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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75474 ***
+
+
+[Illustration: THE FIREMAN RUSHED ABOUT LIKE ANYTHING]
+
+
+
+
+  Three Little Trippertrots
+
+  HOW THEY RAN AWAY AND HOW
+  THEY GOT BACK AGAIN
+
+  BY
+  HOWARD R. GARIS
+
+  AUTHOR OF “THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS ON THEIR TRAVELS,”
+  “THE BEDTIME STORIES,” “UNCLE WIGGILY’S
+  ADVENTURES,” ETC.
+
+  _ILLUSTRATED_
+
+  NEW YORK
+  GRAHAM & MATLACK
+  PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+THE TRIPPERTROT STORIES
+
+BY HOWARD R. GARIS
+
+Quarto. Illustrated. Price, per volume, 60 cents, postpaid
+
+  THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS
+
+    How They Ran Away and How They Got Back Again
+
+  THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS ON THEIR TRAVELS
+
+    The Wonderful Things They Saw and the Wonderful Things They Did
+
+  GRAHAM & MATLACK, Publishers, New York
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
+  GRAHAM & MATLACK
+
+  _Three Little Trippertrots_
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
+
+
+The stories of the Three Little Trippertrots, though never before
+published, have been told to thousands of children, in a way, probably,
+that no tales have ever before been related. They were read _over the
+telephone_, nightly, to thousands of little folks, by means of the
+system operated by the N. J. Telephone Herald Company. The stories so
+delighted the children that the author has yielded to the request to
+issue them in book form.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  ADVENTURE                                           PAGE
+
+      I. THE TRIPPERTROTS ARE LOST                       1
+
+     II. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE KIND POLICEMAN         7
+
+    III. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HAND-ORGAN MAN        15
+
+     IV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY HORSES          21
+
+      V. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE OLD FISHERMAN         29
+
+     VI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FALSE-FACE MAN        35
+
+    VII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD LADY       44
+
+   VIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD MAN        50
+
+     IX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FIREMAN               58
+
+      X. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY BOY             64
+
+     XI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PIEMAN                73
+
+    XII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE BANANA MAN            80
+
+   XIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE DANCING BEARS         86
+
+    XIV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PINK COW              92
+
+     XV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TRAIN OF CARS        102
+
+    XVI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TROLLEY CAR          106
+
+   XVII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LAME BIRD            113
+
+  XVIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE NICE BIG DOG         122
+
+    XIX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE POOR LITTLE BOY      131
+
+     XX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE GIRL          138
+
+
+
+
+Three Little Trippertrots
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS ARE LOST
+
+
+Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, there were two little
+boys, and a little girl, who lived with their papa and mamma in a
+house in a big city. One of the boys was named Tommy, and the other
+was called Johnny, and the little girl’s name was Mary. Mary was seven
+years old, Tommy was six, and Johnny was the youngest of all, being
+only five years old. Now the children had a last name, which was the
+funny one of Trippertrot. They were called this because they were
+always tripping or trotting off somewhere or other.
+
+One day, when Tommy and Johnny and Mary were at play in their house,
+the telephone bell rang, and Suzette, the nursemaid, who had charge of
+the children, ran to answer it.
+
+“Who do you s’pose it is calling up?” asked Tommy of Johnny.
+
+“I don’t know; maybe it’s the milkman,” answered Johnny.
+
+“Milkmen don’t have time to talk on a telephone,” said Mary. “But I
+know what let’s do, Johnny and Tommy. Now that Suzette isn’t here,
+let’s go out for a walk. She won’t see us.”
+
+“Oh, goody! Let’s do it!” cried Johnny and Tommy together, like twins,
+you know, only they weren’t, of course. They jumped up very quickly,
+and followed Mary out of the house.
+
+Now, of course, that wasn’t just the right thing to do--to go away when
+Suzette wasn’t looking. But the Trippertrots didn’t always do what was
+right, any more than do some children whom I know--but, of course, I
+don’t mean any of you. Anyhow, the Trippertrots ran away, and I’m going
+to tell you what happened to them.
+
+“Which way shall we go?” asked Tommy, when they stood outside on the
+pavement.
+
+“Let’s go off and see if we can find a fairy,” suggested Mary.
+
+“No, don’t do that,” cried Johnny, “for we might meet a bad fairy,
+and she might turn us into an automobile with a honk-honk horn, or an
+elephant with a long nose, or something like that.”
+
+“Well, if we’re going to take a walk, we’d better hurry,” said Mary.
+“Suzette will soon be back from the telephone, and she’ll miss us, and
+come looking for us, and then we’ll have to go in and have our faces
+and hands washed. Hurry up!”
+
+“I know what’s the best thing to do,” exclaimed Tommy. “We’ll go down
+the street, where the toy store is, and get some things to play with.”
+
+“But we haven’t any money,” said Johnny.
+
+“That doesn’t make any difference,” Tommy replied. “I mean we can look
+in the toy-store window and choose what things we’d like to have.”
+
+“Oh, yes, that is fun!” agreed Johnny. “I heard a boy do that one day,
+and he choosed a whole train of cars and an engine.”
+
+“But did he get them?” asked Mary.
+
+“No; but it was fun just the same. Come on.”
+
+So down the street the Trippertrot children went, hand in hand,
+hurrying as fast as they could, and looking back every now and then to
+see if Suzette was following them. But she wasn’t.
+
+And oh! what wonderful things those children saw as they ran along!
+An automobile nearly banged into a trolley car, and a dog just missed
+being run over by a peanut wagon, and he barked almost as loudly as a
+lion can roar when he’s hungry for popcorn balls in the circus.
+
+Then the Trippertrots saw a man selling red and green and yellow
+balloons, and pink paper pin-wheels. And pretty soon they turned a
+corner, and there was a lady wheeling two babies in the same carriage.
+What do you think of that? They were twins, you know.
+
+“Oh, aren’t they cute babies!” exclaimed Mary. “Let’s stop and look at
+them, boys.”
+
+“No, we haven’t time,” said Johnny. “We’ve got to hurry down to that
+toy store, and choose things, or we won’t be back in time for tea, and
+we’d be hungry if we missed that.”
+
+So they hurried on faster and faster, still holding hands. They went
+past one store, in the windows of which were lots and lots of cakes,
+with pink and brown and white frosting on, and Johnny wanted to stop
+there and choose one, but Tommy hurried him on.
+
+Then they went around a corner where a Chinaman was ironing clothes
+right in the window of his shop, and past another place where a man was
+digging a big hole in the ground, and Mary nearly fell down in it, and
+she was very much frightened, only her brothers pulled her away from it
+just in time.
+
+Then, all of a sudden, a big automobile whizzed past, just as the
+Trippertrots were crossing the street, and a kind man called to the
+children:
+
+“Look out, little ones, or you’ll get run over!” Then they ran as fast
+as they could run, and the man called after them: “Aren’t you children
+lost?”
+
+“No, indeed, thank you,” answered Tommy. “We’re going to the toy store
+to choose presents.”
+
+“All right,” said the man, and he went on his way, laughing.
+
+A little while after that Tommy stubbed his toe and fell down. But do
+you suppose he cried? No, sir! not a bit of it. Not a single tear,
+though he wanted to very much.
+
+“But if I cry, and get my eyes full of water,” he thought, “I might
+not be able to see in the toy-shop window to choose things. So I’m not
+going to cry.”
+
+Then Mary and Johnny rubbed the sore place on Tommy’s leg, and Mary
+kissed him, and the Trippertrots went on farther.
+
+Then, just as the postman blew his whistle, they came to the toy
+shop. Oh, I just wish you could have seen it! The window was full of
+toy trains, and toy elephants who could wiggle their heads and their
+trunks, and there were dolls, and steam engines, and rocking-horses,
+and camels, and lions, and tigers--not real, you know, only
+make-believe--so don’t get frightened. And then there was an airship,
+with a thing in front that went around whizzy-izzy.
+
+“Oh, I’m going to choose that airship!” cried Johnny, as soon as he saw
+it.
+
+“No, it’s Mary’s turn first,” said Tommy. “Ladies are always first, you
+know.”
+
+“Oh, yes, of course. I forgot,” admitted Johnny. “Go on, Mary, you
+choose.”
+
+“Well,” said Mary slowly, “I’ll take the doll with the pink dress and
+the blue eyes.”
+
+“Now I am going to take the airship!” cried Johnny eagerly.
+
+“And I want the big elephant that wiggles his nose,” said Tommy. “Now
+it’s your turn again, Mary.”
+
+“I’ll take the little brass bed for my doll,” spoke the boys’ sister.
+
+And so they went on. Well, those children just stood there, choosing
+all the pretty toys in the store window, until there were hardly any
+left. Only, you know, of course, that it was only make-believe, for
+they didn’t really take the things away.
+
+Mary had just picked out a lovely doll carriage, and Tommy was going to
+take a small automobile with wheels that really went around, when, all
+of a sudden, the lady who kept the toy store came out on the sidewalk,
+and said:
+
+“I am afraid you children had better run home. You have been standing
+here for some time, and your mamma will worry about you, I’m sure. Run
+along, now, and take this,” and she gave each of them a stick of nice
+candy.
+
+“Yes, I guess we had better go home,” said Tommy. “Which way do we go,
+Johnny?”
+
+“Why, don’t you know the way home, Tommy?” asked his brother.
+
+“No. Don’t you?”
+
+“Not a bit of it!” answered Johnny, surprised like. “I am all turned
+around. Maybe Mary knows.”
+
+“What!” exclaimed the little Trippertrot girl, “you boys don’t mean to
+tell me you don’t know where our house is, do you?”
+
+“I don’t know,” spoke Tommy.
+
+“And I’m sure I don’t know,” answered Johnny.
+
+“We don’t either of us know,” went on Tommy in a sad voice. “Do you
+know, Mary?” and he began to eat his candy.
+
+Mary shook her head. Then two tears came into her blue eyes. Then came
+still more tears, until they rolled from her cheeks, and splashed down
+on the sidewalk, like salty rain.
+
+“Oh, dear!” she cried. “If none of us knows where our home is we’re
+lost! We can’t ever find our house! What shall we do?”
+
+And there was no one there to tell the children what to do, for the
+toy-store lady had gone back into her shop and shut the door.
+
+Then, all of a sudden, along came a big, kind-looking policeman, with a
+blue coat covered with brass buttons. Tommy saw him first.
+
+“Oh! Oh!” exclaimed Tommy. “Run! Run! Here comes a policeman after us!”
+
+“Yes, and he may put us in jail!” said Johnny. “Run!” So he and Tommy
+started to run, but Mary caught hold of them.
+
+“Stop, you silly boys!” she cried. “Don’t be afraid. Mamma always said
+that if ever we got lost we should go to a policeman right away. Now
+the policeman is coming to us, and that is much better; so it’s all
+right.”
+
+Then the nice big man with the brass buttons on his coat came closer,
+and Mary said to him:
+
+“Please, Mr. Policeman, we’re the Trippertrot children, and we’re lost.
+We don’t know where our house is. Will you please find it for us?”
+
+“To be sure I will,” answered the policeman, with a jolly smile. “Come
+along with me.”
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE KIND POLICEMAN
+
+
+“Are you going to take us home right away, Mr. Policeman?” asked Mary,
+as she and her brothers walked along beside the big man.
+
+“Of course I am,” he answered kindly. “But you must first tell me where
+your home is, and then I can go there by the shortest way. Where is
+your home?”
+
+“Why, don’t you know?” asked Johnny, and he stopped there in the street
+and looked at a big automobile which was whizzing along close behind
+a little fuzzy dog that was trying to get out of the way of the big
+rubber wheels. “Don’t you know where our house is, Mr. Policeman?”
+asked Johnny again.
+
+“Well,” spoke the big officer with the blue clothes, and the brass
+buttons down the front, like a whole lot of shiny eyes, “if you will
+tell me which street your house is on, I think I can easily take you to
+it.”
+
+“Don’t--don’t you even know the _street_?” asked Johnny, and two tears
+came into his eyes, one in each, and splashed down on the sidewalk.
+
+“Why, can’t you tell me the street?” the policeman wanted to know.
+
+Mary shook her little head. Johnny shook his little head. Tommy shook
+his little head. Then they all shook their heads together, and they
+said, all at once:
+
+“We--don’t--know!”
+
+“My! My!” exclaimed the policeman. “What am I going to do with three
+lost children who don’t know where they live?”
+
+“I thought policemans knew everything,” said Mary Trippertrot. “You
+ought to know about our house.”
+
+“I only wish I did,” replied the officer. “But I’ll tell you what I’ll
+do. I’ll give you a nice ride in a wagon, and I’ll take you to a place
+where there are a whole lot of policemen, and perhaps some of them may
+know where you live.”
+
+“Oh, goody!” cried Johnny. “Now we’ll be all right.”
+
+“Yes, and I know where he’s going to take us,” said Tommy. “It’s to a
+fire-engine house, ’cause I once saw a little lost boy in a fire-engine
+house.”
+
+“Oh, no, it isn’t,” said Mary. “He must be going to take us to a police
+station. But I don’t care, for it’s nice there. Once, Sallie Jones was
+lost, and she was taken to a police station, and the men there gave her
+candy until her mamma came for her. I know, ’cause she told me.”
+
+“Then I’m glad we’re lost,” said Tommy, “’cause the candy the toy-shop
+lady gave us is all gone.” And that’s as true as I’m telling you, the
+Trippertrots had eaten up all their candy.
+
+“Come along, now, little ones,” said the kind policeman, “and I’ll
+telephone for a wagon so that I can give you a ride.”
+
+“Oh, if you’re going to telephone,” cried Mary, “you can telephone to
+our house and tell mamma we’re coming home. I know where our house is
+now! It’s where the telephone is. We have one, and to-day, when Suzette
+went to answer it, we ran out. That’s how we got lost. All you have to
+do, Mr. Policeman, is to go to the house where our telephone is, and
+we’ll be home.”
+
+[Illustration: _On the Pole Was a Blue Box._]
+
+Mary looked up at the big officer, but he only shook his head.
+
+“There are so many houses which have telephones in,” he said, “that I
+could never find yours that way. But come on.”
+
+So he led them down the street until pretty soon he came to a big fat
+telephone pole that looked like an elephant’s leg in the circus. And
+on the pole was a blue box, which opened just like the door of the
+cupboard where mother keeps the bread and jam.
+
+And inside the box were a whole lot of shiny things, and a bell rang,
+like a telephone bell, and pretty soon the policeman was talking into
+that box and telling some one away far off at the police station to
+send a wagon for three little lost children.
+
+So there they stood, the three Trippertrots and the kind policeman,
+waiting for the wagon to come. And a whole lot of people gathered
+around and looked at the children, and felt very sorry for them because
+they were lost. But Mary and Johnny and Tommy weren’t a bit sorry. They
+knew it would be all right, and that the policeman would take care of
+them.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, a dog came running up the street. He was a
+nice, fuzzy, yellow dog, and he had a tail that he could wag. And what
+do you think he did? Why, he crawled right in between the legs of a fat
+man who was looking at the lost children, and then that dog went right
+up close to Mary, and barked softly, just as if he was saying:
+
+“Don’t you be worried now. I’m here, and I’ll take care of you.”
+
+“Oh, look! See the dog!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“Is he your dog?” asked the policeman.
+
+“No,” answered Johnny, “but I guess we can have him if we wish. Maybe
+he’s lost, too.”
+
+“I believe he is!” cried Mary. “Look how tired he is! I think we shall
+call him Fido, and he’ll be our dog; won’t you, Fido?”
+
+Well, I just wish you could have seen the dog wag his tail at that! He
+nearly wagged it off, he was so happy because Mary had called him Fido,
+for that was really his name; and he was lost, but he didn’t care, now
+that he had some children to love.
+
+And then, while they were standing there, the three Trippertrots and
+the dog and the kind policeman, along came the wagon to take the
+children to the police station. And there was a fine, big brown horse
+pulling the wagon.
+
+“Now get in, little ones,” said the policeman kindly.
+
+“You go first, Mary,” said Tommy politely. “Ladies are always first.”
+
+“No, let Fido get in first,” suggested Johnny. “He is so tired, and he
+can lie down in the wagon. Here, Fido, jump in!”
+
+“But you can’t take that dog in the wagon,” said the policeman, his
+face turning red.
+
+“Why not?” asked Mary, and she patted Fido on the head, so that he
+wagged his tail harder than ever.
+
+“Because,” said the policeman, “we don’t like dogs in our wagons; and
+besides, he isn’t your dog.”
+
+“Of course he’s our dog!” cried Johnny. “He came to us, and he’s ours.
+We’re going to keep him.”
+
+“Of course,” added Tommy. “He’s lost, and we’re lost, so he belongs to
+us.”
+
+“And if we can’t have him we don’t want to ride in your wagon, Mr.
+Policeman, though we like you very much,” said Mary. “Fido must come
+with us. You want to come, don’t you, Fido?” And she patted the dog’s
+head again.
+
+Then what do you suppose that dog did? Why, he wagged his tail up and
+down, instead of sideways, right up and down he wagged it, like a pump
+handle.
+
+“See!” cried Mary. “He’s saying ‘yes’ with his tail! He wants to come,
+Mr. Policeman.”
+
+“Oh, my! Then I suppose he’ll have to go,” said the officer, with a
+laugh, and everybody in the crowd laughed also. “Get in, Fido; and you,
+too, children,” the policeman went on.
+
+So they all got in the wagon, the Trippertrots and the dog and the
+policeman, and away they went. Tommy had hold of Fido’s left ear, and
+Johnny had hold of his right ear, and Mary had her hand on the dog’s
+head, and every once in a while Fido would put his cold nose in the
+policeman’s hand, to show that he liked him, and then the policeman
+would jump as if a mosquito had bitten him, for he wasn’t thinking
+about the dog. But Fido didn’t mind, and he thumped his tail down on
+the floor of the wagon until it sounded like a baby’s rattle-box.
+
+Pretty soon they were almost at the police station, and the policeman
+was wondering how he could find out where the lost Trippertrots lived,
+when, all of a sudden, Fido saw a pussy cat running along the sidewalk.
+And then, before you could look at a picture in a story book, out Fido
+jumped from the wagon to chase after the cat.
+
+Fido didn’t want to catch her, you understand. Oh, no; he just wanted
+to see if he could run as fast as the pussy was running. So that’s why
+he jumped out of the wagon.
+
+“Oh, my! There goes our dog!” cried Tommy.
+
+“Yes, Fido is running away!” exclaimed Johnny sorrowfully.
+
+“Oh, we must get him, or he’ll be lost again!” cried Mary. “Stop the
+wagon, please, Mr. Policeman, and we’ll get Fido back again. Come here,
+Fido!” she called.
+
+Well, the policeman wasn’t going to stop the wagon, but just then a
+trolley car got in the way of it, and the driver had to stop, whether
+he wanted to or not. And that was just the chance the Trippertrots
+wanted.
+
+First, Mary jumped out of the wagon, and then Tommy jumped out, and
+then Johnny jumped out.
+
+“Come back! Come back!” cried the policeman. “You’ll be lost again, and
+I’ll have to find you.”
+
+“We’re--going--to--get--our--Fido!” panted Mary.
+
+And then, before the big, kind policeman could get out of the wagon,
+those three children had hurried around a corner of the street and
+were racing after Fido, and Fido was racing after the pussy cat, and
+there was such a crowd of people that the policeman couldn’t see the
+children, even when he put on his glasses.
+
+“My! My!” he exclaimed. “They will be lost again!”
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HAND-ORGAN MAN
+
+
+“Oh, do you s’pose we’ll ever catch that dog?” asked Mary Trippertrot
+of her two brothers, as they raced along after Fido, and Fido was
+chasing after the cat.
+
+“Of course we will,” answered Tommy.
+
+“And maybe we’ll get the pussy cat, too,” said Johnny, who couldn’t run
+so very fast, as his legs were rather short.
+
+“But we don’t want the cat,” spoke Mary. “For you see, she and Fido
+aren’t very well acquainted yet, and they might not like each other.
+I think we’ll just catch Fido, and then we’ll all go home and get
+something for him to eat. I’m sure he must be hungry. I know I am.”
+
+“But we don’t know where our home is,” panted Johnny, as he tripped
+along beside Tommy.
+
+“Why, you silly boy, we can go back to the policeman in the wagon,
+and he’ll find our home for us,” went on Mary. “Come on, now. We are
+catching up to Fido.”
+
+So on the Trippertrot children tripped and trotted as fast as they
+could. And, all of a sudden, Mary slipped, and she would have fallen
+down, only Johnny caught her. And then Tommy was running so fast that
+he ran right into a lady who was carrying a basket full of loaves of
+bread, and the bread all bounced out on the sidewalk.
+
+“Oh, dear! Oh, me! Oh, my!” cried the lady. “Now see what you have
+done!”
+
+“We are very sorry,” said Tommy politely. “But you see we are lost,
+and our dog Fido is lost, too, only we know where he is, and we’re
+chasing after him, and he’s chasing after a cat, and that’s how I
+happened to run into you. But we’ll help you pick up the bread, though
+Fido may get so far ahead of us that we can’t find him.”
+
+“Oh, my! What a lot of things to happen to three little children!” said
+the lady kindly. “Never mind about the bread. I can pick it up myself.
+You run on after your Fido, bless your hearts!”
