingly and
heartily began and sang his whole song to the end.
This pleased Paula exceptionally well and she said he must sing it to
her often again. Then the whole company went together down to the Bath
House. Here the kid was laid in its bed, Moni said farewell, and Paula
went back to her room to talk with her aunt longer about the goat-boy,
whose merry morning song she had enjoyed again.
CHAPTER III
A VISIT
Thus many days passed by, one as sunny and clear as the other, for it
was an unusually beautiful summer, and the sky remained blue and
cloudless from morning till evening.
Every morning, early, without exception the goat-boy, singing lustily,
went by the Bath House. Every evening he came back again singing
lustily. All the guests were so accustomed to the merry sound that not
one would have willingly missed it.
More than all the others, Paula delighted in Moni's joyfulness and went
out almost every evening to meet him, and talk with him.
One sunny morning Moni had once more reached the Pulpit-rock, and was
about to throw himself down, when he changed his mind. "No, go on! The
last time you had to leave all the nice little plants because we had to
go after Maeggerli; now we will go up there again, so that you can finish
nibbling them!"
The goats all leaped with delight after him, for they knew they were
going up to the lovely bushes on the Dragon-stones. To-day Moni held
his little Maeggerli the whole time fast in his arms, pulled the sweet
plants himself from the rocks and let her eat out of his hand. This
pleased the little goat best of all. She rubbed her head quite
contentedly from time to time against Moni's shoulder and bleated
happily. So the whole morning passed, before Moni noticed, from his own
hunger, that it had grown late before he was aware of it. But he had
left his luncheon below near the Pulpit-rock, in the little hole, for he
had intended to return again at noon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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