The Bransons lived on a
big farm. They had lots of animals. Horses and chickens lived in the barn,
and the house was filled with cats and dogs. They even had a family of
peacocks that lived in the big tree over their driveway.
But Mama Branson’s
favorite pets were her two baby goats.
Lamb Chop was white all
over, and she had black feet. Pork Chop was all black except for the shiny
white star on her forehead. They looked so cute when they stood next to
each other!
But Lamb Chop and Pork
Chop kept getting into trouble.
It wasn’t their
fault--they just liked to play games.
One of their favorite
games was to knock down the phone in the barn, and talk into it.
"Baaaaa!" Lamp Chop
yelled at the people already talking on the phone.
"Blert!" Pork Chop added.
"Bleeert!"
But Grandma Branson lived
next door, and she used the same phone line. "Go away, you silly goats!"
she yelled at them. "Mama, get your goats off the phone!"
Mama ran down to the barn
and locked the doors. "You have to stay off the phone," she told Lamp Chop
and Pork Chop. "Don’t make Grandma mad at you again!"
Poor little Lamb Chop and
Pork Chop! They were just trying to have fun!
One day, a rich man came
to visit Mama and Papa. He had a shiny red car.
Pork Chop looked at the
car, and she could see her own face looking back at her. "This looks like
a fun toy!" she told Lamb Chop. "If we climb up on top, we can see the
whole world!"
The two little goats
jumped up onto the car and stood on top. "Look at me!" yelled Lamb Chop.
"I’m as tall as Mama!"
Suddenly...whoops
! Her feet slipped, and she slid down the car’s front window. "Whee!" she
cried as she jumped to the ground. "That was fun! Try it, Pork Chop!"
The little black goat
laughed as she slid down the front of the car. "That was fun! Let’s
do it again!"
Pork Chop and Lamb Chop
jumped back up on the rich man’s car, and slid down the windshield again.
But baby goats have very
sharp hooves. And they were scraping up the rich man’s car.
"It’s okay," Pork Chop
said. "It looks better this way!"
The rich man did not
agree! He came out of the house, yelling, and his face was as red as his
car. "This car cost me lots of money!" he told Mama and Papa. "Your goats
have ruined it! You have to get rid of those two little pests!"
Lamp Chop and Pork Chop
were very unhappy. They hadn’t meant to ruin the man’s fancy car! They
tried to rub against him like Mama’s cats, to show him how sorry they
were.
The rich man was still
angry, but Mama and Papa paid him for the damage to his car. When he drove
away, Mama had another talk with her two little goats. "You have to stop
breaking things," she told them. "Or we might have to get rid of you."
After that, Lamp Chop and
Pork Chop tried very hard to be good. They didn’t want to get sent away!
One night, Pork Chop
snuck out of the barn. She wanted to eat some fresh clover in the meadow.
Lamb Chop followed her, and they played for a while in the bright
moonlight.
Suddenly they saw a dark
shadow creeping along the road. It was a burglar, and he was going to
break into Mama and Papa’s home!
Pork Chop and Lamb Chop
were scared, but they couldn’t let the man hurt Mama and Papa! So they
followed him up to the house. The man didn’t see them as he tried to open
a window.
Wham! Pork Chop
ran as hard as she could, and hit the burglar in the knees. Her sharp
little horns hurt, and made him yell.
Wham! Lamp Chop
bit his leg, and he yelled again!
Mama and Papa heard the
noise, and they jumped out of bed. "What on earth is going on?" Papa
asked, grabbing his gun.
The burglar tried to run,
but Pork Chop got in his way. He tripped and fell in the mud. Lamb Chop
jumped up and down on his back so that he couldn’t get up.
Mama and Papa were so
shocked by the sight of two little goats catching a big, mean burglar that
they started laughing.
The burglar glared up at
them. "Get these monsters off me!" he yelled.
Lamb Chop and Pork Chop
let Papa guard the burglar while Mama called the police. But the policeman
didn’t believe that two goats had caught the man. "Just come out here and
get him," Mama asked. "You’ll see!"
A few minutes later, two
policemen came out to the farm, and they saw the baby goats jumping on the
burglar’s feet and snapping at him. "Well, I’ll be!" one of them said.
"Those two little goats really did catch him!"
They put the burglar in
their police car and drove back into town. Papa put his gun away.
Mama smiled and gave her
babies a special treat. "You saved our home," she told them as they ate.
"You were so brave, you are real heroes! Maybe the police will give you a
medal for catching that mean old burglar!"
Papa sat down and let the
baby goats climb into his lap. "You get into lots of trouble sometimes,"
he told them, "but we will never get rid of you. You can stay here as long
as you live."
Lamb Chop and Pork Chop
looked at each other, and smiled.
The End