+
+So she began to pick up the bread herself, and a man helped her, and
+the Trippertrots ran on. And about a minute after that Johnny stubbed
+his toe, but he didn’t even cry half a tear, for he was a brave little
+fellow.
+
+And then they hurried on again, and they could just see Fido’s wagging
+tail now, and it was going around in a circle like a merry-go-round,
+because, you see, he was so excited.
+
+“There he is!” cried Mary. “Hurry up, and we’ll have him in a minute!”
+
+“Look! Look!” cried Tommy. “The cat has run up a tree, and now Fido
+can’t get her, so he’ll have to stop running, and we can catch up to
+him.”
+
+And would you ever believe it? That cat did run up a tree, and she sat
+down on a branch, and Fido, he sat down on the ground at the foot of
+the tree, for dogs can’t climb, you know.
+
+“Oh, you naughty Fido!” exclaimed Mary, as she came up to him. “Why
+did you run away?” And Mary had to sit down on the ground, too, so she
+could get her breath. And then up came Tommy and Johnny, and they also
+had to sit down, so there they all sat, the three Trippertrots and the
+dog, at the foot of the tree, and the pussy cat about ten feet up the
+tree, sitting on a branch.
+
+“Why did you run away?” asked Tommy, taking hold of Fido’s left ear.
+
+“Bow! wow! wow!” answered the doggie, which meant that he didn’t know.
+Then he wagged his tail sideways on the ground, and he made so much
+dust that Mary had to sneeze.
+
+And Johnny sneezed, and Tommy sneezed, and then Fido sneezed, to keep
+them company. And the pussy cat up the tree, she didn’t want to be left
+out, so she sneezed, also, and in that way they all sneezed.
+
+Then the three Trippertrots laughed, and the cat heard them, and the
+pussy knew that anybody who laughs real jolly like will never harm any
+animals, so the cat thought she would come down out of the tree.
+
+And she did. And what do you suppose Fido did? Why, he just barked
+politely, as if he were saying, “Pleased to meet you!” And he wagged
+his tail, real friendly like, and he put his cold nose on the pussy
+cat’s cold nose, and that’s the way they shook hands.
+
+“Now they’re friends,” said Tommy. “I don’t see why we can’t keep them
+both, Mary.”
+
+“Perhaps we can,” said his sister, “as long as they don’t quarrel.
+Come, Fido, we must go back to the kind policeman now. Come, Pussy. I
+wonder what your name is?”
+
+“Me-ow, me-ew!” cried the pussy.
+
+“What did she say?” asked Tommy.
+
+“I guess she said ‘How d’ do?’ But anyhow let’s call her Ivy Vine,
+because she can climb a tree so well. Come, Ivy Vine.”
+
+So Fido got up, and so did the three Trippertrots, from where they had
+been sitting on the ground, and Ivy Vine, the pussy, got up also, and
+they all started down the street together.
+
+“Do you know which way to go to get to the policeman’s wagon?” asked
+Tommy.
+
+“No. Don’t you?” asked Johnny.
+
+Tommy shook his head.
+
+“Then we’re lost again,” said Mary, “for I don’t know either. Oh, how
+many things are happening to us to-day! I wonder if we will ever get
+home again?”
+
+They looked all around, but they couldn’t see any street that looked
+like the one they lived on, and there was no house in sight like
+theirs, and they didn’t know what to do. And then, all of a sudden,
+they heard some nice music. And it was a hand-organ playing, and it
+played a tune called “Always be happy and never be sad, Always be
+joyful and jolly and glad.”
+
+“Oh, I hope that hand-organ man has a monkey!” cried Mary.
+
+And just then, surely enough, around the corner came the hand-organ
+man, and he was playing the jolly tune, and perched up on his organ was
+a cute little monkey, with a red cap and a blue coat.
+
+“Oh, isn’t this lovely!” said Tommy.
+
+“I don’t mind being lost now,” spoke Johnny.
+
+Then the hand-organ man came up to where the children were standing,
+with Fido and the pussy cat. And at first the monkey acted as if he
+wanted to run away from the dog, but Fido wagged his tail so very
+friendly like that the monkey stayed. And then the children noticed
+that the hand-organ man looked sick, and he could hardly grind out the
+music.
+
+“What is the matter, Mr. Hand-Organ Man?” asked Mary.
+
+“Oh, I am very tired and lonesome,” said the man. “I have walked about
+all day, and played all the tunes in my hand-organ, but no one gave
+me any pennies. Not even when Fuzzo, my monkey, climbed up to the
+second-story windows and took off his cap. Oh, dear, I haven’t any
+money to buy my supper with!”
+
+“Oh, that’s too bad!” exclaimed Tommy. “Maybe we can help you.”
+
+“Let’s try,” said Mary.
+
+“Yes,” said Johnny. “We can go around with you, and sing while you
+grind the organ, and we’ll take Ivy Vine and Fido with us, and perhaps
+when the people see all the animals together they may give you pennies.”
+
+“Oh, it would be very kind if you would do that,” said the hand-organ
+man. So he began to play a jolly little tune, and the children sang,
+and the monkey danced up on top of the organ, and Fido stood on his
+hind legs, and Ivy Vine, the cat, turned somersaults.
+
+Well, you ought to have seen the crowd of people stop and look on.
+Everybody laughed, and thought the children were very cute, and they
+liked the animals, too. Then Fuzzo, the monkey, took off his red cap
+and held it out, and the people put a lot of pennies in it.
+
+“Fine! Fine!” cried the hand-organ man as he heard the pennies rattling
+in Fuzzo’s cap. “Now I can buy some supper.” And more pennies came
+rattling in, until the cap could not hold them all, and Fuzzo had to
+put some of them in his pocket.
+
+Well, the Trippertrot children were having a good time, and in spite of
+being lost they were very happy, because they were helping some one,
+and the organ man was playing another tune, and Mary was just getting
+ready to sing a song all alone, when a great big automobile dashed up
+to the sidewalk, and the man who was in it cried:
+
+“Why, bless my soul! If there aren’t the Trippertrots, nearly two
+miles from home! I must take them back at once. How did you get here,
+children?” he called.
+
+“Oh, there’s Mr. Johnson in his auto!” exclaimed Mary. “We are lost,
+Mr. Johnson. Will you please take us home?” For you see the man in the
+automobile happened to live next door to the Trippertrots, and he knew
+them.
+
+“Of course I’ll take you home,” he said kindly. “Get in.”
+
+“Oh, but we must take Fido and Ivy Vine, and Fuzzo and the hand-organ
+man,” said Tommy. “Fido is our lost dog, and Ivy Vine is our lost cat,
+and Fuzzo is the monkey. We don’t know the man’s name, but he isn’t
+lost, neither is Fuzzo, but they are very hungry, and we are going to
+take them to our house for supper.”
+
+“What! Take you and those animals and the hand-organ man in my auto?”
+cried Mr. Johnson, in astonishment.
+
+“Yes, and the hand-organ, too,” said Mary. “Then the man can play tunes
+on the way, and you won’t have to blow your horn. Get in, Fido. Get
+in, Ivy Vine. Get in, Fuzzo. And you, too, Tommy and Johnny, and Mr.
+Hand-Organ Man.”
+
+Mr. Johnson laughed, and then he thought the best thing to do would be
+to take the Trippertrots and everybody and everything that they wanted
+along with him in the auto.
+
+So they all piled into the car, and away they went; and, surely enough,
+the hand-organ man played tunes all the way along, and the people in
+the street laughed when they saw the automobile with its queer load.
+But the Trippertrots didn’t care, and soon they were right in front of
+their own house.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY HORSES
+
+
+When Mrs. Trippertrot looked out of her window and saw her three
+children, and Mr. Johnson, the man who owned the automobile, and Fido
+the dog, and Ivy Vine the cat, and Fuzzo the monkey--to say nothing of
+the hand-organ man--when she saw all of them in front of her house she
+didn’t know what to think.
+
+“Oh, my dear children!” she cried. “I have been looking everywhere for
+you! Where have you been?”
+
+“We have been lost, mamma,” said Mary.
+
+“And we had a most lovely time!” exclaimed Johnny, laughing.
+
+“And we’ve got a dog and a cat, and a monkey!” added Tommy.
+
+“Oh, dear!” cried their mamma. “I’ve been telephoning all over for you.
+I didn’t know what to do, and I have just sent for your papa.”
+
+“That’s too bad,” said Tommy. “Really, we didn’t want to worry you,
+mamma. But if papa hurries home, he can have supper with the hand-organ
+man.”
+
+“Have supper with the hand-organ man!” cried Mrs. Trippertrot. “What in
+the world do you mean?”
+
+“This is the hand-organ man,” said Mary, and she pointed to the man who
+owned Fuzzo the monkey. “He’s very hungry, and we helped him get some
+pennies. Mr. Johnson found us, didn’t you, Mr. Johnson?”
+
+“I certainly did,” he said, and then he looked to see if he had to pump
+any more wind into his big automobile tires.
+
+“But a policeman found us first,” said Johnny.
+
+“Only we jumped out of the wagon to go after Fido, for he was chasing a
+cat,” explained Tommy. “Here is the cat, mamma. Her name is Ivy Vine,
+because she can climb a tree so good.”
+
+“Bless us!” said Mrs. Trippertrot. “I shall never understand all this.
+Oh, I hope you children never run away again. I am ever so much obliged
+to you, Mr. Johnson, for bringing them home. But what shall I do with a
+monkey and a dog and a cat and a hand-organ man?”
+
+“Well,” said Mr. Johnson, “I think I would give the hand-organ man
+and his monkey something to eat, and send them away. Then I’d let the
+children keep the dog and cat for a while.”
+
+“Oh, we’re going to keep them forever,” said Mary, “and the monkey,
+too; can’t we, mother?”
+
+“Oh, please don’t ask me!” cried Mrs. Trippertrot. “Yes, you may keep
+anything, as long as you don’t run away again. Oh! I have been so
+worried about you!”
+
+“I am very sorry, but I can’t stay here,” said the hand-organ man. “I
+must go home, for I am going to teach Fuzzo, my monkey, a new trick of
+standing on his head, and then perhaps we may get many more pennies.
+I thank your children very much for what they did for me.” And then,
+making a low bow to Mrs. Trippertrot, and to Mr. Johnson, he climbed
+down out of the auto and took his hand-organ and monkey and started
+away with them.
+
+“Don’t you want some supper?” asked Tommy quickly.
+
+“No, I thank you,” said the man. “Since you were so kind as to help me
+get some pennies, I can buy enough for Fuzzo and myself to eat. So
+I’ll say good-by.” And then the hand-organ man hurried away.
+
+Soon Tommy and Mary and Johnny got out of the auto, and kissed their
+mamma, and they went into the house, after thanking Mr. Johnson for
+bringing them home, and Fido and Ivy Vine went in with them.
+
+“I don’t know what your papa will say about keeping those animals,”
+said Mrs. Trippertrot, “but he will soon be home, and we can ask him.”
+
+“Oh, he’ll let us keep them,” said Mary.
+
+“Sure, for he loves dogs,” spoke Johnny.
+
+“And cats, too!” cried Tommy, for just then Ivy Vine was purring away
+like a sewing machine, and washing her fur, in front of the open fire
+in the library.
+
+Pretty soon Mr. Trippertrot came home, and when he heard about what his
+children had done, and how they had been lost, and how they had brought
+home a cat and a dog and a monkey, to say nothing of a hand-organ man,
+he didn’t know what to say.
+
+“But I suppose they may keep the dog and cat,” he said. “They will be
+good pets for them. But I hope you never run away again, children.”
+
+Of course Mary and Tommy and Johnny promised, but you just wait and see
+what happened. It was quite an adventure.
+
+One afternoon, about three days later, the three Trippertrot children
+were up in the playroom, having a soldier game. Tommy was the general,
+and he had a sword; and Johnny was a soldier, with a make-believe
+wooden gun; and Mary was a nurse, to take care of the soldiers when
+they were ill.
+
+“Oh, I just wish we had horses!” cried Johnny suddenly. “Then we could
+take a long ride.”
+
+“That _would_ be fun,” said Tommy.
+
+“Could I ride, too?” asked Mary.
+
+“If we could find you a horse,” spoke Johnny.
+
+“Well, we have your old hobby-horse,” said Mary to Tommy, “and down in
+the laundry is a clothes-horse. I could have that.”
+
+“But what could I have?” asked Johnny.
+
+“Oh, I know!” cried Mary. “A sawhorse! The very thing!”
+
+“Do you mean a horse that is all sawed up into sawdust?” asked Johnny,
+trying to stand on his head.
+
+“No, indeed,” replied his sister. “A sawhorse is something a carpenter
+uses on which to saw out boards. It has a back and four legs, just
+like a real horse. Oh, I know what we’ll do! We’ll get the sawhorse
+and the clothes-horse and the rocking-horse all out on the lawn, and
+we’ll put empty thread spools under them for wheels, and we can really
+make-believe truly ride.”
+
+“Great!” cried Tommy.
+
+“Wonderful!” said Johnny.
+
+“They are funny horses,” said Mary, “but we can have some fun, and, who
+knows? perhaps we may ride to fairyland on them. Come on, boys, we’ll
+get them ready.”
+
+So they took the rocking-horse out of the playroom and carried it out
+on the lawn. Then they brought the clothes-horse up from the laundry.
+
+The clothes-horse, you know, is the horse on which the washlady
+hangs the clothes to dry in front of the fire. And then those funny
+Trippertrot children went next door, where a man was building a new
+house, and one of the carpenters let them take a sawhorse. So they had
+three horses, you see.
+
+[Illustration: _“Trot Along, Clothes-Horse!” Cried Mary._]
+
+Mary took a board and put it across the clothes-horse, so she could sit
+on it to ride. But Tommy and Johnny didn’t need any boards for their
+horses. Tommy had the sawhorse, and Johnny the rocking-horse. Then
+they fastened some big, empty thread spools on the bottom of the legs
+of their horses, and they were all ready to ride off after some new
+adventures.
+
+They took their funny horses to the top of a little hill on the smooth
+grassy lawn, so they would start to roll down easily. Then they all got
+up on the horses’ backs.
+
+“Giddap!” cried Tommy.
+
+“Gee-up!” cried Johnny.
+
+“Trot along, clothes-horse!” cried Mary.
+
+And then, would you believe it? those funny horses began to roll down
+the long, grassy hill. Faster and faster they went on the spools,
+rolling along, bumpity-bump.
+
+“Oh!” exclaimed Mary. “Why, my horse is going!”
+
+“And so is mine!” said Johnny.
+
+“Of course!” cried Tommy. “Horses always go.”
+
+Faster and faster went the funny horses. The children were hanging to
+them tightly, so as not to fall off.
+
+“Oh, isn’t this great!” said Mary. “I wonder where they will take us?”
+
+“To fairyland, of course,” said Johnny.
+
+By this time the funny horses, carrying the Trippertrot children, were
+at the bottom of the lawn. They were galloping along quite fast, when,
+all of a sudden, Mary cried:
+
+“Oh, look! The brook! The brook!”
+
+Right ahead of them was a little stream of water, and it was quite wet
+water, too, let me tell you.
+
+“Oh! If we fall in that, we’ll be drowned!” said Johnny, shivering.
+
+“Stop the horses! Stop them!” cried Tommy.
+
+So they all pulled on the pieces of string which they had tied on the
+rocking-horse, and on the sawhorse, and on the clothes-horse, for
+driving reins. But, would you believe it? those funny horses never
+stopped at all.
+
+Along they went on the empty spool-wheels, until they were right at the
+edge of the brook; and then, instead of stopping to get a drink, the
+way real horses would have done, those strange horses just tumbled into
+the water. Right in they tumbled, Trippertrot children and all.
+
+“Oh!” screamed Mary, as she felt the water coming up over her toes.
+
+“Oh, me!” cried Johnny, as he felt the water on his nose.
+
+“Oh, my!” exclaimed Tommy, as some water splashed up on his knees.
+“We’ll be drowned!”
+
+But I’m not going to let anything like that happen to our Trippertrots.
+No, indeed. I’m going to save them. Just listen.
+
+All of a sudden, when the three children were in the water--all of a
+sudden, I say--the clothes-horse and the sawhorse and the rocking-horse
+sort of floated close to each other, and all at once they made
+themselves into a nice raft, that was just as good as a sailboat.
+
+“Climb up, and we’ll have a ride in the brook!” cried Johnny, when he
+saw that the funny wooden horses would hold them all, and not let them
+sink.
+
+So the three children climbed up on the funny boat, that was made
+from the funny horses, and they sat there a little while until they
+were nice and warm and dry again, and then the sawhorse and the
+clothes-horse and the rocking-horse just swam toward shore as fast as
+they could, and so the children were saved, just as I told you they
+would be.
+
+And then--well, if you want to know what happened after that, will you
+please turn to the next page, and then you can read all about it.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER FIVE
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE OLD FISHERMAN
+
+
+All of a sudden, as the Trippertrot children were riding along on
+their funny horses, which had just galloped up out of the water to the
+dry land--all of a sudden, I say--Mary happened to look behind her,
+and there was Ivy Vine, the cat, running after them as fast as she
+could run, and her tail was sticking straight up in the air, like a
+clothes-post.
+
+“Oh, look!” cried Mary. “Ivy Vine is coming, and she may get lost!”
+
+“So might we get lost, if we go far enough,” answered Johnny. “We’d
+better wait for Ivy Vine, and she can show us the way home.”
+
+“That’s right,” added Tommy. “We were lost once, and I don’t want it to
+happen again.”
+
+“Oh, that was nothing,” said Mary. “I think it was fun to be lost.
+Remember the good time we had.”
+
+“Oh, look over there!” suddenly called Johnny. “There comes Fido, our
+dog! Now, surely we can’t get lost with him along. I say, let’s get off
+our horses and take a walk. My horse is tired, anyhow.”
+
+“And so is mine,” said Mary. “Maybe if we walk along real slowly we’ll
+have an adventure.”
+
+Then, pretty soon, up came Ivy Vine, the cat, and Fido, the dog, and,
+leaving their three funny horses in the grass, the Trippertrots and the
+dog and the cat started off. They walked along and along, and pretty
+soon they came to a little hill.
+
+“Let’s go up this hill, and see what’s on top,” said Tommy.
+
+“Yes. Maybe a nice fairy lives there,” spoke Johnny.
+
+“No, don’t go up,” objected Mary. “We might fall down on the other
+side.”
+
+“That’s so,” agreed Johnny. “I don’t want to fall down, because I’ve
+got on a new pair of stockings, and mamma doesn’t want me to get any
+holes in them.”
+
+“Oh, you are too fussy,” spoke Tommy. “Why, we don’t have to fall down
+the other side. And besides, if we do start to slip, we can grab hold
+of Ivy Vine’s tail, and she can stick her sharp claws down in the grass
+on the hill, and we won’t slide any more.”
+
+“That’s so. I never thought of that,” said Mary. “We’ll go up. Come on,
+Ivy Vine, I’m going to hold you, so if I happen to slip you can save
+me.”
+
+“And Johnny and I will take Fido,” said Tommy. “His toenails aren’t as
+sharp as Ivy Vine’s, but he’ll do, I guess.”
+
+So up the hill they went, slowly and carefully, with the dog and the
+cat, and they kept a close watch on every side, but they didn’t see any
+fairies, though in one place they saw growing some toadstools, that
+fairies use for umbrellas when it rains.
+
+Then, presently, the Trippertrots were at the top of the hill, and
+it was a nice, flat, smooth place, all covered with grass; and they
+couldn’t have fallen off if they had tried with all their might; no,
+indeed!
+
+And then, all of a sudden, Mary happened to look behind a tree that
+was growing on top of the hill, and she saw a nice old man sitting in
+a chair, on the edge of a little lake of water. Oh, he was a very old
+man, and he had such a nice, pleasant face, though you couldn’t see
+very much of it because he had so many whiskers. He had whiskers all
+over him, almost like Santa Claus.
+
+“Look!” whispered Mary to her brothers. “I wonder who he is, and what
+he is doing?”
+
+“I know what he’s doing,” said Johnny.
+
+“What?” asked Tommy.
+
+“He’s a fisherman,” answered Johnny. “Can’t you see his pole and line?”
+
+“Oh, of course,” spoke Mary. “But I wonder what he is catching?”
+
+“Let’s go up and ask him,” suggested Tommy.
+
+“No, we mustn’t do that,” objected Johnny. “Fishermen never like to be
+bothered when they’re catching fish.”
+
+“But maybe he hasn’t caught any yet,” said Mary, “and, of course, then
+he wouldn’t mind. We can go up to him, and we’ll tell him that as soon
+as he begins to catch any fish we’ll run away, and not bother him.”
+
+“I guess that will do,” said Johnny. “Come on.”
+
+So the three Trippertrot children walked softly up to the old
+fisherman, and when he saw them coming he waved his hand to them, not
+the hand that held the fishpole, you understand, but his other one, and
+he smiled in a very kind way, and said:
+
+“Come right along, children. I heard what you said, and you won’t annoy
+me a bit. I like children.”
+
+“Thank you,” said Mary politely. “But if you catch any fish we’ll go
+right away and not bother you.”
+
+“Oh, but I never catch any fish,” said the old man, with a jolly laugh.
+“I’ve fished for years and years, right here, and never a fish have I
+caught.”
+
+“That’s funny,” said Johnny. “We live near here, and I don’t remember
+ever seeing you before.”
