Moni the Goat Boy, and Other Stories. Johanna Spyri

Moni ran in to the wondering grandmother, and while they sat at supper he told her the whole story—of his three sad, troubled days and the happy ending of it all. His grandmother listened attentively, and when he had finished she said earnestly: "Moni, this experience you must always remember. Had you done right in the first place, trusting in the good God, then everything would have gone well. Now God has helped you so much more than you deserve that you must not forget it as long as you live." And Moni was very sure that he would not forget.

      Before he went to sleep he had to go to the stable once more to make sure that the little kid really belonged to him and was there in its bed.

      Jordie got his ten francs, as promised, but that did not end the matter for him. When he went to the hotel he was taken before the landlord, who gave him a severe lecture. But the worst of it all was that whenever anything was missed after that, it was Jordie who was immediately suspected of having stolen it. He had no more peace, for he was continually in dread of being punished for something that he had never done.

      Moni's little goat throve and grew strong, and the boy continued to sing all summer. But often when he was comfortably stretched out on the Pulpit, he thought of the troubled days under the Rain Rock, and he said to himself, "It must never happen so again."

      But when he was too long absorbed in such reflections one or another of the goats would come and rouse him with a questioning bleat.

WITHOUT A FRIEND

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