The Water Goats, and Other Troubles

"The Water Goats, and Other Troubles" by Ellis Parker Butler is a collection of humorous short stories written in the early 20th century. The book encapsulates various comical situations, reflecting the follies of human behavior and clever observations of everyday life. With witty writing and engaging narratives, the stories explore themes of folly, political satire, and the whimsical nature of mundane tasks. The story "The Water Goats" follows the misadventures of Alderman Michael Toole as he mistakenly believes he is responsible for acquiring exotic "dongola water goats" for a new public park. Hilarity ensues as Toole corresponds with his cousin about the goats, which he assumes swim like ducks, only to discover that they refuse to enter the water at all. Other stories in the collection also revolve around humorous misunderstandings, such as a man caught in a series of unfortunate events involving a nursing bottle, false hair, and acorns. Through his vivid characters and absurd scenarios, Butler paints a picture of the absurdities of life, leaving readers entertained and amused by the quirks of human nature. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Ellis Parker Butler was an American author. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story "Pigs Is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a shipment of two pet guinea pigs, which soon start proliferating exponentially. His most famous character was Philo Gubb.