+
+“Ha! Perhaps that is because you never happened to look when I was
+sitting here,” said the man. “But you say you live around here?”
+
+“Yes--yes--I--er--I guess so,” said Mary slowly.
+
+“Can’t you be sure?” asked the old fisherman.
+
+“No, sir,” answered Tommy. “You see, it’s this way. We are the
+Trippertrots, and we’re always getting lost. We start out somewhere,
+as we did to-day on our funny horses, and we don’t seem to go very far
+at all, but all of a sudden we’re lost. So we never know whether we’re
+near home or not.”
+
+“I guess it’s that way now,” said Mary. “I don’t seem to remember this
+place at all,” and she looked all around. “It isn’t a bit like what I
+thought it was, and we didn’t seem to come so very far; and anyhow, we
+only started out from home a short while ago. But we’re lost, sure.”
+
+“Never mind,” said Tommy. “Fido or Ivy Vine will show us the way home;
+or, if they can’t, perhaps this gentleman will.”
+
+“To be sure,” said the fisherman, pulling up his line and looking at
+it, and then the children saw that instead of a regular sharp fish-hook
+he had a big hammock-hook on the end of his line.
+
+“That’s a funny hook,” said Johnny.
+
+“Isn’t it?” agreed the old fisherman, with a jolly laugh. “But I like
+it.”
+
+“Maybe that’s why you never catch any fish,” said Tommy.
+
+“I believe you’re right,” agreed the old man, with another jolly laugh.
+“I never thought of it in that way before, but I believe that’s the
+reason.”
+
+“But if you don’t catch fish, what do you catch?” asked Mary, who was
+very curious.
+
+“Oh, lots and lots of things!” exclaimed the fisherman. “It would take
+me a long time to tell you, for they are such funny things. The best
+way for me to do would be to show you what I catch. Now look at me
+carefully, and see what I pull up this time on my hammock-hook.”
+
+So the old fisherman carefully lowered his hook and line into the
+little lake. Then he leaned back in his chair, and the Trippertrots
+stood around him. The old man closed his eyes.
+
+“Ha! I have something!” he suddenly cried, and, quickly pulling up his
+line, there, dangling on the hammock-hook, was a pair of rubber boots.
+
+“That’s funny,” said Mary.
+
+“Oh, that’s nothing at all,” said the old fisherman. “Just you wait and
+see what happens next. I catch very funny things.”
+
+So he put in his line again, just like Jack Horner put his thumb in
+the pie. Then the old fisherman pulled it out again--pulled out the
+line, you know, not Jack Horner’s thumb--and this time, dangling on the
+hammock-hook, was a nice rubber coat, such as children wear to school
+on rainy days.
+
+“That’s strange,” said Tommy.
+
+“Not at all,” said the old fisherman. “See what my next catch will be.”
+And what do you suppose it was? Why, when he pulled up his line the
+next time there was a big umbrella on the hook!
+
+“There! What did I tell you?” exclaimed the fisherman.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, before the Trippertrots could say
+anything--all of a sudden, I say--it began to rain. How it did pour!
+The drops splashed down all over, and made the grass quite wet.
+
+“Oh! Whatever shall we do?” cried Mary.
+
+“Quick!” cried the old fisherman. “Tommy, you put on the rubber boots
+and the rubber coat, and Johnny, you take the umbrella, and hold it
+over you and Mary. It’s big enough for two children. Lively now, and
+then run as fast as you can.”
+
+“Where shall we run?” asked Tommy, as he put on the rubber boots.
+
+“Run anywhere,” answered the old fisherman. “Anywhere. It doesn’t
+matter, as long as you get in out of the rain. Run! Run! I’ll run,
+too!” And catching up his chair in one hand, and his fishpole in the
+other, he ran as fast as he could after the children.
+
+“Oh, I just know we’ll be lost again!” cried Mary sorrowfully.
+
+“Never mind,” said Tommy. “This is jolly fun!”
+
+“It certainly is,” agreed Johnny. “Maybe we’ll have another adventure.
+Come on, Ivy Vine and Fido.”
+
+So on they ran, the Trippertrots and the old fisherman and the dog and
+cat; on and on through the rain, which kept coming down harder and
+harder, until pretty soon they saw a little house in the woods.
+
+“Who lives there?” asked Mary.
+
+“The false-face man,” said the old fisherman. “Come on. We’ll go in
+there out of the wet.”
+
+So they started for the house of the false-face man, and they wondered
+what would happen when they got there.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER SIX
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FALSE-FACE MAN
+
+
+“Oh, my! It’s raining harder than ever!” cried Mary Trippertrot, as she
+and her brothers and the old fisherman ran along. “Can’t you please
+hold that umbrella over me better than that, Johnny? I’m getting all
+wet.”
+
+“Never mind,” spoke the kind old fisherman, and he held the chair
+upside down over his head, so his whiskers wouldn’t get full of water.
+“Never mind. We’ll soon be in the false-face man’s house, and we can
+get good and dry.”
+
+“Do you think he is at home?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Who? The false-face man?” inquired the old fisherman. “Of course he’s
+at home. He’s never anywhere else. He never goes out, you know. Why,
+who would make all the false-faces if he went away? He just can’t spare
+the time, you see.”
+
+“Oh, it must be dreadful to have to stay in the house all the while!”
+said Mary. “I wouldn’t like it a bit.”
+
+“Well,” said the fisherman, as he tried to run in between the big
+rain-drops so he wouldn’t get hit by them, “there is one good thing
+about staying home all the while--you never get lost.”
+
+“That’s so,” agreed Tommy. “But we’d better hurry. My boots are full of
+water, and my feet are wet.”
+
+“Oh, that’s too bad!” exclaimed the fisherman. “I forgot about the
+water in the boots. I wonder how it got in?”
+
+“Why, you fished them up out of the lake,” said Johnny, “and I think
+it must have gotten in over the tops that way. They were down under
+water, you know.”
+
+“To be sure,” said the old fisherman. “The next time I catch rubber
+boots I’m going to have the tops covered over with shingles so the
+water won’t get in. But I see the false-face man waving to us, and that
+means he’s at home, and he wants us to hurry in. Run a little faster,
+children.”
+
+So the Trippertrots ran faster, and so did Ivy Vine, the cat, for she
+didn’t like the wet very much; and neither did Fido, the dog; but they
+didn’t say anything about it. And the old fisherman ran, also.
+
+Mary and Tommy and Johnny looked toward the little house to see what
+kind of a person the false-face man was. He was standing in the
+doorway. And he was quite a jolly sort of a man, if you will kindly
+take my word for it. He had on an apron all covered with spots of
+paint, and his arms, on which the sleeves were rolled up almost to the
+shoulders, had paint on them also. The children could see him quite
+plainly now, for all of a sudden the sky cleared up, though the ground
+was still very wet.
+
+“Leave the umbrella, chair, coat and rubber boots here,” said the old
+fisherman. “We won’t need them, as it has stopped raining.”
+
+So they put them down in the grass and hurried on.
+
+And oh, so many, many pretty colors as the children saw! There were
+red spots on the false-face man, and green spots of paint, and pink
+spots, and black spots, and yellow, and brown, and purple, and gold,
+and silver, and even some chimney-colored spots. It was just as if a
+rainbow had splattered over him.
+
+“Why is he all spotted up that way?” asked Mary, as she and Johnny
+splashed into a puddle and out again.
+
+“Because he paints the false-faces,” said the old fisherman. “He
+paints them all sorts of colors, and, of course, some of the paint
+splashes on him. But bless you! he doesn’t mind it in the least; not in
+the least, I do assure you.”
+
+“Does he make _all_ the false-faces?” asked Tommy, as he stepped along.
+
+“Everyone,” answered the old fisherman. “All those faces you see in the
+store windows for Hallowe’en. Wait. I’ll have him tell you about it.”
+
+So they ran on, and now they were right at the front door of the
+house of the false-face man, and they could see that he was even more
+jolly-looking than they had at first thought.
+
+“Don’t you make all the false-faces?” the old fisherman asked him,
+as he pointed to some of them hanging on the house. “Please tell the
+children all about it.”
+
+“To be sure I will,” said the false-face man, with a jolly laugh. “I
+have just finished making a whole lot of false-faces for the children
+all over this country, and for some out in a city called Orange; but
+I think that must be a funny place. I wonder why they didn’t call it
+Lemon?”
+
+“Because, if you please,” said Mary, “I think it was because lemons are
+sour.”
+
+“Ha! I never thought of that!” exclaimed the false-face man. “No doubt
+you are right. But come in. Don’t mind the paint. It won’t come off,
+for it’s dry by this time.”
+
+“I wish _we_ were dry,” said old fisherman, as he twisted his whiskers
+around to squeeze the water out of them. “_We_ are very wet, even if
+the paint isn’t.”
+
+“Well, come in, and you may sit by the fire,” said the false-face man.
+“I’m very glad to see you.”
+
+“And will you really tell us about making the false-faces, if you
+please?” asked Tommy politely.
+
+“To be sure I will,” was the answer. “Do you mind if I sing it?” and
+the false-face man looked at the children, and then at Ivy Vine, who
+was trying to get her fur dry with her red tongue.
+
+“No. I think they would like very much to hear you sing,” spoke the old
+fisherman.
+
+“Do you think the dog or cat would mind?” went on the false-face man.
+“Some dogs don’t like music.”
+
+“Oh, I don’t believe they would mind your singing,” said Tommy, and
+the false-face man and the old fisherman began to laugh, though the
+Trippertrots didn’t know why.
+
+“Well, then, here goes for the song,” said the false-face man after
+a while. “It’s not a very good one, as I made it up myself, but
+it’s the best I can do. And I’ll sing it to the tune of Hum-dum-dum
+diddle-iddle-um.”
+
+Then he sang this song:
+
+  “I am the false-est facer man
+    That ever you have seen.
+  I make false-faces colored red,
+    And also colored green.
+  I make an elephant’s false-face,
+    And then I go and make
+  A false-face for a mooley-cow
+    Who’s eating jelly cake.
+
+  “I’ll make false-faces for you all,
+    If you will kindly wait;
+  I’ll make one for the soup dish,
+    And for the butter plate.
+  And then we’ll have a party,
+    The funniest ever seen,
+  For we’ll all have false-faces
+    To wear on Hallowe’en.”
+
+“I think that is a very nice song,” said Mary, when the false-face man
+had finished.
+
+“Thank you,” replied the false-face man, making a low bow.
+
+“Oh, goody!” cried Tommy. “When is Hallowe’en?”
+
+“To-night,” answered the old fisherman.
+
+“And will you really make false-faces for all of us?” inquired Johnny.
+
+“To be sure I will,” said the false-face man, “and I’ll make one for
+Ivy Vine, and for Fido the dog. Then we’ll have a party, just as I sung
+about.”
+
+“Oh, but I forgot!” exclaimed Mary. “We can’t stay to any Hallowe’en
+party.”
+
+“Why not?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Because we’re lost,” said his sister. “We must try to find our way
+back home, or mamma and papa will be alarmed about us.”
+
+“That’s so,” said the two boys.
+
+“Oh, don’t worry,” spoke the false-face man. “I think I can find your
+home for you after a while, and it is early yet.”
+
+That made the children feel better, and they thought they might stay
+just a little while longer; anyway, until they got their false-faces.
+
+“Now, what kind of faces do you want?” asked the man, who was all
+covered with paint spots.
+
+“I want an Indian’s!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“You shall have it,” said the false-face man.
+
+“And I want one like Little Jack Horner, who sat in the corner,” said
+Johnny.
+
+“You shall have it,” said the false-face man, with a jolly laugh, “and
+you may sit in the corner of my shop here, and perhaps we can find a
+Christmas pie so you can put in your thumb and pull out a plum.”
+
+“Oh, that will be jolly!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“And now what kind of a false-face do you want, Mary?” asked the old
+fisherman.
+
+“Oh, I think I would like one of Old Mother Hubbard who went to the
+cupboard,” said the little Trippertrot girl.
+
+“And you may have that,” promised the false-face man. “And I have a
+cupboard, and you have the dog, so if we can find a bone the cupboard
+won’t be bare.”
+
+Then he gave the children their false-faces, and he found a bone for
+Fido, who barked three times, to say thank you; and there was some milk
+for Ivy Vine. Then the children put on their false-faces, and there was
+one for Fido. He was dressed up like a monkey; and as for Ivy Vine, she
+had a false-face like a wax doll, and she was very cute-looking.
+
+And the false-face man didn’t need any false-face himself, as he was
+all covered over with paint, anyhow. And whom do you suppose the old
+fisherman dressed up like? Why, who else but Santa Claus, and he wore
+his own whiskers. Then they had a party, and Johnny put his thumb in a
+pie and pulled out a whole bag full of sugar plums. Oh, they were just
+having the grandest time, when, all of a sudden, there came a knock on
+the door!
+
+“Ha! I wonder who that can be?” asked the false-face man.
+
+“I’ll look,” said the old fisherman.
+
+So he looked, and who should be there but the Trippertrots’ nursemaid,
+Suzette.
+
+“Oh, children!” exclaimed Suzette, when she saw them. “You must come
+home at once! I have been looking everywhere for you! Your mamma is
+much worried. Come home at once!”
+
+“We didn’t mean to run away,” said Mary, “but the sawhorse and the
+clothes-horse and the rocking-horse got going so fast that we couldn’t
+stop them. So we got lost.”
+
+[Illustration: _Old Mother Hubbard._]
+
+“But we’re not lost now, any more!” exclaimed Tommy, as the nursemaid
+walked into the house.
+
+“And here is a little present for Suzette,” spoke the false-face man,
+as he gave her a face that looked like a Chinese lady, with a pigtail
+down her back.
+
+And then, when the children had said good-by to their two friends,
+the fisherman and the false-face man, they started home with Suzette,
+taking Ivy Vine and Fido with them, and also their false-faces.
+
+But they hadn’t been home very long before they ran away again, and
+then they had another adventure.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD LADY
+
+
+One day Mrs. Trippertrot called to her three children.
+
+“Now, children,” she said, “I am going out for a little while, and I
+do hope you will not trot off anywhere this time. You don’t know how
+worried I am when you run off, as you have done several times lately.”
+
+“We’re sorry, mamma,” said Tommy.
+
+“And we don’t ever really mean to trot off,” said Mary Trippertrot.
+
+“It--it just seems to happen,” spoke Johnny Trippertrot. “Our legs run
+off with us before we know it.”
+
+“Well, try and not let them run off with you to-day,” said their mamma.
+“I will leave Suzette in charge of you.”
+
+“We’ll try to be good, mamma,” said Mary politely.
+
+“But, oh! we did have such fun the other day when we rode off on the
+funny horses!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“Yes, when we met the false-face man and the old fisherman,” added
+Johnny.
+
+“Oh, I know what let’s do!” cried Mary. “We’ll get out our false-faces
+and play it’s Hallowe’en again.”
+
+“That will be nice, I think,” said their mamma, “and it ought to keep
+you in the house. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
+
+So off she went, downtown shopping, I guess, and the children got out
+their funny false-faces, and played some games. They were having a
+good time, when, all at once, they heard some one out in the street
+crying.
+
+“I wonder who that is?” said Johnny.
+
+“Let’s go look,” suggested Tommy.
+
+“No, you had better not,” said Suzette the maid. “For it might be a
+funny monkey, and then you would want to go off after it, and you would
+be lost again. You had better stay here and play at having a surprise
+party.”
+
+Well, the children didn’t want to do that, but they knew they must
+mind Suzette, for she was in charge of them. But just then something
+happened. The delivery wagon came from the big downtown store, and
+Suzette had to go down to the side door to take in some things for the
+children’s mamma. Then Mary and Tommy and Johnny heard the crying noise
+out in the street again, and Mary said:
+
+“I don’t believe it would do any harm to take just one peep, to see who
+is crying.”
+
+“Me, either,” spoke Tommy.
+
+“Then let’s do it,” said Johnny, and they did. They went to the front
+window and looked out. And this is what the children saw:
+
+There was a tiny little girl walking along, and she had fallen down,
+and her knee had been cut on a sharp stone, and that’s why she was
+crying.
+
+“Oh, see the poor thing!” cried Mary.
+
+“We ought to help her,” said Johnny.
+
+“Then let’s do it,” suggested Tommy. “Suzette or mamma wouldn’t care
+if we helped somebody in trouble. Mamma would want us to, I’m sure.
+Besides, mamma isn’t here now, and neither is Suzette.” For you see,
+the nursemaid was still talking to the delivery boy. He had forgotten
+to bring a spool of thread that Mrs. Trippertrot needed, and Suzette
+was asking about it.
+
+“We’ll go down to the little girl,” said Mary. “We can’t get lost in
+front of our own house.”
+
+So down they went, and I just want you to listen, and see what happened
+after that. It just goes to show that you never, never can tell what is
+going to happen in this world.
+
+“What is the matter, little girl?” asked Mary, after she had wiped the
+child’s tears away with her handkerchief.
+
+“Oh! Boo-hoo! I’m lost!” cried the little girl. “I went to the store
+for a stick of candy, but I came back the wrong way, and I’m lost.”
+
+“Where is the stick of candy?” asked Tommy.
+
+“I ate it all up,” said the little lost girl. “Look! You can’t see it.”
+And she opened her mouth so the Trippertrots could see away down her
+throat, and believe me, there wasn’t a bit of candy to be seen!
+
+“Yes, it’s all gone,” said Johnny sorrowfully, when he got through
+looking.
+
+“Say, do you know what I think we ought to do?” spoke Tommy suddenly.
+
+“What?” asked Mary and Johnny.
+
+“We ought to take this little lost girl home. We’d want some one to
+take us home if we were lost, and I don’t believe mamma or Suzette
+would mind.”
+
+“I don’t, either,” said Mary.
+
+“Then let’s do it,” said Tommy. “Do you know which street you live on?”
+he asked of the little girl.
+
+“Oh, yes. It’s a street with trees on it,” said the child, and now she
+stopped crying. “Please take me to it.”
+
+“There are lots of streets with trees on,” said Tommy, “but we’ll try
+to find the right one for you. Come on.”
+
+And so that’s how the Trippertrots started tripping and trotting off
+again, and at the beginning they didn’t really mean to do so at all.
+But you see how some very funny things happen sometimes.
+
+Along they walked, all four children together, hand in hand, looking
+for the house where the little lost girl lived. Ivy Vine, the cat,
+didn’t come along this time, nor did Fido, the dog. For Ivy Vine was
+washing her face with her red tongue, and Fido was gnawing a bone.
+
+“What is your name, little girl?” asked Mary, when they had gone a
+short distance down the street.
+
+“My name is Jack,” she answered.
+
+“Why, that is not a girl’s name, it’s a boy’s!” said Tommy in surprise.
+
+“I know it,” said the little lost girl, “and I _want_ to be a boy, so I
+choosed a boy’s name. My mamma lets me, and when I grow up I’m going to
+ride a horse and play football.”
+
+The Trippertrot children laughed at that, and they thought the little
+girl who wanted to be a boy was very nice. But still they couldn’t seem
+to find her home. They looked all over for her house, and every time
+they came to a street with trees on it they asked her if it was there
+she lived, but she said:
+
+“No, none of these houses are my papa’s house. I guess we’ll have to go
+on a little farther.”
+
+So they went on a little farther, but still they couldn’t seem to find
+the place, and the little girl said:
+
+“Oh, dear! I guess I’m lost still, aren’t I?” And she took a tighter
+hold of Mary Trippertrot’s hand.
+
+“I guess you are,” answered Mary.
+
+“And I guess _we_ are, too,” said Tommy.
+
+“Well, that’s just what I was afraid would happen,” said Johnny. “Here
+we are lost again, and we promised mamma we wouldn’t go out of the
+house.”
+
+“Oh, but we really didn’t _mean_ to,” said Mary; “and besides, she’ll
+forgive us when she knows we tried to do a kindness.”
+
+“Yes, I guess so,” said Tommy, “but what are we going to do? I don’t
+know which way to go.”
+
+Neither did any of the others, and Mary was just looking around, hoping
+she could find a nice policeman, when, all at once, the door of a
+house, in front of which they were standing, opened, and a kind little
+old lady looked out.
+
+“Oh, you poor, dear, little lost children!” she exclaimed. “Come right
+in here, and let me love you.”
+
+“How did you know we were lost?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Oh, I was once a little girl myself,” said the nice little old lady,
+and, though her hair was white, her eyes were as bright as the snapping
+fire on a cold night. “So I know when children are lost,” she added.
+
+So the little lost girl and the Trippertrots, who were also lost now,
+went into the house of the little old lady. She brought out some nice
+low chairs for them to sit on, and she gave them some picture books
+to look at, and then what do you think she did? Why, she went out and
+got them some bowls of milk from a mooley-cow--the milk was from the
+cow, you know, not the bowls--and she brought some bread; and say! I
+just wish I had some of that bread and milk myself! Oh, it was very
+good! But I can’t have any, because the Trippertrots and the lost girl
+finished it all up, down to the last drop, and they ate some sugar
+cookies, too.
+
+“My, I’m sure I don’t know what to do with you children,” said the
+little old lady, shaking her white head at them, after they had
+finished eating. “I wish I knew where your home was.”
+
+“Send for a policeman,” said Mary.
+
+“What! A policeman? Why, you’re not bad, are you?” cried the little old
+lady.
+
+“Oh, no! But policemans most always know where we live,” said Johnny.
+“We’re the Trippertrots, and we’re always getting lost.”
+
+“Yes, send for a policeman,” said Tommy.
+
+“I believe I will,” spoke the little old lady. “I’ll go for one myself;
+but I’ll have to leave you here all alone, as no one lives with me. But
+I know you’ll be all right, and you can look at the pictures and listen
+to the cat purring.”
+
+And sure enough, there was a big gray cat sleeping on the rug in the
+middle of the floor, and it was purring just like a sewing machine
+because it was so happy. The cat was happy, not the sewing machine, you
+know. And the cat purred, not the rug, you see.
+
+Then the little old lady put on her bonnet and shawl, and went out for
+a policeman who might find the homes of the lost Trippertrots and the
+lost girl.
+
+“I like it here very much,” said Mary, as she rubbed the cat’s back.
+
+“So do I,” said the little lost girl. “It is almost as nice as my home.”
+
+Tommy and Johnny liked it, too, and they were just looking at some
+picture books, and wishing they had more bread and milk, when, all at
+once, there came a knock at the door.
+
+“I guess that is the policeman, come to take us home,” said Mary, with
+a happy laugh.
+
+“Maybe it’s my papa,” suggested the little lost girl named Jack. And
+then the door opened, and there stood a funny little man, making low
+bows to the children, and saying:
+
+“Oh, I’m so glad I found you. Come with me.”
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHT
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD MAN
+
+
+For a few seconds after he had opened the door and spoken to the
+Trippertrot children, the queer little old man didn’t say anything
+more. He just stood there, bowing all the while, just like the pendulum
+of the clock, only he went up and down, and the pendulum in the clock
+goes sideways, you see.
+
+“Well, are you coming along, children?” said the nice little old man,
+after a while, and he stopped bowing.
+
+“Do you think we ought to go?” asked Mary of her two brothers.
+
+“Well,” began Tommy, “the little old lady has gone for a policeman to
+take us home, and maybe we ought to wait until she comes back.”
+
+“Oh, I think I can take you home as well as a policeman could,” said
+the little old man, and he came into the room, and tickled the pussy
+cat under the chin, and made the cat purr louder than ever.
+
+“Do you know where we live?” asked Mary.
+
+“No, but I can find out,” said the little old man. “I will look in the
+telephone book, or in the directory book, or something, and find your
+house for you. And if I can’t find _your_ house I will take you to
+_mine_, and you can have some fun.”
+
+“That will be nice,” said Johnny.
+
+“How did you know we were here?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Oh, I saw you come in,” replied the little old man. “I was out in the
+street, and I saw you. Then I saw the little old lady go away----”
+
+“Yes, she went for a policeman for us,” said Tommy.
+
+“Well, I was afraid she was going to run away and leave you all alone,”
+said the little old man, “and as I like children very much I thought
+I’d come and take care of you. So here I am, and if you come with me
+before the policeman gets here we’ll have a little fun with him. Maybe
+he’ll think you have flown up the chimney, as Santa Claus does.”
+
+“Oh, fine!” cried Tommy.
+
+And just then, all of a sudden, the little lost girl began to cry.
+
+“Why, whatever in the world is the matter?” asked the little old man.
+
+“Boo-hoo! I--I thought you were my papa,” said the little lost girl,
+and she let some salty tears fall down on the cat’s back. “I thought
+you were my papa, and you aren’t at all.”
+
+Then she cried a lot more, boo-hoo! and boo-hoo!--like that, you
+know--and the little old man went up to her, and he put his arms around
+her, and he wiped away her tears, and he said:
+
+“Now--now--never mind. It’s all right. I’m going to take you to your
+papa right away. Don’t cry.” And his voice was so gentle, and he seemed
+such a nice man, that the little lost girl didn’t cry a single tear
+more. And it’s a good thing, because the pussy cat was getting all wet
+from them, and cats don’t like water, you know, especially salty tear
+water.
+
+“Come on, now; hurry up,” cried the little old man. “We must hurry
+away from here, or the little old lady will be back with the policeman
+before we know it. Come along.”
+
+“But we can’t go without thanking her for being so kind to us,” said
+Mary.
+
+“That’s so,” said the little man. “Wait. I’ll write her a nice
+letter.” So he did that, and told the little old lady how thankful the
+Trippertrots and the little lost girl were for what she had done for
+them, and he put the letter down in front of the pussy cat, where the
+little old lady would see it when she got back. And the pussy put its
+paw down on the letter, so it wouldn’t blow away, and then it went to
+sleep--I mean the cat went to sleep, not the letter, you understand, of
+course.
+
+“Now we are all ready,” said the little old man, and then he went out
+of the front door, and led the children down the street.
+
+A little while after that, when the little old man and the children had
+turned around a corner, along came the little old lady and the kind
+policeman. They went into the house, and the lady looked all around for
+the children.
+
+“Why, my goodness sakes alive!” she cried. “They’re gone!”
+
+“Gone, eh?” asked the policeman. “What were their names?”
+
+“The Trippertrots,” said the little old lady.
+
+“Oh, ho!” laughed the policeman. “Then you don’t need to worry. They
+are sure to be all right. They are always getting lost, but they will
+get safely home again. Don’t worry.”
+
+So the little old lady didn’t worry very much, and the policeman went
+away, and then the lady found the thankful letter where the cat was
+sleeping on it.
+
+“Oh, if the little old man has the children they are all right,” said
+the little old lady, and then she gave the cat some milk.
+
+But now I must tell you what happened to the Trippertrots and the
+little lost girl. They walked along the street with the nice, kind old
+man until pretty soon they came to a place like a park, with beautiful
+trees in it, and little brooks flowing over stones, and in the brooks
+were goldfishes and some silver-fishes, too, and they were wiggling
+their tails, and swimming about, looking for something to eat.
+
+“Oh, what a lovely place!” cried Mary.
+
+“Yes. What is it?” asked Johnny.
+
+“I’d like to go in there,” spoke Tommy.
+
+“You may,” said the little old man. “This is a garden, and a playground
+for boys and girls. You may do just as you like, as long as you are
+kind and good and pleasant. And I know you will be that way. So come on
+in, and have some fun; and when you are through playing I’ll find where
+you live, and take you home.”
+
+“And me, too?” asked the little lost girl named Jack.
+
+“Yes; you also,” answered the little old man.
+
+So the children went into the beautiful garden. Oh! I wish you could
+have seen it! And perhaps some day I will be allowed to come around and
+take you all there in a fairy automobile with big fat rubber tires. But
+not just yet.
+
+Now, in this garden were many swings and hammocks, and shady trees
+under which to rest, and there were little hills all covered with
+grass, down which the children could roll over and over, and never get
+hurt, any more than if they rolled on a feather bed.
+
+And there were also piles of sand in big boxes, and there the
+Trippertrots and the little lost girl had lots of fun. They made sand
+gardens and sand houses and castles, wherein lived beautiful knights
+and princes and their ladies, and then there was a place where a whole
+lot of soldiers could parade and shoot off their make-believe guns.
+
+And the flower gardens! Oh, I wish you could have seen them. Even
+though it was almost winter, the flowers were in blossom, for the
+little old man knew how to make them bloom in cold weather. And the
+children were allowed to pick as many flowers as they wanted, only they
+thought they looked prettier on their stems, so they didn’t take many.
+
+Well, the Trippertrots were playing away, and having lots of fun. Tommy
+was in the swing, and Johnny pushed him up so high that Tommy nearly
+hit the top of a tree. And then something happened. Mary was building a
+nice sand house for a dollie to live in, when the house fell down and
+covered her legs all up. Covered Mary’s legs, I mean, not the doll’s.
+Mary couldn’t see her legs, and she thought they might have dropped off.
+
+“Oh, dear!” she cried.
+
+“What is the matter?” called Tommy.
+
+“My poor little legs!” said Mary, trying to pull them out from under
+the sand.
+
+“Oh, they’re all right,” spoke Johnny, and then he took a piece of
+board and he dug the sand off Mary’s legs, and she was all right again,
+and she made a big sand bridge for boats to go under.
+
+Soon out from his house in the beautiful garden came running the funny
+little man. He was waving his arms all around his head, like a windmill
+in a storm.
+
+“Oh, I have found where you live! I have found where you live!” he
+cried, in his jolly voice.
+
+“Where who lives, us or that little girl named Jack?” asked Tommy.
+
+“I know where Jack lives,” said the little old man. “I called up on the
+telephone and found out. Her papa is coming for her in a minute.”
+
+“Oh, goodie!” cried the little girl, jumping up and down.
+
+[Illustration: _The Trippertrots Were Playing Away, and Having Lots of
+Fun._]
+
+“But what about us?” asked Mary Trippertrot.
+
+“I’ll find where you live very soon,” said the little old man. And just
+then the little lost girl’s papa came for her, and took her home, after
+he had thanked the Trippertrots and the little old man for being so
+kind to her.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, when the little old man was calling up on
+the telephone, trying to find where the Trippertrots lived--all of a
+sudden, I say--along came Suzette, the nursemaid, looking for them.
+
+“Oh, you children!” she cried, when she saw them in the garden. “I
+thought I would never find you. Come home at once. Why did you run
+away?”
+
+“We went to help a little lost girl, and we got lost ourselves,” said
+Mary; “but we didn’t mean to, did we, boys?”
+
+“No,” answered Tommy and Johnny together. Then Suzette thanked the
+little old man, and she took the children home, and oh! how glad their
+mamma was to see them! And they said they would never trot away again.
+But you just wait and see what happens.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER NINE
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FIREMAN
+
+
+A few days after the Trippertrot children got home, following their
+adventure with the little old man, their mamma said to them:
+
+“Now, children, I am going over to see your Aunt Mary Jane, and I want
+you to stay in the house until I get back. It is rather chilly out of
+doors, and it looks as if it might rain. So stay in, play with your
+toys, or look at your picture books, but don’t go out.”
+
+“Can’t we go out at all, mamma?” asked Mary Trippertrot, as she looked
+in a glass to see if her hair ribbon was on straight.
+
+“No,” said her mother, as she looked in the glass to see if her hat was
+on straight.
+
+“Not even if the house should tumble down on us?” asked Tommy
+Trippertrot.
+
+“Well, if something most extraordinary like that happens, you _may_ run
+out,” said Mrs. Trippertrot, trying not to laugh.
+
+“Of course,” spoke Johnny, “we wouldn’t want to be all squashed up,
+like pancakes.”
+
+“Oh, I just love pancakes--the kind you eat, I mean!” exclaimed Mary.
+“May we have some, mamma?”
+
+“Perhaps. I’ll see about it when I get back. Now good-by,” she said to
+them, “and be good children, and don’t go out unless you really have
+to.”
+
+[Illustration: HE BEGAN TO PLAY A JOLLY LITTLE TUNE]
+
+So they promised, and they all crowded to the window of the big front
+room to wave their hands to their mamma as she went down the steps.
+
+Then they began to play with their toys, and to look at picture books,
+until pretty soon Mary said:
+
+“Oh, dear! This isn’t any fun!”
+
+“No, indeed,” agreed Tommy.
+
+“I--I almost wish we could run away again, and get lost,” said Johnny
+boldly.
+
+“Oh-o-o-o-o-o!” exclaimed Mary. “You wouldn’t really go tripping and
+trotting off again, would you?”
+
+“I would, if something happened,” said Johnny, and he tried to make
+all of his toy soldiers stand up in a line, but they fell over and
+bumped their noses on the carpet, and one soldier lost his sword. Then
+the children played circus for a while, and Tommy was a make-believe
+elephant, who lived in a cave under the big chair, until all at once
+Mary said:
+
+“I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask Suzette to build a nice
+fire in the open grate. Then we can sit and watch the flames go up the
+chimney, and we can make-believe we see pictures in them.”
+
+“Oh, that will be fine!” cried Tommy and Johnny.
+
+So Suzette came in, and built a fine, big fire on the large open brick
+hearth. And dear me! how the flames did roar up the chimney! for
+Suzette put on a great deal of wood. It burned and it blazed, and then,
+all of a sudden, the front doorbell rang.
+
+“There’s mamma come back!” cried Mary, as she ran to open the door.
+Tommy and Johnny followed her, but instead of Mrs. Trippertrot being
+there, it was a fireman, in his nice blue uniform, with silver buttons
+on the coat, and he was wiping his feet on the mat.
+
+“Quick!” he cried, for firemen always have to be quick, you know.
+“Quick! Let me in! The chimney is on fire, and I must put it out!”
+
+“Put out which, the fire or the chimney?” asked Tommy, who was often a
+funny sort of a little fellow.
+
+“Put the fire out, of course,” cried the fireman. “Ha! I thought so!”
+he exclaimed, when he had rushed into the front room and had seen the
+big blaze in the fireplace. “There is too much wood on there. Quick,
+get me a lot of salt!”
+
+So Mary ran to the kitchen to get the salt, for Suzette had gone
+upstairs, to make the beds, I guess, and the nursemaid didn’t even
+know the fireman was in the house. Back Mary came running with a whole
+bowlful of salt.
+
+“Oh, please, Mr. Fireman,” said Tommy, “before you put out the fire,
+mayn’t we just run out on the sidewalk and see it spouting up out of
+the chimney top? Mayn’t we, please? We’ve never seen a chimney on fire.”
+
+“Mamma said we weren’t to go out,” spoke Mary.
+
+“But this is a most extra-extra-extraordinary occasion,” said Tommy.
+“It isn’t exactly like the house falling down, but if the fire in the
+chimney burns long enough it may fall down, mightn’t it, Mr. Fireman?”
+
+“Oh, yes,” he answered, and he got ready to throw salt on the fire, for
+that puts out a blaze in the chimney, you know. Yes, really it does.
+I’m not fooling a bit, honestly.
+
+“Oh, may we go out?” asked Mary this time, and the fireman said they
+might, and that he’d wait a minute before he threw the salt on the
+flames. So out the Trippertrots ran, and sure enough, there was a lot
+of fire coming out of the top of their chimney. You see, the soot--that
+is, the black stuff inside--had caught fire from the big blaze Suzette
+had made on the hearth.
+
+Then, all of a sudden, as the children stood on the sidewalk, the fire
+went out, for the fireman threw on the salt.
+
+“Now we must run in,” said Mary. “It’s chilly here, and the fire’s out,
+anyhow, so there’s nothing more to see. Come on, boys.”
+
+In the children ran, and the fireman was getting ready to go out, for
+he had finished his work. He said he happened to be passing along the
+street, when he saw the chimney on fire, and then he hurried in.
+
+“But now the fire is out, and so I am going out, too,” said the
+fireman; and out he went, as quickly as you can stub your toe on a
+stone in the road.
+
+“Now there isn’t any nice warm blaze on the hearth,” said Mary, after a
+while. “What shall we play now? We can’t look at pictures in the fire.”
+
+“Oh, I just thought of something!” cried Tommy.
+
+“What?” asked Johnny.
+
+“We forgot to thank that fireman,” went on Tommy, “and that’s very
+impolite. He did us a great favor in putting out the chimney fire, and
+now I’m going to run after him and thank him.”
+
+“So am I,” said Johnny.
+
+“Oh, but mamma wouldn’t like us to go out; you know she wouldn’t,” said
+Mary quickly.
+
+“She wouldn’t like us not to thank the fireman, either,” spoke Johnny.
+“I guess this is one of those most extra-extra-extraordinary occasions
+she spoke of, like the house falling down, so I’m going.”
+
+Then he put on his hat and coat, and Tommy did the same.
+
+“Well, if you two are going, I’m not going to stay here alone,” said
+Mary. “I’ll come also.”
+
+Well, Suzette wasn’t there to stop them, and in another minute away
+the Trippertrot children were tripping and trotting again. They just
+couldn’t seem to stay home, could they?
+
+They looked up the street, but they couldn’t see the kind fireman. Then
+they looked down the street, but they couldn’t see him there, either.
+
+“I know what we’ll do,” said Tommy. “We’ll walk along until we come to
+the fire-house where he lives, and then we’ll thank him.”
+
+So, hand in hand, they went down the street, looking for the
+fire-house. Pretty soon they met a man.
+
+“Can you please tell us where to find the fireman?” asked Tommy
+politely.
+
+“Why, is your house on fire?” asked the man quickly.
+
+“No, but the chimney was, and the kind fireman put it out, but we
+forgot to thank him, and now we’re looking for him,” said Mary.
+
+“Oh, well, the fire-house is just around the corner, and down the
+street a little way,” said the man. “But don’t get lost,” and he smiled
+at them.
+
+“I guess he knows we’re the Trippertrots,” spoke Johnny. “But we won’t
+get lost this time.”
+
+Pretty soon they were at the fire-house where the firemen live, and
+where they keep the fire-engine and the horses. There were some firemen
+in front of the place, so Tommy went up to them and said:
+
+“If you please, we want to thank the kind fireman who put out the blaze
+in our chimney, because we forgot it when he was at our house. But I
+don’t see him here,” the little Trippertrot boy went on, as he looked
+among all the firemen, and couldn’t pick out the special one he wanted.
+
+“Oh, yes,” said the captain of the firemen, “that was George. He
+telephoned to me that he had put out a chimney fire on his way home to
+dinner. You see, he hasn’t yet come back,” the captain said to the
+children, “but if you would like to stay here a while he will soon
+come, and you can thank him.”
+
+“Shall we stay?” asked Mary of her brothers.
+
+“Yes,” said Johnny and Tommy quickly, but they didn’t look at Mary, for
+they were looking through the doorway at the shining fire-engine and
+the big brass bell on the wall.
+
+“But maybe we’ll get lost, and mamma wouldn’t like us to stay here,”
+went on Mary.
+
+“Oh, we can’t get lost in a fire-house,” said Tommy, and he wished the
+horses would run out, so he could see them.
+
+“Besides, I guess the firemen know where our house is,” said Johnny.
+“You do, don’t you?” he asked of the captain. “It’s a house with a red
+chimney on it.”
+
+“I guess I can find it,” answered the captain, with a laugh, and all
+the men laughed, too. Then the children went inside the fire-house, and
+all of a sudden a big bell began to ring.
+
+Ding! Dong! Cling! Clang!
+
+Those firemen rushed about like anything, and the captain grabbed
+up the children and set them on a table, and the horses ran out and
+hitched themselves to the shining engine. Then men and horses ran out
+with the engine, and there the Trippertrots were--left all alone in the
+fire-house.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER TEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY BOY
+
+
+“Why, where in the world do you s’pose all the horses and the men went
+to?” asked Mary Trippertrot, as she looked at her two brothers, who,
+like herself, were on top of the table where the fireman captain had
+set them. “Where did they go in such a hurry?”
+
+“To a fire, of course,” answered Tommy. “Whenever the bell rings there
+is a fire, and the horses and the men have to take the engine to it.”
+
+“Does the engine want to see the fire?” asked Johnny.
+
+“No. It wants to squirt water on it and put it out,” replied his
+brother.
+
+“Do the firemen have to go to a fire even at night?” asked Mary.
+
+“Of course,” replied Tommy.
+
+“Then I should think they’d take out the bell after supper, or fix
+it so it couldn’t ring, and make them go to fires,” went on Mary. “I
+shouldn’t like to go out in the dark. Why, some nights it rains or
+snows!”
+
+“Oh, ho! That doesn’t make any difference to a fireman,” said Tommy.
+“Firemans is always brave; aren’t they, Johnny?”
+
+“Of course,” replied Johnny. “And some one makes the bell ring in the
+fire-house, so they will know where the fire is, and go to put it out,
+same as the one put out the fire in our chimney.”
+
+“That’s so,” spoke Mary. “I wonder when he is coming back? He missed
+going to this fire.”
+
+“Oh, he’ll be along pretty soon,” said Tommy. “We’ll just wait here.
+The bell may ring some more, and besides, I haven’t seen half the
+things. I guess we can get down off the table now.”
+
+“But do you think we ought to stay?” asked Mary, who wasn’t exactly
+sure that they were doing right.
+
+“Of course we must stay,” said Johnny. “Why, we haven’t thanked the
+fireman yet for doing us that favor, and mamma wouldn’t want us to come
+home until we had done it.”
+
+“That’s right,” added Tommy. “Why, don’t you remember once Mrs. Smith
+gave me a piece of cake, and I forgot to thank her, and came home, and
+mamma sent me back to tell Mrs. Smith I was much obliged? And I’m real
+glad I went back, for she gave me a second piece of cake. Oh, yes, we
+must always be polite in this world.”
+
+“Yes; and now let’s look at all the shiny things,” suggested Johnny.
+
+So he and his brother and sister went all around inside the fire-engine
+house. Pretty soon the fireman came in who had put out the chimney fire
+in the Trippertrot home.
+
+“Why, bless me!” he exclaimed in surprise. “Everybody has gone to
+another fire, and I must go, too!” And he was about to run out on the
+street again, to find where the fire was, when Mary said:
+
+“Oh, but if you please, couldn’t you first wait until we thank you, and
+then can’t you take us home? For I’m afraid we’ll get lost if we go by
+ourselves. We’re always getting lost, you know. But we forgot to thank
+you, so we came here to do it.”
+
+“Bless me! That was kind of you,” said the fireman. “But I really
+haven’t time to stay, for I must go and help the captain and the men
+put out this other fire. I really can’t stay.” And once more he was
+about to run off.
+
+“Quick! Thank him, Johnny and Tommy!”
+
+“We thank you!” said Tommy and Johnny together, making two low bows.
+
+“And so do I thank you for not letting our chimney burn up,” said Mary,
+making her nicest bow.
+
+“Well, you’re welcome, I’m sure,” replied the fireman. “But really,
+now, I must hurry away.”
+
+“Oh, I just know we’ll be lost!” cried Mary.
+
+“Hold on! Wait a minute!” exclaimed the fireman. “I have an idea.
+Here!” he called to a funny-looking boy who just then came into the
+fire-house. “Jiggily, will you please take these children home, so
+they won’t get lost? I put out a chimney fire in their house to-day,
+and they came here to thank me. You take them home. You know where the
+Trippertrot house is, don’t you?”
+
+“Oh, yes,” said the funny boy. “I can take them home, all right, and
+I’ll be glad to do it.”
+
+“Then I can go to this other fire,” said the fireman, and away he ran,
+like Tom-Tom the piper’s son, waving his hand to the children as he
+hurried along the street.
+
+“Come on, little ones!” called the funny boy. “I’ll see you safely
+home.”
+
+“Is your name Jiggily?” asked Mary, and she didn’t quite know whether
+she liked the funny boy or not, for he was very funny-looking.
+
+He had on a funny suit, partly green and partly yellow, and his nose
+was stubby and short and turned up at the end, as if it was always
+trying to fly up to the stars; but the boy looked kind, and he was
+always laughing or smiling.
+
+“Yes, my name is Jiggily,” he said to Mary, as they all walked out of
+the fire-engine house.
+
+“Haven’t you any other name?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Oh, yes, of course,” answered the funny boy. “My other name is Jig; so
+you see my whole name is Jiggily Jig.”
+
+“How did you get that name?” inquired Johnny.
+
+“Why, they call me that because I can dance a jig,” said the funny boy.
+“Would you like to see me?”
+
+“Indeed we would,” spoke all the Trippertrot children together, and
+then and there that funny boy did a funny little dance in front of the
+fire-engine house. And a little black poodle dog that was running past
+in the street saw him, and would you ever believe it, if I didn’t tell
+you? but that dog tried to dance just as Jiggily Jig was doing.
+
+But, bless you, all of a sudden the doggie slipped on a piece of banana
+skin, and he almost fell down. He would have, too, only Jiggily Jig
+caught him by the tail and stood him on his feet again--on the dog’s
+feet, you understand, not those of Jiggily Jig--which shows you that
+you must never, never throw banana skins on the sidewalk, as they are
+very slippery.
+
+“Oh, that was a very nice dance,” said Mary, who went to dancing school
+sometimes.
+
+“Can you do anything else?” asked Tommy, and he wished the funny boy
+would come and live with them.
+
+“Yes, I can whistle on my fingers,” said Jiggily Jig. So he put his
+fingers in between his lips, just as if he was going to eat a piece of
+pie, only, of course, he didn’t really have any pie, or cake, either,
+and then the funny boy whistled as loudly as an automobile horn can
+toot.
+
+“Oh, my!” cried Mary, and she had to put her hands over her ears,
+because Jiggily Jig whistled so loudly.
+
+“My, that was fine!” cried Johnny and Tommy, who wished they could
+whistle that way.
+
+“Can you do anything else?” asked Johnny.
+
+“Yes. I can stand on my head and wiggle my feet in the air,” answered
+Jiggily Jig; and before anybody could stop him, even if they had wanted
+to, which, of course, they didn’t, that funny boy was standing on his
+head in front of the engine-house, and he was waving his feet in the
+air, as easily as a baby can wiggle its pink toes.
+
+“Oh, that’s great!” cried Tommy and Johnny together.
+
+“Yes; I’m going to try it,” said Johnny.
+
+“No! You mustn’t!” exclaimed his sister. “You might slip, and get
+dirty.”
+
+“Yes, and you might slip and also get hurt,” said Jiggily Jig. “The
+best place to try that trick, until you learn how, is safely at home,
+in the middle of the bed. Then, if you fall, you won’t get hurt.”
+
+“I’m going to do it as soon as I get home,” said Johnny.
+
+“Do you know any more tricks?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Oh, my gracious goodness me sakes alive!” cried Mary, shaking her
+finger at her brothers and the funny boy. “Please don’t show them any
+more tricks, or we’ll never get home to-day. Can’t you take us home
+now, Jiggily Jig?”
+
+“Oh, yes,” answered the funny boy. “I forgot where we were going. Come
+along, little ones.”
+
+So along the street they went, the Trippertrots and Jiggily Jig. But
+they couldn’t go very fast, because every once in a while Jiggily Jig
+would have to stop and dance, and, of course, he couldn’t walk then.
+And sometimes he would whistle on his fingers, and all the dogs in all
+the streets for half a mile around would think he was whistling at
+them, and they’d come running up, wagging their tails; and, of course,
+when there were a whole lot of dogs around them the children couldn’t
+walk at all.
+
+[Illustration: _Jiggily Jig Would Stand on His Head._]
+
+And then, again, Jiggily Jig would stand on his head, and that would
+make a crowd of people come around; and then, too, the Trippertrots
+couldn’t walk on through the crowd.
+
+“Oh, we’ll never get home, at this rate!” said Mary, and she felt a
+little bit like crying, for she thought her mamma would be in the house
+by this time, and would worry because her little children weren’t home.
+
+“Yes, we will soon be there,” said Jiggily Jig, as he looked around
+to see if he could locate the Trippertrot house. But he couldn’t yet
+discover where it was.
+
+“I think it must be around the next corner,” said the funny boy at
+last. “Come on. We will soon be there.”
+
+Well, they turned the corner, but still the Trippertrot home wasn’t
+in sight, and even Tommy and Johnny were beginning to be worried now,
+when, all of a sudden, they saw coming toward them a man pushing a
+little wagon on two wheels, and on the wagon were a lot of pies; and
+behind the man was another queer-looking boy, almost like Jiggily Jig.
+
+“Oh! Who is that?” cried Mary.
+
+“Why, the man pushing the wagon is a pieman,” said Jiggily Jig.
+
+“And who is the boy?” asked Johnny.
+
+“Why, that is Simple Simon,” answered Jiggily Jig. “You know he used
+to be in Mother Goose’s book. ‘Simple Simon met a pieman going to the
+fair. Said Simple Simon to the pieman, let me taste your ware.’ That’s
+who the boy is.”
+
+“Oh, how glad I am to meet them!” cried Mary.
+
+“And is the pieman going to a fair or circus?” asked Johnny.
+
+“No, he is just coming back, because the circus is over!” exclaimed
+Simple Simon. “But he’s got lots of pies left. Hey, Jiggily Jig!”
+called Simple Simon to the funny boy. “Let’s see who can turn the most
+somersaults.”
+
+And then those two funny boys began turning somersaults down the
+street, going over and over, faster and faster, and getting farther and
+farther away from the Trippertrots.
+
+“Oh, he’s gone--Jiggily Jig is gone, and we’ll never get home!” cried
+Mary.
+
+“Never mind,” said the kind pieman, “I think I can take you home. Come
+with me.”
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER ELEVEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PIEMAN
+
+
+The Trippertrot children stood on the sidewalk, looking after Jiggily
+Jig, the funny boy, and Simple Simon, turning somersaults. Then the
+Trippertrot children looked at the pieman.
+
+“Whatever shall we do?” asked Mary. “Oh, I wish we had never left the
+house when mamma told us not to! What shall we do?”
+
+“Go with the pieman, of course,” answered Johnny.
+
+“Yes, and maybe he’ll give us each a pie, and mamma or Suzette could
+pay him when he gets to our house. I’m very hungry,” spoke Tommy.
+
+“So am I,” said Johnny.
+
+“And I guess I am also,” added Mary.
+
+“Why, bless your hearts!” exclaimed the kind pieman. “Hungry, eh? That
+will never do! I can’t bear to see hungry children. Step right up to
+the pie wagon, and help yourselves. I have apple pie, peach pie, lemon
+pie, cocoanut pie, orange pie, cranberry pie, and even sawdust pie, but
+I wouldn’t like to give you any of that last. Sawdust pie is very hard
+to eat.”
+
+“Who does eat sawdust pie?” asked Mary, wondering what it looked like.
+
+“Oh, sawdust pie is for sawdust dolls,” said the pieman. “I make it
+especially for them. That’s really the only thing they can eat. But
+what kind would you children like--lemon, peach, custard----”
+
+“Oh, I just love custard pie!” interrupted Johnny, smacking his lips.
+
+“So do I!” cried Tommy.
+
+“And mamma says it’s very good for us,” added Mary.
+
+“Only--only,” spoke Tommy slowly, “we haven’t any money to pay you with
+just now, Mr. Pieman.”
+
+“Oh, that doesn’t matter in the least,” spoke the kind pieman, winking
+both his eyes, one after the other.
+
+“But when Simple Simon wanted to taste of your pies you made him show
+you first his penny,” said Johnny.
+
+“And he didn’t have any,” added Mary.
+
+“Oh, but _that_ was Simple Simon,” said the pieman, with a laugh. “He’s
+different, Simon is. Why, he’d eat every pie on my wagon if I didn’t
+make him show me his penny every now and then. And sometimes he loses
+it, and then he can’t have any pie for a week. But I don’t want any
+money from you Trippertrot children.”
+
+“What kind of pie does Simple Simon like best?” asked Tommy, as he
+went close up to the pie wagon, and saw that there were several large
+custard pies on it.
+
+“Oh, he’ll eat almost any kind,” replied the pieman, “but most
+especially he likes a Christmas pie, the kind I always make for little
+Jack Horner, who sits in a corner. Yes, Simon is very fond of Christmas
+pies, with sugar plums in them.”
+
+“Do you make pies for Jack Horner?” asked Johnny.
+
+“To be sure,” answered the pieman, “else he wouldn’t have any to stick
+his thumb in. But come, now, choose your custard pie, and after you eat
+it we’ll travel on and see if you can find your home.”
+
+“Why, don’t you know where it is?” asked Mary.
+
+“No,” answered the pieman. “I thought you did.”
+
+“Oh, there we go again!” cried Tommy. “We’re lost once more! Jiggily
+Jig knew where our house was, but he’s gone off!”
+
+“Yes, he’s gone off, sure enough,” agreed the pieman, and he looked
+down the street, but he couldn’t see either Jiggily Jig or Simple Simon.
+
+“I thought perhaps Jiggily Jig would have told you where our house was
+before he began turning those somersaults,” said Mary.
+
+“Bless you, no, he didn’t,” answered the pieman. “But you never can
+depend on Jiggily Jig. He’s too fond of doing funny tricks. But don’t
+worry. I dare say I can manage to find your house. So come along, eat
+your pie, and be happy.”
+
+Then he cut a nice, fresh custard pie for them, and gave them each a
+piece. Oh, it was most delicious! Which means very nice, you know. Yes,
+that pie was certainly good, and I wish I could give you all some, if
+you were allowed to eat it, but I’m not--I mean I’m not allowed to give
+you any, because there wouldn’t be enough to go around.
+
+“Well, now, if you’re all ready, we’ll start off,” said the kind
+pieman, when the Trippertrot children had finished eating. “We will go
+up one street and down another, and perhaps after a while we may come
+to your home.”
+
+“I’m afraid we won’t,” answered Mary. “We always do seem to have such
+bad luck in losing our home. I’m sure we never mean to run off, but
+something always seems to happen.”
+
+“This time it was a fire,” said Johnny.
+
+“And the other time it was a little lost girl, crying in the street,”
+spoke Tommy.
+
+“Well, never mind,” said the pieman. “I’ll sing a little song as we go
+along, and people will come to the doors or windows of their houses to
+see what I have to sell, and some of the people may see you children,
+and know you. Then they can tell me where to take you home.”
+
+“Oh, goody!” cried Mary, dancing up and down, almost like Jiggily Jig
+did.
+
+“Lots and lots of people know us,” said Johnny. “I’m sure that would be
+a very good plan.”
+
+“Then we’ll do it,” spoke the pieman. “Now let me see, what song shall
+I sing? Oh, I know one.” And then he sang this song:
+
+  “I am a jolly pieman,
+    My pies are nice and sweet;
+  They’re made of many different things
+    For boys and girls to eat.
+  If you would kindly try them,
+    I think you’d like them, too,
+  Because there is a special pie
+    Made specially for you.
+
+  “There’s lemon, peach and apple,
+    And cocoanut and plum,
+  And custard pie and orange,
+    And also chewing-gum.
+  But, best of all, is Christmas,
+    A pie you all may eat,
+  The kind Jack Horner had when he
+    Sat in his corner seat.”
+
+Well, no sooner had the kind pieman finished his song than all the
+people along the street began opening their doors and windows, and
+putting their heads out.
+
+“Ho! Ho!” cried some boys and girls who were just home from school. “We
+would like some pies.”
+
+“Then come and get them,” said the pieman, and the boys and girls, and
+lots of ladies, also, came around the pieman’s wagon, and bought his
+pies.
+
+Then, when he was wrapping up the pies, or taking in the money, or
+making change, the pieman would say:
+
+“Do any of you boys or girls, or ladies know where these children live?”
+
+“Why, don’t they know where they live themselves?” asked one lady.
+
+“Oh, no,” answered the pieman. “These are the three little
+Trippertrots, and they are always getting lost. I am looking for their
+house as I go along selling pies.”
+
+But no one seemed to know where Mary or Johnny or Tommy lived. Lots and
+lots of boys and girls and ladies and men came out to buy pies, and
+they looked at the children, but none knew where they lived.
+
+“Maybe some big giant has moved our house away,” said Tommy, “and
+that’s why we can’t find it.”
+
+“Oh, of course not!” exclaimed Mary. “Giants don’t live around here.”
+
+“Well, I wish they did,” said Johnny quickly.
+
+“Why?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Oh, then we could ask one of them to take us up on his shoulder, and
+he could walk about two of his steps and he would be right at our
+house, and we’d be home,” went on Johnny. “But I s’pose that can’t
+happen. We’ll have to trip and trot along until the pieman finds our
+house.”
+
+So along through the streets they went, the pieman singing his little
+song, and selling pies, and asking all the people he met if they knew
+where the Trippertrots lived.
+
+But no one did, and Mary and Tommy and Johnny were beginning to think
+they would never find their papa or mamma, or Suzette, the nursemaid,
+again.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, as the pieman was pushing his cart down a
+little street where there were lots of trees, and many small houses
+with red chimneys on them sticking up through the roof--all of a
+sudden, I say--out ran a little girl, holding a dollie in her arms.
+
+“Oh, Mr. Pieman!” cried the little girl. “I have been waiting such a
+long time for you!”
+
+“Why, what is the matter?” asked the kind pieman.
+
+“Oh, Sallie, my doll, is very ill,” said the little girl, “and I want
+some sawdust pie for her.”
+
+“I have just one left,” said the pieman. “Here it is, and I hope she
+will soon be better.” Then he wrapped up the sawdust pie for the little
+girl’s doll, and he asked her--asked the little girl, I mean--if she
+knew where the Trippertrots lived. “For I can’t seem to find their
+home,” said the kind pieman, blinking both his eyes at once.
+
+“No, I don’t know, where they live,” said the little girl, as she
+looked carefully at Mary, Johnny and Tommy.
+
+“Oh, dear!” cried Mary. “I’m so tired walking about, looking for our
+home.”
+
+“So am I!” exclaimed Johnny and Tommy.
+
+“Then I know the very thing to do,” said the little girl, as she looked
+in the paper to see if her sawdust pie was all right. “Here comes the
+banana man, and he has quite a large wagon which he pushes about on its
+two wheels. Let him take you on his wagon, and ride you through the
+streets, and perhaps you may find your home that way.”
+
+“Oh, goody!” cried Mary.
+
+“It will be fun to ride in the banana wagon,” said Johnny, jumping up
+and down.
+
+“Yes, and I think he can take us home,” spoke Tommy.
+
+And just then along came the banana man, and he said he would be very
+glad to help the Trippertrots get home. So the pieman said good-by to
+them, and gave them each a little custard pie, and then he went off to
+find Simple Simon and Jiggly Jig.
+
+“Jump on my wagon,” said the banana man, and the Trippertrot children
+did so, as there was lots of room. Up they hopped, and away they went
+along the street, looking for their house, and wondering how long it
+would be before they found the place.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER TWELVE
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE BANANA MAN
+
+
+“It’s almost as nice to ride on a banana wagon as it is on a load of
+hay,” said Mary. “This is just lovely, I think.”
+
+“So do I,” agreed Tommy. “And there really _is_ hay on this wagon, so
+it’s almost like a straw ride.”
+
+“Oh, yes, I always put the bananas on soft hay, so they won’t break
+open when the wagon goes over rough stones,” said the banana man. “But
+hold tight, now, as I am going very fast.” And so he did, and the
+children were bounced about, and up and down a bit, but then the hay
+was so soft that they didn’t get hurt in the least.
+
+“Do you know where our house is?” asked Johnny, after a bit.
+
+“No, but I think I can find it,” answered the banana man. “I know where
+lots and lots of houses are, and I’m sure one of them must be yours.
+I’ll go along through the street, and you can look at all the houses
+you see, and pretty soon you’ll see the right one.”
+
+“Oh, but we have been away from home a long time,” said Tommy. “Ever
+since early this morning, when we went after the kind fireman to thank
+him. And we’ve been lost from then on.”
+
+“And maybe some one has painted our house a different color,” spoke
+Johnny, “so we won’t know it even when we see it.”
+
+“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” spoke the banana man. “They
+couldn’t have painted your house since morning, and it isn’t night yet.”
+
+“The false-face man could,” said Mary. “He is a very fast painter, but
+then I know he would make funny faces on our house, if he _did_ paint
+it, so we would know it anyhow.”
+
+“Yes, that’s right,” said the banana man. “But lie down, now, and rest
+yourselves, and I will wheel you up first one street and then down the
+other, and soon you may be home.”
+
+So he did that, and lots and lots of persons stopped to look at the
+funny sight of three lost children sitting on the hay in a two-wheeled
+banana wagon.
+
+“Do you happen to know where they live?” the banana man would ask the
+different people who crowded around his wagon.
+
+“No,” said every one, and the men and women shook their heads.
+
+“Do you know any of these people?” the banana man then asked of the
+Trippertrot children. But neither Mary nor Johnny nor Tommy knew any of
+them.
+
+“Then we will have to go along a little farther,” said the banana man;
+and so he went up some streets that were hilly, and down some that were
+smooth, and along some that were very rough with cobblestones, and all
+the while he kept wheeling the children in his wagon, or cart, if you’d
+rather call it that.
+
+And once the wagon went over a stick of wood, and tipped to one side,
+and Mary nearly fell out. She would have, only Tommy grabbed her just
+in time, and held her on the hay.
+
+And a little later there was a dog chasing a cat, and the cat ran so
+fast to get away from the dog that the pussy jumped right up in the
+wagon, into Mary’s lap.
+
+“Oh, you poor, dear little pussy!” cried Mary, as she rubbed the cat’s
+fur, and tried to make its tail smaller, for it was all swelled up on
+account of the dog, you know.
+
+“That cat looks like our cat, Ivy Vine,” said Tommy, when the banana
+man had driven away the dog.
+
+“Oh, yes, I just wish Ivy Vine was here now,” said Mary.
+
+“And I wish Fido was here,” spoke Johnny. “He is kind to cats.”
+
+“Yes, if we could only find Ivy and Fido, they would show us the way
+home.” And Mary sighed a little, and a salty tear fell out of her left
+eye.
+
+“Never mind,” said the banana man. “I think we will soon be there.” But
+he talked in a tired voice, for his legs were very weary with tramping
+around all day, selling bananas, and then giving the lost children a
+ride up and down so many streets, looking for their home. Still he
+wouldn’t give up.
+
+Pretty soon they came to where a man was selling hot, roasted
+chestnuts, and also some cold, boiled ones. And the banana man knew the
+chestnut man, and bought some nuts from him and gave them to the lost
+Trippertrots, for they were hungry again, those three children were.
+
+“Oh, it doesn’t seem as if we were ever going to be at home again!”
+said Mary, after a while, when she had eaten some of the roasted
+chestnuts.
+
+“No, indeed,” spoke Johnny, as he ate some boiled ones.
+
+“I’m never going to run away again,” said Tommy, “not even if the
+chimney does get on fire.”
+
+“Or even if the house falls down,” added Mary. And then they put their
+arms around one another and sat there on the banana wagon, and wished
+they were home.
+
+And the banana man did the best he could. He looked at all the houses,
+and he asked lots of people where the Trippertrots lived, but none
+knew.
+
+“I guess you will have to look for the kind policeman again,” suggested
+Tommy. “He can find our house for us.”
+
+“Or else Mr. Johnson, who took us home in his automobile, the other
+time when we were lost,” added Johnny. “He might help us.”
+
+“Perhaps I had better look for a policeman,” said the banana man,
+for he was now very tired, because it was like pushing three baby
+carriages, made into one, to push the Trippertrots about on the banana
+wagon.
+
+So he looked all over for a policeman, but he couldn’t see any. I guess
+they were all down at the big fire, where all the firemen had gone. And
+the banana man couldn’t even see the pieman or Simple Simon, nor even
+Jiggily Jig.
+
+“Oh! Whatever shall we do?” cried Mary.
+
+“I don’t know,” answered Johnny. “Do you, Tommy?”
+
+“No, I don’t know, either,” replied Tommy Trippertrot.
+
+But just then they turned around the corner of the street, and they
+heard some music playing, and there was a hand-organ man, with a monkey!
+
+“Oh, goody!” cried Mary. “There is the hand-organ man who once rode
+with us in the automobile, and he will know where we live.”
+
+“No, I am sorry to say I don’t know where you live,” answered the
+hand-organ man, when they had asked him. “You see, I am a new man here,
+and not the one you thought I was. I just bought this organ and the
+monkey from the man who rode with you in the auto. The monkey may know
+where you live, but I don’t.”
+
+“Then let’s ask the monkey,” suggested Tommy.
+
+So they asked the monkey. But, bless you! the monkey couldn’t talk, you
+know, and all he did was to take off his cap and make a low bow, as if
+he was asking for pennies.
+
+“That’s of no use,” said Tommy hopelessly.
+
+“No,” agreed Mary. “We’ll never get home that way.”
+
+Well, the three little Trippertrots didn’t know what to do, and they
+were almost ready to cry, when, all at once, Johnny gave a loud shout.
+
+“What’s the matter?” asked Mary. “Are you hurt?”
+
+“No! But look!” cried Johnny. “There comes Ivy Vine, our cat!”
+
+“And there comes Fido, our dog!” exclaimed Tommy, and he pointed to
+the dog and cat coming down the street together like twins, only, of
+course, they weren’t twins--dogs and cats can’t be twins, you know.
+
+“Oh, now we will find our way home,” said Mary. “Ivy and Fido will lead
+us. We can’t be far from our house.”
+
+“I am glad of it,” said the banana man, who was more tired than ever.
+
+“Here, Fido! Fido!” called Tommy.
+
+“Come, Ivy! Ivy!” cried Mary.
+
+The dog and the cat came running up to the children, and they were very
+glad to see them. I mean the children were glad to see Fido and Ivy
+Vine, and Ivy Vine and Fido were glad to see the children. So they were
+all glad, even the banana man.
+
+“Now show us the way home, Fido!” called Tommy, and, somehow or other,
+Fido understood, for he wagged his tail so hard that it almost dropped
+off, and Ivy Vine wagged her tail, and then they trotted on ahead of
+the banana wagon. They looked back every now and then, to see if the
+wagon was coming.
+
+“Just follow them, and we’ll soon be at our home,” said Mary. And the
+banana man did so, riding the children on his cart, and a little later,
+just as they went around a corner, there was the Trippertrots’ house!
+
+“Oh, we’re home! We’re home!” cried Mary joyfully.
+
+“And how glad we are!” cried Tommy and Johnny, and they all hugged each
+other. Fido capered about, barking as loudly as he could; and then out
+ran Suzette and Mr. Trippertrot and Mrs. Trippertrot.
+
+“Oh, you children!” cried their mamma. “Lost again, I suppose!”
+
+“Yes’m,” answered Mary.
+
+“And we were looking all over for you,” said their papa.
+
+“But Fido and Ivy Vine and the banana man brought us home,” explained
+Tommy, “and we had some wonderful adventures since we went to thank the
+fireman.”
+
+“Well, please don’t ever have any more,” said their mamma.
+
+“No’m, we won’t,” answered Mary.
+
+Then they all went into the house and had supper, and Mr. Trippertrot
+thanked the banana man very kindly, and gave him some money.
+
+“I don’t want any more adventures very soon,” said Tommy.
+
+But my goodness sakes alive and the mustard spoon! It wasn’t any time
+at all before those three little Trippertrots had something more happen
+to them.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER THIRTEEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE DANCING BEARS
+
+
+The three little Trippertrots were in the house one day, looking out
+of the window. Suzette, the nursemaid, was in the next room, trying
+to mend a hole that Mary had torn in her red dress. I mean that Mary
+had torn a hole in her own dress, not in Suzette’s, you understand, of
+course. And the way it happened was this:
+
+They were playing soldiers, the Trippertrot children were, Tommy and
+Johnny and Mary, and Tommy had a make-believe gun. It was really the
+poker from the stove, but it looked something like a gun.
+
+And they were having a great battle, making believe shoot off the
+poker-gun bang-bang, you know, when, all of a sudden, Mary ran past
+Tommy, and the poker caught in her dress, and tore a hole in the cloth.
+
+“Oh, I’m afraid you can’t play soldiers any more,” said Mrs.
+Trippertrot. “It’s too rough a game. Please play something gentle, that
+doesn’t make so much noise.”
+
+So Mary and Tommy and Johnny played a guessing game; that is, they
+tried to guess how many people were in the trolley cars that passed the
+window, or how many letters the postman had in his bag, or how fast the
+butcher boy could run when a pussy cat chased him, and all guessing
+games like that. So that’s the reason, as I told you at first, why the
+Trippertrots were looking out of the window of their house.
+
+“Oh, I’m tired of this,” said Tommy at last.
+
+“And so am I,” said Mary.
+
+“What can we do?” asked Johnny.
+
+“Oh, let’s make-believe we’re lost again,” suggested Mary. “We can
+pretend that the parlor is away off downtown, and that the dining-room
+is another city, and the kitchen can be a cave where a fairy lives, and
+upstairs--I wonder what upstairs can be?”
+
+“That will be a mountain, of course,” said Tommy. “The stairs are high,
+and so are mountains; and I’m going to climb one, and get lost on the
+top, and build a campfire, and sleep there all night.”
+
+“Pooh! You sleep upstairs all night, anyhow,” said Johnny. “Our beds
+are there.”
+
+“Oh, but this is only a make-believe mountain,” said Tommy. “Come on!
+All ready to play this game! We’ll see who will be the first one to get
+lost.”
+
+Well, the Trippertrots played that game a long time, and then Suzette
+had Mary’s dress mended, and the nursemaid went to answer the back
+doorbell, for the butcher boy was there with some meat for supper.
+
+Now in about a minute you will see where the dancing bears appear in
+this story. I’m almost up to that part, so watch closely.
+
+When Suzette was at the back door, Mrs. Trippertrot happened to think
+there was no bread in the house for dinner.
+
+“I know what I will do,” said the children’s mamma. “I will just run
+next door to Mrs. Johnson’s, and borrow a loaf. Now don’t you children
+go outside while I’m gone!” she called to Tommy and Mary and Johnny.
+
+“Not even in case of something most extra-extra-extraordinary
+happening?” asked Johnny.
+
+“Oh, I suppose if it’s something most extraordinary you may go out for
+a minute,” answered Mrs. Trippertrot, “but don’t you dare to get lost.”
+
+So they promised that they wouldn’t, and then they went back to play
+the game of looking out of the windows, and Mary said:
+
+“Oh, I wish something most extra-extraordinary would come along!”
+
+“So do I!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“And there it is!” suddenly cried Johnny. “If that isn’t extraordinary,
+I’d like to know what is!”
+
+And sure enough, down the street came a man with three dancing bears.
+There was a little bear and a middle-sized bear and a big bear, just as
+in the story book. And the man had a horn, on which he played jolly,
+funny little tunes.
+
+“Oh, I hope the bears dance where we can see them,” said Mary, and
+Tommy and Johnny said the same thing; and really it was just as if the
+dancing-bear man heard the Trippertrot children, for, sure enough, he
+stopped in front of their house, and began to blow a tune on his horn.
+
+  “Hum tum-tum tiddle di de um,
+    Hum tum-tum tiddle day;
+  Dum-dum-dum fiddle faddle de um,
+    Ho tum-tum skiddle ray.”
+
+And with that, those bears stood up on their hind legs, and began to
+dance around almost as well as you or I could do it. I’m sure you would
+have been very glad to see them, for they were such nice bears.
+
+The big bear took big steps when he danced, and the middle-sized bear
+took middle-sized steps, and, of course, the little bear had to take
+little steps, for that was all the kind of steps that were left, but
+they suited him exactly.
+
+“Oh! Aren’t they fine!” cried Mary.
+
+“Yes. I wish we had one,” said Johnny.
+
+“Oh, I don’t!” exclaimed his sister. “He might scratch us, not meaning
+to, you know, but accidentally. I don’t want a bear in the house.”
+
+“I think it would be fun,” said Tommy. “We could play we were hunters
+on a mountain, and make-believe shoot the bear, only, of course, we
+wouldn’t _really_ do it.”
+
+“Oh, look! Look!” suddenly cried Mary. “One bear is climbing a
+telegraph pole!” And, sure enough, the middle-sized bear was doing
+that, while the man played more tunes on his horn.
+
+“Oh, look there!” cried Johnny. “The big bear is standing on his head!”
+And, just as true as I’m telling you, he was.
+
+“See! See!” exclaimed Tommy. “The little bear is turning somersaults
+just like Simple Simon and Jiggily Jig did! Isn’t it great!”
+
+Well, the man made the dancing bears do many more tricks, and then he
+held out his hat for money, for that was how he made his living. And
+Suzette gave the children some money to give to the bearman.
+
+Then the man made a bow, to show that he was thankful, and the bears
+made bows, too, to show they were thankful, for if the man hadn’t
+gotten any money the bears wouldn’t have had much for supper. Then they
+started off up the street to dance some more.
+
+“Oh, I’m sorry they’re gone!” said Mary, and her brothers were, also;
+and they were just wondering what else they could do to have fun, when,
+all of a sudden, Tommy cried:
+
+“Look! Look! The little bear has run away from the man, and is coming
+back here!”
+
+“Yes, and I guess the man doesn’t know it, or he would come back after
+him,” said Johnny. “I think we ought to go out and catch the little
+bear for the man.”
+
+“Oh, don’t you do it!” cried Mary, shivering.
+
+“Why, he’s tame, and won’t hurt me,” said Tommy. “Besides, we would be
+doing the man a kindness.”
+
+“But mamma doesn’t want us to go out of the house,” said Mary, for she
+could now see the bear quite plainly, as he was right in front of the
+house again, and he was so kind and gentle-looking, and he seemed to
+smile so at the children, that they just loved him.
+
+“I’m going out and catch him for the man, and give him something to
+eat,” said Tommy.
+
+“Who? The man or the bear?” asked Johnny.
+
+“The little bear. See! He has a chain on his neck, and we can lead him
+by that. Come on.”
+
+“Oh, dear! Well, I s’pose I’ll have to go, too,” said Mary. “This is
+one of those most extra-extraordinary occasions, I guess. But I do hope
+we’re not lost again.”
+
+“Hurry up!” called Johnny. “We can catch the bear, take him to the man,
+and soon be in the house again.”
+
+Well, would you ever believe it if I didn’t tell you? That little bear
+just stood still when the Trippertrot children came up to him, and
+he almost seemed to smile, you know the way bears do, by opening his
+mouth, and then he made a low bow.
+
+“Oh, I almost believe he could talk, if he wanted to, he is so cute,”
+said Mary.
+
+“Come along, little bear,” spoke Tommy.
+
+“Yes, we’re going to take you back to the man,” said Johnny. “He
+doesn’t know you’re lost, I guess.”
+
+[Illustration: DOWN THE STREET CAME A MAN WITH THREE BEARS]
+
+Well, the bear growled a little bit, but that was only his way of
+saying “Thank you!” And then he stood still while Johnny took hold of
+the chain around his neck--I mean the chain around the bear’s neck,
+not Johnny’s, for Johnny didn’t have any chain on his neck. And Tommy
+also took hold of the bear’s chain, and so did Mary, just the littlest,
+tiny tip end, you know.
+
+“Now we’re all ready,” said Johnny. “Come along, little bear, and we’ll
+soon have you back to your master.”
+
+So the three little Trippertrots marched down the street, leading the
+tame little bear, and they expected any minute to find the man with the
+horn. But they couldn’t see him anywhere.
+
+“Oh, we must find him soon,” said Mary.
+
+“Yes,” said Johnny. “We can’t take the bear back home with us.”
+
+“And if we let him go by himself he’ll get lost,” spoke Tommy. “Let’s
+go on a little farther.”
+
+So they went on a little farther with the animal, but they couldn’t
+find the man who owned the bear, and they couldn’t hear his tooting
+horn. And then, as they turned around a corner, Mary suddenly said:
+
+“There! I knew it!”
+
+“Knew what?” asked Johnny.
+
+“I knew we were lost again,” said Mary. “I’ve never seen this street
+before. We are certainly lost again.”
+
+“Oh! What will mamma say?” asked Tommy.
+
+“And lost with a little dancing bear to take care of,” added Mary.
+
+“Well, if we’re lost, the bear is lost, too, and that’s all there is
+about it,” spoke Johnny cheerfully. “Maybe we can find our way back.
+Let’s try.”
+
+So they walked down another street, looking for the way back home, or
+for the man who owned the little bear.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER FOURTEEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PINK COW
+
+
+“We don’t seem to be getting anywhere very fast,” said Tommy
+Trippertrot, after he and his sister and his brother and the little
+tame dancing bear had walked up and down several streets.
+
+“No, indeed,” agreed Mary.
+
+“Are you sure we’re lost again?” asked Johnny.
+
+“I certainly am,” replied his sister. “We must have come farther than
+we thought we did. All the streets are strange, and all the houses,
+too, and I don’t see a single person that I know. Oh, dear! Isn’t it
+too bad?”
+
+“Never mind!” exclaimed Johnny, putting his arms around Mary to hug
+her. “I’ll take care of you.”
+
+“And so will I,” added Tommy.
+
+“Wuff! Wuff!” growled the bear in his gentle voice, and that was his
+way of saying that he, too, would take care of Mary. And he put one
+fuzzy paw around her neck, and squeezed her the least bit; not enough
+to hurt her, you understand. Oh, of course not.
+
+“Well, what had we better do?” asked Johnny.
+
+“We’ll ask the first person we meet if they know where we live,” said
+Mary. “It’s funny, but we never can seem to remember. I guess we ought
+to have a stamp and an address on us, just as letters do, and then the
+postman could always take us home.”
+
+“I think that _would_ be a good idea,” said Tommy. “But it’s too late
+to do that now, and I don’t see any people we can ask,” and he looked
+up and down the street, but no one was in sight.
+
+“Oh, I tell you what let’s do!” exclaimed Johnny. “We’ll let the bear
+go wherever he wants to, and maybe he’ll take us home, the way Fido and
+Ivy once did.”
+
+“That’s a good idea,” said Tommy. “We’ll do it.”
+
+So they let go of the chain that was around the bear’s neck, and Mary
+said to him:
+
+“Now go ahead, little bear, and take us home.”
+
+“Oh, bears can’t understand our talk,” said Tommy.
+
+“Why, Fido understands me!” said Mary. “When I speak pleasantly to him
+he wags his tail, so I’m sure he understands; and if _he_ can, why
+can’t bears?”
+
+“Oh, well, maybe he does,” admitted Johnny. “Let’s see what he’ll do.”
+
+The little bear didn’t do anything at first. He just stood there on his
+hind legs, looking all around, and sort of sniffing the air. I guess he
+was trying to see if he could smell his supper cooking anywhere. Then,
+all at once, he started to run across the street.
+
+“Come on!” cried Johnny. “I guess that’s the way home! We’ll follow the
+bear!”
+
+So they ran after the shaggy little creature, who kept right on going,
+looking over his shoulder every now and then, just as if he was telling
+the children to follow him. And they did. But where in the world do you
+suppose he led them?
+
+You’d never guess, I’m afraid, so I’m going to tell you. It was right
+up to a bakery shop window, that was filled with all sorts of nice
+cakes and cookies and pies. Yes, just as true as I’m telling you,
+that’s what the bear did. He came to a stop right in front of the
+window, and then he looked up at the children, and sort of whined,
+just as Fido, their dog, did when he was hungry.
+
+“Oh, I know what he wants!” cried Mary.
+
+“What is it?” asked both her brothers at once.
+
+“He wants some cakes,” said Mary. “He is hungry, poor little fellow.
+That’s why he led us over to this bakery. I’m going to see if the
+bakery man will give us some cakes or buns for our little bear.”
+
+“I wish he’d give us some for ourselves,” spoke Johnny. “I’m hungry
+myself.”
+
+“So am I!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“Well, let’s go in,” suggested Mary.
+
+“Oh, not all at once,” objected Johnny. “For if we did, and left the
+bear all alone outside here, he might run away. I’ll stay here with
+him, Tommy, and you and Mary can go in and ask the bakery man for some
+cake.”
+
+“All right,” agreed Tommy, and into the bakery shop he and his sister
+went, leaving Johnny to take care of the baby bear.
+
+“Well, little ones, what can I do for you to-day?” asked the baker-man
+of Mary and Tommy, as he came out of the back room, wiping some flour
+off the end of his nose. “Will you have bread or pie?”
+
+“Neither, if you please, sir,” answered Mary, “but we have a little
+bear, and----”
+
+“Good gracious sakes alive and some ground cinnamon!” cried the
+baker-man. “You don’t mean to tell me you have a real live bear in
+here? Take him out at once, I beg of you!”
+
+“Oh, no, he isn’t in here,” said Tommy. “He’s outside, with my brother
+Johnny. But anyhow, he’s tame and gentle, and he wouldn’t hurt a fly,
+not if one were to light on his nose and tickle him. He’d just blow him
+off.”
+
+[Illustration: _Johnny Brought in the Bear._]
+
+“Oh, he is a very kind bear,” went on Mary.
+
+“I am very glad to hear that,” spoke the baker-man. “But what do you
+want me to do--buy him?”
+
+“Oh, no,” answered Tommy. “You see, he is lost, and we are lost, and he
+came over here to look at your cakes because he was hungry, and we are
+hungry, too. But you needn’t mind us, unless you have some cakes you
+don’t want, and----”
+
+But then Tommy had to stop to catch his breath, which had nearly gotten
+away from him, and Mary said:
+
+“Oh, you had better let me finish. What we want, Mr. Baker-man, is some
+cake for our little bear. At least he isn’t really ours, but he belongs
+to the man who plays tunes on the funny little horn, and he is lost.”
+
+“Who is lost, the man or the bear?” asked the baker, with a jolly laugh.
+
+“Both, I guess,” said Tommy, who had his breath by this time. “But have
+you any cakes?”
+
+“Oh, yes, plenty of them,” said the kind baker. “I will give you some,
+and the bear some, and----”
+
+“But we have no money,” said Mary quickly, “and we are lost--we’re
+always getting lost,” she said.
+
+“No matter about the money,” went on the baker. “I will give you as
+many cakes as the bear needs, and some for yourself. Bring in the bear.”
+
+So Johnny brought in the bear, and the baker cried out as soon as he
+saw the shaggy little fellow:
+
+“Why, I know that bear! He belongs to a nice Italian in the next
+street. You had better leave him with me, and I will see that he gets
+home safely. But first he must have some cakes. Come here, Bruno!”
+called the baker to the bear, and the little tame bear came right over
+to him, and ate a chocolate cake out of his hand.
+
+“You see, he knows me,” said the baker. “I will see that he gets safely
+home.”
+
+“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Mary. “I wish that some one knew _us_, and would
+see that _we_ got home. It’s dreadful to be lost all the while, but we
+can’t seem to help it.”
+
+“Never mind,” said the baker kindly. “Here, eat some cakes, and then we
+will see what is to be done. Perhaps I can think of a way to get you
+home.”
+
+Well, you would never believe it if I didn’t tell you, I suppose, but
+this is just how it happened. All of a sudden into the baker shop
+walked a man, and he had a string in his hand.
+
+“What are you leading by that string? Another bear?” asked the
+baker-man.
+
+“No. I am leading my pink cow,” said the man.
+
+“A pink cow!” exclaimed the baker. “I never heard of a pink cow!”
+
+“Well, I have one,” said the man. “You can look for yourself, if you
+don’t believe me.”
+
+So they all looked out on the sidewalk--that is, all but the little
+bear, and he was too busy eating cakes to look--and there, sure enough,
+was a nice pink cow, and the man was leading her by a yellow string
+around her neck.
+
+“How did she get pink?” asked the baker-man.
+
+“She went to the circus once,” said the other man, “and she drank a
+pailful of pink lemonade, in mistake for water, so she has been pink
+ever since. But it doesn’t hurt her any, and she gives as good milk as
+ever.”
+
+“What are you going to do with her?” asked the baker-man.
+
+“Why, I am going to sell her to a man named Mr. Jones,” said the
+cowman. “He lives a few streets away, and he has always wanted a pink
+cow. So I am taking mine to him.”
+
+“Oh! I wonder if that’s the Mr. Jones who lives two doors from us?”
+cried Mary.
+
+“What might your names be?” asked the pink-cow man quickly.
+
+“The Trippertrots!” cried Tommy and Johnny and Mary, all at the same
+time.
+
+“Then that’s the Mr. Jones, all right,” said the pink-cow man. “He said
+he lived next door to a family of Trippertrot children, who were always
+getting lost----”
+
+“And we’re lost now!” interrupted Mary.
+
+“But you can take us home!” cried Johnny.
+
+“To be sure I can,” answered the man. “I’ll take you home on my way to
+leave my pink cow at Mr. Jones’s house. Come along, children.”
+
+So they said good-by to the little bear, who was still eating buns, and
+then to the baker, who gave the Trippertrots some cakes to take home;
+and then the children started out with the man and the pink cow to go
+home to their house.
+
+“Oh, how thankful I am that we’re not lost any more!” exclaimed Mary,
+as they walked along, with the pink cow following behind, and switching
+her tail to keep the flies away.
+
+“Yes; and wasn’t it lucky that the baker-man knew what to do with the
+bear?” said Johnny.
+
+“It certainly was,” spoke Tommy.
+
+“You will soon be home now,” said the pink-cow man, and they kept on up
+the street, and in a little while they were safely at the Trippertrot
+house.
+
+Just as the three children got in front of their house they saw their
+papa and mamma, and Suzette, the nursemaid, looking at them out of the
+parlor windows.
+
+“Oh, there are our dear children!” cried Mrs. Trippertrot.
+
+“I wonder where they have been this time?” asked Mr. Trippertrot.
+
+“There is no telling,” replied his wife. “They do seem to go to the
+strangest places. And look what they have with them! A pink cow, of all
+things!”
+
+“Oh, I hope they are not going to bring that pink cow in here!”
+exclaimed Suzette, the nursemaid. “There is no place to put it!”
+
+“Oh, dear! I wonder what those children will do next?” asked Mrs.
+Trippertrot. But there was no one there to answer her, for Mr.
+Trippertrot ran out to get Mary and Tommy and Johnny, and Suzette ran
+out to help him, and so Mrs. Trippertrot thought she would run out
+herself.
+
+“Oh, mamma!” cried Mary. “We had the grandest time!”
+
+“And we took the little bear home,” said Johnny.
+
+“And the baker-man gave us some cakes, but we ate them all up,” spoke
+Tommy.
+
+“Oh, you children!” cried their mamma.
+
+“And what about the pink cow?” asked Mr. Trippertrot. “I do hope you
+haven’t brought that home with you!”
+
+“Oh, no,” said the man who owned the cow. “I am taking my cow to Mr.
+Jones, who lives two doors from you. He wants her, and as I was coming
+this way, I brought your children with me.”
+
+“That was very kind of you,” said Mr. Trippertrot, “and I hope they
+don’t trip and trot off again. Come in, now, children, and tell your
+mother and me all about where you were this time.”
+
+“And we can tell you why the cow is pink,” said Tommy. “She ate some
+pink ice cream once--strawberry, I guess it was----”
+
+“No, she drank pink lemonade,” corrected Mary.
+
+“Oh, yes, that’s it,” agreed Tommy, “and so she’s been pink ever since.”
+
+So the three little Trippertrots went into their house, and the man
+took the pink cow to where Mr. Jones lived, and everybody was happy for
+a while, just as you all are, I hope.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER FIFTEEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TRAIN OF CARS
+
+
+It was shortly after the Trippertrot children got home, after finding
+the little lost bear, that, one afternoon, when they were all looking
+out of the window of their house, their mamma said:
+
+“Now, children, I am going across the street to see a lady, and I don’t
+want you to stir out of the playroom until I come back.”
+
+“May we go out when you do come back, mamma?” asked Mary.
+
+“I’ll see,” returned Mrs. Trippertrot. “At any rate, you are to stay
+here until I come back.”
+
+“Can’t we even go out if we see the little lost bear again?” asked
+Tommy.
+
+“No, indeed,” answered his mamma. “Not on any account.”
+
+Well, the Trippertrots didn’t like to stay in very much, but they were
+good little people, and they did just as they were told, unless, of
+course, they happened to forget, or unless a very extra-extraordinary
+thing happened.
+
+“Oh, I wish we had some game to play,” sighed Mary.
+
+“I know!” exclaimed Johnny, “let’s play another choosing game. I’ll let
+you have first choice, Mary, of whatever comes along the street. Then
+Tommy can have his choice, and then it will be my turn.”
+
+“All right!” cried Tommy and Mary, so they began to play. And when
+Mary saw an automobile coming alone she chose that--not really to have
+for her very own, you understand, but just to make-believe. Then it was
+Tommy’s turn, and he picked out a nice horse and wagon. But when it
+came Johnny’s turn, all there was left was a man pushing a wheelbarrow,
+so Johnny took that.
+
+“Oh, that’s not a bit nice to choose,” said Mary, as she wrinkled up
+her nose. “You may have part of my automobile, if you like, Johnny.”
+
+“And he can have part of my horse and wagon,” said Tommy.
+
+“All right, then I’ll take the horse, and we’ll all go riding,” quickly
+cried Johnny. But, of course, this was only make-believe, you know.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, Mary happened to look down the street, and
+she cried out:
+
+“Oh, look! There is the pink cow running away from the stable where Mr.
+Jones put her.”
+
+“Sure enough, so she is!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“We must go after her,” declared Johnny.
+
+“No, mamma said we weren’t to leave the house,” said Mary.
+
+“Oh, but she said we weren’t to go if a bear came along,” insisted
+Johnny. “This is a cow, not a bear, and, besides, she’s pink.”
+
+“And besides,” added Tommy, “Mr. Jones wouldn’t want to lose that cow,
+as it must have cost a whole lot of money. I think we ought to chase
+after her and bring her back.”
+
+“So do I,” added Johnny, and then the two boys, catching up their hats
+and coats, ran out of the house.
+
+“Well, I’m not going to stay here all alone,” said Mary. “I guess mamma
+would want us to catch the pink cow, as long as it isn’t a little tame
+bear. Wait, boys, I’m coming,” she called.
+
+And there those three little Trippertrots were running away again, and
+without in the least meaning to. But it just shows you what will happen
+sometimes; doesn’t it?
+
+The pink cow was slowly walking down the street, chewing her gum--I beg
+your pardon, I mean her cud--and the Trippertrot children were chasing
+after her.
+
+“Hold on!” cried Tommy to the cow.
+
+“Yes, wait a minute,” called Johnny.
+
+“Oh, don’t talk to her,” said Mary. “Cows can’t understand our talk.
+Just catch hold of the string around her neck, and then we can lead her
+back to Mr. Jones.”
+
+“But there isn’t any string on her neck,” said Tommy.
+
+“Then, of course, you can’t do it,” spoke Mary. “Never mind, I guess
+she will soon get tired, and then we can catch her.”
+
+But that pink cow didn’t seem to get tired, and all at once she ran
+down a street where there weren’t any houses, and she kept on until she
+was out in a big field, and the children were chasing after her, but
+they couldn’t catch her.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, there was a loud whistling noise. At first
+the children thought it was a giant, but it wasn’t, it was only the
+choo-choo engine in front of a train of cars that just then came
+puffing along. And as soon as the cow saw the engine, with the smoke
+shooting up out of the black chimney, and when she heard the loud
+whistle, that pink cow just kicked up her heels and jumped so high that
+it looked if she jumped over the moon.
+
+At least I think she jumped over the moon, for the children couldn’t
+see her any more, though maybe the cow was only hiding behind the
+bushes until the train got past. Anyhow, she wasn’t in sight.
+
+“She’s gone!” exclaimed Mary.
+
+“There’s no use chasing after her any more, then,” said Tommy.
+
+“Yes, we had better hurry home, and tell Mr. Jones that his cow has run
+away, so he can run after her,” spoke Johnny.
+
+Well, those Trippertrots started to go back home, but, would you
+believe it, they couldn’t find the way. They looked everywhere, but
+they couldn’t find the right path that led back to their house.
+
+“Oh, we’re lost again!” exclaimed Mary.
+
+“Yes, I guess we are,” said Tommy, sorrowfully.
+
+“And what are we to do?” asked Johnny. “This is a queer place to be
+lost in--out in the fields.”
+
+Just then the train with the choo-choo engine on in front came to a
+stop. A man with a blue coat, all covered with shiny brass buttons,
+jumped off the first car.
+
+“All aboard!” he called, waving his arms around his head. “Everybody
+get on! All aboard, everybody! No time to wait! Get on the train!”
+
+“Who is he?” asked Mary of her brothers in a whisper.
+
+“He’s the conductor,” said Tommy.
+
+“And I guess he’s talking to us,” spoke Johnny. “He wants us to get on.”
+
+“Of course,” said Mary. “I never thought of it. Papa has sent the train
+to take us home. Get on board.”
+
+“Ladies first,” said the conductor, politely, and he helped Mary up the
+steps, and then he helped Johnny and Tommy, for they were too little to
+get up by themselves.
+
+“All aboard!” called the conductor again, and then the engine gave a
+loud toot, and off the train started.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER SIXTEEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS IN A TROLLEY CAR
+
+
+“Oh, this is fine!” cried Tommy, after they had ridden some distance.
+
+“It’s the best yet,” said Johnny. “I like this kind of running away!”
+
+“But we’re not running away,” said Mary. “We only ran after the pink
+cow belonging to Mr. Jones, and now the train is taking us home.”
+
+“I hope we get in before mamma comes back from her call across the
+street,” said Johnny. “She told us not to go out.”
+
+“Oh, but she only said not to go out after a little tame dancing bear,
+as we once did,” said Tommy. “This time we went out after the pink cow.”
+
+“Well, I hope it will be all right,” spoke Mary. “Oh! look out of the
+windows, boys, and see all the pretty fields and trees and--and----”
+
+“And telegraph poles,” added Tommy. “My, what a lot of them.”
+
+“And look! There is the pink cow!” suddenly cried Johnny, and, sure
+enough, the pink animal was running along beside the train in a green
+field. But pretty soon the train got going so fast that the cow was
+left behind.
+
+“I hope she gets back home all right,” said Tommy; and Mary and Johnny
+hoped the same thing.
+
+Well, the train kept going faster and faster, and the children were
+looking out of the windows, having a good time, when the conductor,
+with his blue coat all covered with brass buttons, came in.
+
+“Where do you children want to go?” he asked.
+
+“Home,” said Mary.
+
+“Home,” said Johnny.
+
+“Home,” said Tommy.
+
+“Ha, so you _all_ want to go home,” exclaimed the conductor, with a
+jolly laugh. “Well, where might your home be?”
+
+“Why, don’t you know?” asked Mary in surprise.
+
+“No, I am sorry to say I don’t!” answered the conductor.
+
+“He--doesn’t--know--where--we--live!” exclaimed Tommy and Johnny
+together, slowly.
+
+“Why, I thought papa sent this train to take us home,” went on Mary.
+
+“Well, it may take you to your home, if you tell me where your home
+is,” went on the conductor. “Let me see your tickets, and I can tell
+where you want to go.”
+
+“But we haven’t any tickets,” spoke Mary.
+
+“No tickets!” cried the conductor. “Then why did you take this train?”
+
+“We didn’t take it,” replied Mary slowly. “It took us, and it’s taking
+us now. But if it doesn’t take us home I don’t want to stay on it.”
+
+“Me either,” said Tommy and Johnny, as they started to leave their
+seats.
+
+“Wait a moment!” called the conductor. “Why did you get into this
+railroad car?”
+
+“Because you told us to,” answered Mary. “We were chasing after the
+pink cow, that belongs to Mr. Jones, but she got away from us, and then
+your train came along, and you told us to get on board, and we did. It
+isn’t our fault.”
+
+“Well, well! This is quite a puzzle,” said the conductor, shaking his
+head, and scratching his nose with his ticket puncher. “And so you
+haven’t any tickets at all, eh?”
+
+“Wait!” cried Tommy, with his jolly little laugh, “I think I have a
+ticket.” He looked in all his pockets, and as he had a number of things
+in them, it took him some time to find his ticket. There were balls of
+cord, an old knife, some wheels from an alarm clock, and a piece of
+chewing-gum. Then there was a red stone and a broken lead-pencil, and
+when Tommy had all these articles out on the seat the conductor said:
+
+“Oh, I am afraid you have no ticket.”
+
+“Oh, yes, I have, just wait a minute, please,” said Tommy. And then
+he pulled out a little tin can that he used to take with him when he
+went fishing, and inside of that was a piece of paper. “There is our
+ticket!” cried Tommy, with another jolly laugh. “It’s a ticket I made
+for a magic-lantern show that I had, and it cost two pins to come in to
+it. Now we can go home, can’t we, Mr. Conductor?”
+
+“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” cried the conductor, again scratching his nose
+with his ticket puncher, “that isn’t the kind of a ticket I meant at
+all. ‘A ticket to a magic-lantern show! Admission two pins!’” he read
+from the piece of paper as he looked at it.
+
+“What kind of a ticket did you mean?” asked Mary, politely.
+
+“A railroad ticket,” answered the conductor. “That is what I meant.
+This one is no good.”
+
+“And can’t--can’t we ride on your train?” asked Mary, and, somehow or
+other, a few tears came into her pretty eyes. Tommy and Johnny felt
+like crying, also, but they happened to remember that boys never
+cry--that is, hardly ever--so they didn’t.
+
+“I’m afraid you can’t ride on that ticket,” said the conductor slowly,
+as he gave it back to Tommy. “I shall have to put you off----”
+
+“Wait, I’ll pay their fare!” interrupted a nice fat man, in the seat
+behind the children.
+
+“Oh, I’m not going to put them off here,” said the conductor kindly,
+and it is a good thing he wasn’t, for just then the train was going
+through the woods. “But I’ll put them off at the next station,” he
+said. “Then I will send word back to the place where they got on, and
+some one can come for them. It would not be right to take them as far
+off as where this train is going.”
+
+“No, indeed!” exclaimed Mary. “We want to go home.”
+
+“But some one will have to come for you when I put you off at the
+station,” said the conductor.
+
+“Oh, no one ever comes for us,” exclaimed Mary. “We always have to go
+home by ourselves, don’t we, boys?”
+
+“Of course,” answered Tommy and Johnny together. “We are the
+Trippertrots, and we are always getting lost, but this time we didn’t
+mean to. It was the pink cow’s fault.”
+
+“Oh, dear! I don’t know what in the world to do!” exclaimed the
+conductor, and for the third time he scratched his nose with his cap--I
+mean with his ticket puncher.
+
+“Well, I know what to do,” said a voice on the other side of the car.
+“I am going to give those children something to eat. I know they must
+be hungry--children always are.”
+
+And, would you ever believe it? there was the nice little old lady to
+whose house the Trippertrots once went when they were lost, and she
+had a cat, you remember, who purred as it lay asleep in the middle of
+the floor.
+
+“Oh, that lady knows us!” exclaimed Mary. “You can tell where our home
+is, can’t you?”
+
+“I’m afraid I can’t,” said the little old lady. “You know you were at
+my house, but when I went to get a policeman, to show you the way home,
+the queer little old man came, and you went away with him, and so I
+never found your home.
+
+“But don’t worry now, I will give you something to eat, and then I will
+get off at the next station with you, and I’ll see if I can’t find some
+one to take you home.”
+
+So the little old lady opened her satchel and she took out some nice
+chicken sandwiches, and some jam tarts, and some oranges, and gave them
+to the Trippertrot children to eat.
+
+Well, the train kept going on and on, and lots of the passengers
+watched the Trippertrots eating the lunch which the little old lady
+gave them, and the children themselves were having a nice time, though
+of course they were sorry that the pink cow had gotten lost.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, the train conductor called out:
+
+“Here’s where you get off, children. Come along; step lively, please.”
+
+So they hurried out of the car, and the little old lady went with them,
+and there the children saw a nice little railroad station, like an
+umbrella, built under a tree. It was right in the middle of a field.
+
+“My, this is a queer place,” said the little old lady, as she looked
+around. “I don’t see how we are going to get away from here,” for,
+would you believe me? as soon as they had gotten off the train, the
+cars and the choo-choo engine puffed away and left them all standing
+there.
+
+“Maybe we’ll find the pink cow, and she can take us home,” said Mary,
+so she and her brothers looked all around, but they couldn’t see the
+cow. But they heard a funny buzzing, humming noise, and, all at once,
+along came a trolley car.
+
+“Oh, that’s the very thing!” cried the little old lady. “I’m sure you
+can get home in that.”
+
+“Perhaps we can, if the conductor knows us,” said Mary.
+
+And when the trolley car buzzed up, with a lot of electric sparks
+coming out of the roof, the conductor leaned out over the platform and
+said:
+
+“Who wants to go home?”
+
+“We do!” cried Mary and Tommy and Johnny.
+
+“Then hop on!” said the trolley-car conductor, with a jolly laugh; so
+they hopped on, and the car went off before the little old lady could
+get aboard.
+
+“Oh!” cried Mary. “She’s left behind! Now we can never find our way
+home.”
+
+“Oh, yes, you can,” exclaimed the trolley-car conductor. “I know you
+children. You are the Trippertrots, and my car goes right past your
+house. I’ll see you there safely.”
+
+So off the car started, with the three Trippertrots inside, and the
+little old lady, who was left behind, waved good-by to them. And the
+children didn’t have to pay any car-fare, either.
+
+Inside the car were many people. And there was one very slim boy, who
+was very tall, and he kept going to sleep all the while, until finally
+the conductor came in and hung him up across one of the straps, just
+as if he was a clothes-pin. And there the tall thin boy slept just as
+well as if he had been home in bed.
+
+And then, pretty soon, the car stopped right in front of the
+Trippertrot home, and Tommy and Mary and Johnny ran up the steps of
+their house, very glad indeed to get back, I do assure you.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVENTEEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LAME BIRD
+
+
+Mary and Tommy and Johnny Trippertrot were coming home from school
+early one day when something strange happened to them. You see, the
+Trippertrot children were in the kindergarten class.
+
+“What did you learn to-day?” asked Mary of Tommy, as all three of them
+came along the street together.
+
+“Oh,” said Tommy, “I learned how to cut out a paper lantern, and it’s
+real pretty when you hang it up.”
+
+“That’s nice,” said Mary; “and will you show me how to make one when we
+get home?”
+
+“Of course,” answered Tommy, who liked his sister very much.
+
+“And what did you learn to make in the kindergarten class?” asked Mary
+of Johnny.
+
+“Oh, the teacher showed us how to make a chain out of paper,” answered
+Johnny, “and you can put it around your neck for a necklace.”
+
+“Oh, how lovely!” cried Mary. “I’d like a chain like that.”
+
+“Then I’ll show you how to make one,” said Johnny kindly. “But what did
+you learn to make to-day, Mary?”
+
+“Oh, our teacher showed us how to fold a piece of square red paper, and
+then cut it with the scissors, and then bend the corners over and make
+a pin-wheel just like the man sells at the circus, where there are
+lions, and tigers, and elephants that eat peanuts.”
+
+“Lions and tigers don’t eat peanuts,” said Tommy.
+
+“I know that,” answered Mary, “but elephants do, for once I had a
+whole bagful, and I was giving the baby elephant one peanut, and a big
+elephant behind me, when I didn’t see him, reached over with his trunk,
+and took my whole bag of peanuts out of my hand, and ate them up at one
+mouthful.”
+
+“Oh! that was terrible!” cried Johnny. “I wish we had some peanuts now.”
+
+“Well, let’s hurry home, and maybe mamma will give us some,” said Mary.
+“Anyhow, we can make the paper things which the kindergarten teacher
+showed us. Let’s hurry home.”
+
+“That’s what we can,” exclaimed Johnny, and then the three little
+Trippertrots tripped and trotted toward their home, for they didn’t
+want to get lost again, you see, and have to be brought home in a
+trolley car.
+
+As they were going down the street where their house was, and when they
+were almost at home, all at once a little birdie fluttered along the
+sidewalk.
+
+“Oh, look!” cried Mary. “There’s a little birdie.”
+
+“Yes, and it’s lame, too,” said Tommy.
+
+“Maybe we can catch it, and make it better,” spoke Johnnie, and he
+hurried after the birdie, which really was lame. There was something
+the matter with one of its legs, so that it couldn’t hop very well, and
+there was something the matter with one of its wings, so that it could
+only flutter along.
+
+“Wait, little birdie!” exclaimed Tommy kindly, “I won’t hurt you the
+least bit.”
+
+But perhaps the bird didn’t understand Tommy’s talk. At any rate, it
+still fluttered on, and the three Trippertrot children kept after it,
+for Johnny and Mary wouldn’t let Tommy go on alone.
+
+“Wait, birdie!” called Tommy again, “and I’ll give you my paper
+lantern,” for Tommy had brought one with him from his kindergarten
+class.
+
+But I guess the birdie didn’t like paper lanterns. Anyway, he kept
+on fluttering along, just far enough ahead so that the Trippertrot
+children couldn’t catch him. They didn’t want to hurt him, you
+understand; no, indeed! They only wanted to help him.
+
+“Oh, wait a minute, little bird!” called Johnny, “and I will give you
+my paper chain.”
+
+But perhaps the birdie was afraid the paper chain might get tangled in
+his legs. At any rate, he didn’t wait, but kept on fluttering along the
+sidewalk.
+
+“Perhaps some cat might get him,” said Mary, after a while. “We must
+try to catch that birdie, boys, and put him in a safe place. Wait, and
+I will speak to him.”
+
+So Mary walked on in front of Tommy and Johnny, and said, in her soft
+little voice:
+
+“Wait a minute, birdie, and you may have my paper pin-wheel that I
+made in kindergarten class, and it goes around and around as fast as
+anything.”
+
+“What goes around,” asked Tommy, with a laugh, “the pin-wheel or the
+kindergarten class?”
+
+“Both of them,” answered Mary quickly. “The pin-wheel goes around when
+you blow your breath on it, and the kindergarten class goes around when
+teacher plays the piano, and we march and play games. But now please
+keep quiet, and I may get the birdie.”
+
+So Mary walked on ahead, very, very softly, and once more she told the
+lame birdie that it might have her pin-wheel. I don’t know just how it
+was, but perhaps the birdie thought if he had the pin-wheel he might be
+able to fly up in the air again. At any rate, he stopped fluttering,
+and a moment later Mary had him softly nestled in her little, warm
+hands.
+
+“Oh, you dear, darling little birdie!” she exclaimed.
+
+“One of his legs is hurt and so is one of his wings,” said Mary, as she
+looked at the little lame birdie. “Oh, boys!” she exclaimed, “I know
+what let’s do!”
+
+“What?” asked Johnny.
+
+“Let’s take this bird to a doctor’s office,” went on Mary, “and the
+doctor will make him all better. How’s that?”
+
+“Fine!” cried Tommy and Johnny together, and then they looked up and
+down the street to see a house where a doctor lived. And then, all of a
+sudden, Johnny cried:
+
+“Oh, Mary! Oh, Tommy! We’re lost again! We came down the wrong street,
+when we followed the fluttering birdie, and now can’t find our way home
+again! Oh, what shall we do?”
+
+“Oh, never mind!” spoke Mary, after a bit, when she had looked all
+around to see if she could find the way home, but she couldn’t. “Never
+mind. We’ll go to the doctor’s office first, and maybe he can tell us
+the way home.”
+
+“Maybe he can!” said Tommy and Johnny, and then they didn’t feel badly
+any more. Well, the Trippertrot children walked on, Mary carrying the
+birdie, which was just as happy as it could be now. And pretty soon the
+children met a nice man.
+
+“If you please, sir,” said Tommy, “can you tell us where there’s a
+doctor’s office?”
+
+“Why, are you sick?” asked the man quickly.
+
+“No, but the bird is,” said Johnny. “And we’re lost.”
+
+[Illustration: _The Trippertrot Children Ran On._]
+
+“But we didn’t mean to be,” said Tommy quickly. “You see, we were
+coming home from school, and we kept on going after this birdie, until,
+all of a sudden, we were lost.”
+
+“I see,” said the man, with a jolly laugh. “Well, I hope you will find
+your home again. The doctor’s office is just a few houses down this
+street. Right next to the candy store,” he added.
+
+“Oh, thank you, then we can easily find it,” said Mary quickly; “we
+just love candy.”
+
+“Then here is a cent for each of you,” spoke the man, and he gave them
+each a cent, and pretty soon the Trippertrot children ran on, and they
+were at the candy store. And they bought some sticks of peppermint
+candy, and then they rang the bell at the doctor’s office.
+
+“Well, what is it, children?” asked the doctor, when he came to the
+door. “I hope you are not all sick.”
+
+“No, but the little lame birdie is,” said Tommy, “and will you please
+cure him? We would give you some pennies for doing it, but we just
+spent them all for candy, so we have none.”
+
+“Hum, then I’m afraid _you_ may be sick, as well as the birdie,” said
+the doctor.
+
+“We’re lost, anyhow, but we’re not sick--that is, not yet, if you
+please,” said Mary. “But can you cure the birdie?”
+
+“Oh, I’m afraid not,” said the doctor kindly. “You see, I am a
+boy-or-a-girl or a man-or-a-lady doctor, but not a bird-doctor. You
+will have to take the birdie to a bird-doctor.”
+
+“If you please, where is one?” asked Johnny.
+
+“I don’t know,” answered the man-doctor.
+
+“Then I guess you will have to be one yourself,” said Mary. “If you can
+cure a boy or a girl you can cure a bird. And then, please will you
+find our home for us? We’re the Trippertrots, and we’re lost.”
+
+“Oh, my! Oh, my!” exclaimed the doctor, and he laughed and scratched
+his head. “I don’t know what in the world to do. But come in, and bring
+the bird.”
+
+Then he took them inside and he gave the bird some warm milk, and he
+put some salve on the sore wing and leg, and pretty soon the birdie was
+all well again.
+
+“Now what are you going to do with the bird?” asked the doctor when he
+had cured it. “Are you going to take it home, and put it in a cage?”
+
+“No, indeed!” exclaimed Mary. “Birdies don’t like to be shut up in a
+cage. We’re going to let it go; aren’t we, boys?”
+
+“Of course,” said Tommy and Johnny. So the doctor opened a window and
+out flew the little birdie, and it was so happy that it wiggled its
+tail and called “cheep-cheep!” to the children.
+
+“And now can you please take us home?” said Mary to the doctor. “We are
+tired and we haven’t been home from school yet, and mamma may worry.
+Besides, we want to make some paper lanterns, and paper chains, and
+paper pin-wheels. Please take us home.”
+
+“Dear me!” exclaimed the doctor. “I hardly know what to do. Where do
+you live?”
+
+“We don’t know,” said Mary and Tommy and Johnny at once.
+
+“Oh, this is worse and worse!” exclaimed the doctor.
+
+“Don’t you know where we live?” asked Mary. “I thought doctors knew
+everything.”
+
+“I only wish I did,” said the doctor kindly. “But I will see what I can
+do.” So he called in Bridget, his cook, and asked her if she knew where
+the children lived.
+
+“Of course,” answered Bridget. “They are the Trippertrots. They live a
+couple of streets from here.”
+
+“Can you take them home?” asked the doctor.
+
+“Ah, sure I can,” said Bridget.
+
+“Then please do,” said the doctor.
+
+So Bridget put on her bonnet and shawl, and started to take the
+Trippertrots home, but on the way there something else happened.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHTEEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE NICE BIG DOG
+
+
+Bridget led Tommy and Mary and Johnny Trippertrot down the steps of the
+house and started off up the street with them.
+
+“Are you sure, if you please, that you know where we live, Bridget?”
+asked Mary.
+
+“Ah, sure I do!” exclaimed Bridget, with a laugh. “I know Suzette, your
+mamma’s nursemaid, and if I know what house _she_ lives in, sure I can
+take you to that _same_ house, can’t I?”
+
+“Oh, I’m sure you can!” exclaimed Mary, “and if we had any of our candy
+left we’d give you some; wouldn’t we, boys?”
+
+“Yes, indeed!” exclaimed Tommy and Johnny together, like twins, you
+know.
+
+“Oh, bless your dear little hearts!” exclaimed Bridget. “I don’t want
+any candy. But come along now, and you’ll soon be home.”
+
+So she led them up one street, and down another, and pretty soon they
+came to a window of a store that was filled with pretty toys. Oh, there
+were trains of cars, and toy soldiers, and dolls, and doll carriages,
+and steam engines, and elephants that waggled their heads, and all
+things like that.
+
+“Oh, don’t you remember this place?” cried Mary to her brothers.
+
+[Illustration: THE TRAIN KEPT GOING ON AND ON]
+
+“Yes,” said Johnny, “this is the toy shop where we came the first time
+we were lost, and we choosed things from the window.”
+
+“That’s what it is,” agreed Tommy.
+
+“Have you children been lost before?” asked Bridget.
+
+“Oh, we’re always getting lost!” exclaimed Mary. “Aren’t we, boys?”
+
+“Of course,” answered Tommy and Johnny together, once more like twins,
+you know.
+
+“But it isn’t our fault,” said Mary. “It’s just like to-day; something
+always leads us off, like a lame birdie or a pink cow, or the dancing
+bears.”
+
+“Bless and save us!” cried Bridget. “What funny children you are, to be
+sure! But come along, and we’ll soon be home.”
+
+Well, she was hurrying them along as fast as she could, for it was
+getting on toward evening, you know, when all at once Johnny fell down
+and he bumped his nose on the sidewalk.
+
+“Oh, my!” he exclaimed.
+
+“There now, don’t cry!” said Mary.
+
+“I’m not going to!” said Johnny bravely. “But--but I want to very much,
+and it hurts awful, that’s what it does,” and he couldn’t help two
+tears coming into his eyes, but he didn’t let them fall down on the
+sidewalk; no, indeed. Oh, I tell you he was a brave little boy!
+
+“Never mind,” said Bridget, “I’ll rub my gold ring on the sore spot,
+and maybe that will make it better.”
+
+So she rubbed her cold gold ring on Johnny’s sore nose, and it was soon
+better--I mean his nose was better, not the ring, you know.
+
+Well, all of a sudden, as Bridget was leading the children along the
+street, and they were thinking they would soon be at home, Bridget
+cried out:
+
+“Oh, dear! I quite forgot that I left the meat cooking on the stove for
+the doctor’s supper! It will be all burned up! I must hurry back to the
+house. Oh, dear! Poor man, he can’t eat burned meat! I must go back at
+once.”
+
+“Are you going to take us back with you?” asked Mary, and she didn’t
+feel like going, as her feet were very tired, and she wanted to get
+home.
+
+“Take you back with me?” cried Bridget. “No, I don’t believe I’ll do
+that, or you’ll never get home. See, darlings, it’s but a short step
+now to your house. Just down this street a little way, and then you
+turn the corner, and there you are. Don’t you think you can find it by
+yourselves? The little boy who didn’t cry when he bumped his nose ought
+to be able to find it.”
+
+“I--I guess I can,” said Johnny.
+
+“We’ll try, anyhow,” spoke Tommy.
+
+“Well, if we get lost again we can’t help it,” said Mary.
+
+“Oh, you won’t get lost,” declared Bridget, and then, giving them each
+a kiss, she hurried back to the doctor’s house so that the supper meat
+wouldn’t burn.
+
+Well, the children stood still in the street for a minute, and then
+they started in the direction Bridget had shown them. They thought
+surely, this time, they could find their house. They were beginning to
+be hungry.
+
+“Come on, let’s hurry,” said Mary, so she took hold of Johnny’s hand on
+one side, and Tommy’s hand on the other, and away they went.
+
+They hadn’t gone very far before, all at once, and when they hadn’t
+yet had time to turn the corner, a nice, big, black and white dog came
+running toward them.
+
+“Oh, look, there’s Fido, our dog!” cried Tommy.
+
+“No, Fido isn’t as big as that,” said Johnny quickly. “That is another
+dog.”
+
+“But he’s as nice as our Fido,” said Mary, and the boys were sure this
+was so.
+
+“And oh, look!” exclaimed Tommy, when the big black and white dog came
+closer to them, “this dog must have run away, for there’s a broken
+string fast to his collar. Maybe he broke it, and pulled away from the
+little house in the yard where he lives.”
+
+“Maybe he did,” agreed Mary. “Doggie, did you run away, and are you
+lost?” she asked him.
+
+The doggie wagged his tail up and down.
+
+“Look! Look!” cried Tommy. “He’s saying ‘yes.’ He must be lost, the
+same as we were.”
+
+“Do you want us to take you home?” asked Johnny, and once more the
+nice, big dog wagged his tail up and down, just as if he was saying
+“yes,” that he did.
+
+“Then we’ll take you home,” said Johnny kindly. “Wait a minute, doggie,
+until I get hold of that string around your neck.”
+
+So the dog waited, and Johnny took hold of the cord, and so did Tommy;
+and then Mary said:
+
+“Oh, boys, I am _so_ tired I don’t believe I can walk another step to
+take that lost doggie home. Besides, you don’t know where he lives, and
+it may take a long time.”
+
+“Doggies always know their own selves where they live,” said Tommy;
+“don’t you, doggie?”
+
+And once more the doggie said “yes” with his tail, that he waggled up
+and down.
+
+“Very well, then,” said Mary. “I’ll wait here until you come back,
+after you take the doggie home.”
+
+“Oh, I know something better than that!” cried Tommy.
+
+“What?” asked Mary, looking about for a place where she could sit down.
+
+“Why, you can ride on the doggie’s back,” exclaimed Tommy. “He is big
+and strong, and he won’t mind carrying you the least bit; will you,
+doggie? You’ll carry Mary on your back, won’t you?”
+
+“Bow-wow!” barked the doggie, which means “yes,” of course, and besides
+that he waggled his tail again.
+
+So Mary’s two brothers lifted her up on the doggie’s back, and he stood
+still, just like a pony-horse. Then Tommy and Johnny took hold of the
+string on the dog’s collar and they called:
+
+“Go ahead now, doggie. Go where you live.”
+
+Then the dog looked around, to make sure that Mary was safely on his
+back, and off he trotted. He went so fast that he nearly pulled Tommy
+and Johnny off their feet.
+
+“Oh, wait! Please wait!” cried Tommy.
+
+“Yes, don’t go so fast!” begged Johnny.
+
+“For you’re jouncing me all to pieces,” said Mary, who was holding on
+as tightly as she could by winding her fingers in the dog’s shaggy hair
+on his back.
+
+Then the dog said: “Bow-wow! bow-wow!” which meant that he was sorry,
+and he went slower.
+
+Along the street went the three little Trippertrots, and the nice big
+dog, and Tommy and Johnny and Mary were watching all the while for the
+place where the dog lived.
+
+But that dog kept straight on, and didn’t seem to want to turn in
+anywhere.
+
+“Oh!” exclaimed Mary, “s’posin’ he hasn’t any home!”
+
+“He’s _got_ to have a home,” said Tommy. “All dogs have homes, and
+we’ll come to this one’s pretty soon.”
+
+[Illustration: _He Stood Still, Just Like a Pony-Horse._]
+
+“But we’re going right away from our home,” said Mary, “and maybe we
+can’t ever find it. I’m afraid we’ll be lost again.”
+
+“Oh, I guess not,” spoke Johnny. “Is your home near here?” he asked, in
+the doggie’s ear.
+
+“Bow-wow! Bow-wow!” barked the doggie.
+
+“Now what do you s’pose he means?” asked Mary.
+
+“I don’t know,” said Tommy.
+
+“Neither do I,” spoke Johnny, “but we’ll keep right on, and we’ll get
+there some time.”
+
+Pretty soon they met a nice man, and he said to the children:
+
+“Well, where is that big dog taking you?”
+
+“If you please, he isn’t taking _us_ anywhere,” said Mary. “We’re
+taking _him_ home. He’s lost.”
+
+“Oh, I see,” said the man, with a laugh. “Well, be sure you don’t get
+lost yourselves.”
+
+Then Mary and Tommy and Johnny went on a little farther with the dog,
+until all at once, when they got in front of a nice, big, brown-stone
+house, they heard a little boy cry out:
+
+“Oh, papa, there’s Nero come back! Some children are bringing him back!
+Oh, how glad I am! I thought he was lost.”
+
+“Is this your dog?” asked Tommy, when the little boy and a man came
+down the steps.
+
+“Yes,” said the man, “that is my little boy’s dog.”
+
+“And his name is Nero, and he was lost,” spoke the boy.
+
+“Where did you find him?” asked the boy’s papa, while Nero danced
+around and barked as loudly as he could, because he was so happy to be
+home again.
+
+“He was lost, and we found him,” answered Mary, who had slid down off
+Nero’s back, “but now _we_ are lost.”
+
+“Never mind,” said the man, “since you were so kind as to bring my
+little boy’s dog home, I will send _you_ home in my carriage. James,”
+he called to the coachman, “hitch up the horses, and take these
+children home. And, Nero, you must never run away again.”
+
+So Nero barked, which, I suppose, was his way of saying that he never
+would, and then he went in the house with the little boy. And pretty
+soon the horses were hitched to the carriage.
+
+“Oh, goody! We’re going to have a ride home!” exclaimed Mary.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER NINETEEN
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE POOR LITTLE BOY
+
+
+“Oh, this is the best fun yet!” exclaimed Tommy. “I’m real glad we got
+lost this time.” He could see the nice coach and horses now.
+
+“So am I,” said Johnny.
+
+“And to think of going home in a real coach, with a real coachman!”
+exclaimed Mary. “It will be real stylish!”
+
+“Yes, and they are real horses, too!” exclaimed Tommy, as the coachman
+came along the driveway, driving the prancing animals.
+
+“Of course!” cried Johnny. “If they weren’t real horses we’d never get
+home.”
+
+“Oh, well,” said Mary, “I guess Tommy meant they might be
+rocking-horses, or sawhorses, or clothes-horses, such as we once rode
+on. But I’m glad they are real horses. Oh, here we are, all ready for a
+ride.”
+
+And with that the coachman drove up to the steps and stopped the
+carriage.
+
+“Jump in, children!” he called to them, “and I’ll soon have you home.
+Whoa, there, horsies! Don’t jump so and prance about, or you might step
+on somebody’s toes.”
+
+Then the horses stood very quiet, and Tommy and Mary and Johnny got
+into the nice carriage. Oh, it was a fine one! with such soft cushions
+on the seats, and little windows, out of which the children could look,
+and see what was happening in the streets.
+
+And oh, so many things were happening! There were trolley cars rushing
+here and there, some one way and some another way, and there were
+wagons being driven here, and there, and some were from the grocery
+store, and some from the butcher store. And then there were such lots
+of automobiles, with their horns going “Toot! Toot!”
+
+“I believe there must be forty-’leven autos at the very least,” said
+Tommy.
+
+“I’m glad we’re not walking home,” said Mary, “because an automobile
+might accidentally bump into us.”
+
+“Yes, it’s nice here,” said Tommy, and just then a man with a peanut
+wagon ran it across the street, right under the noses of the coachman’s
+horses.
+
+“Hey, there! Where are you going?” cried the coachman to the peanut
+man, and the coachman had to pull up the horses very quickly, or the
+peanut man might have been run over. Mind, I’m not saying for sure, but
+he _might_ have been, you know, though I hope none of us would want a
+thing like that to happen. “Where are you going?” called the coachman
+again.
+
+“I am going across the street, so as to get on the other side,” said
+the peanut man. “None of the people over there would buy any of my hot
+peanuts, so I want to go over on the other side.”
+
+“Quite right,” said the coachman kindly. “I don’t blame you a bit.”
+
+“Oh, isn’t it too bad that nobody would buy his peanuts, poor man!”
+said Mary. “I would buy some, if I had the money.”
+
+“So would I!” exclaimed Tommy.
+
+“And so would I,” added Johnny.
+
+“Would you now, bless your hearts?” said the hot peanut man. “Then it
+is I who will be wishing you _did_ have the money.”
+
+“Oh, well, maybe if they haven’t I have,” said the coachman, and,
+with that, what did he do? He put his one hand in his pocket, while
+holding on to the horses’ reins with the other, and out he pulled three
+five-cent pieces. “Here,” said the coachman kindly, “give the children
+each a bag of hot peanuts.”
+
+“That I will!” exclaimed the peanut man, “and here’s a bag for
+yourself, Mr. Coachman, for being so kind as not to run over me while I
+was crossing the street.”
+
+“Oh, pray don’t mention such a little thing as that,” said the
+coachman, with a smile, as he took the fourth bag. Then the peanut man
+hurried on across the street, and the coachman drove the Trippertrot
+children on a little farther.
+
+Pretty soon, after a while the coachman turned around, and, looking
+into the back part of the big carriage, where the children were, he
+asked them:
+
+“And now, my little dears, where would you like me to be driving? I
+mean where is your home? for I want to get the horses back in the
+stable pretty soon. Where do you live?”
+
+“Why, don’t you know?” asked Mary in wonder.
+
+“Not a bit of it,” answered the coachman, and he was so surprised that
+he stopped eating peanuts.
+
+“He--doesn’t--know--where--we--live!” cried Tommy and Johnny together,
+and they, too, were so surprised that they stopped eating peanuts. And
+then Mary stopped, too.
+
+“How should I know where you live?” asked the coachman. “The master
+just told me to take you home, and I thought you knew where it was.”
+
+“But we don’t,” said Mary gently. “You see, we are the Trippertrots,
+and we are always tripping and trotting off somewhere, and getting
+lost. That’s what we did this time. But I should have thought the man,
+whose boy owns the big dog we found, would have told you where to take
+us.”
+
+“Well, he didn’t,” said the coachman. “But I’ll tell you what I’ll do.”
+
+“What is it?” asked Tommy and Johnny and Mary, all at once.
+
+“I’ll drive all around, up one street and down the other, and maybe you
+will see your house,” said the coachman. “Please keep a sharp lookout.”
+
+“Oh, that’s just the way the banana man did, the time we rode in the
+hay on his cart,” said Johnny.
+
+“Yes, we got home then all right,” said Mary, “and I think we will this
+time. Go on, Mr. Coachman, if you please, and we will tell you when we
+come to our house, so you can stop and let us out.”
+
+“Bless their dear little innocent hearts!” exclaimed the coachman--and
+he spoke to the horses to make them go faster--“I never saw such
+children in all the days of my life. Not to know where they live! Ah,
+well, sure the little fairies will watch over ’em, and me, too, I hope,
+and I’ll get them safely home if I can.”
+
+So he drove on and on, through street after street, but he couldn’t
+seem to find the Trippertrot house, and, though the children looked out
+of the carriage windows, and ate their peanuts, they couldn’t see their
+house, either.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, as Mary was looking at the nice horses, and
+wondering if they would ever get home again--all at once, I say--she
+saw a poor little ragged boy standing on the street corner, and he was
+crying.
+
+“Oh, Tommy and Johnny! Look there!” exclaimed Mary. “That little boy is
+crying. Something must be the matter.”
+
+“I guess there is,” said Johnny. “We ought to help him.”
+
+“We will!” exclaimed Tommy. “Oh, Mr. Coachman, stop, if you please!” he
+called out of the front window of the carriage.
+
+“Why, what is the matter?” asked the coachman. “Have you found your
+house?”
+
+“Not yet,” answered Mary, “but we have found a poor little boy, and we
+want to see what is the matter with him.”
+
+So the coachman stopped the horses, and out jumped Tommy. He went right
+up to the poor little crying boy, and asked:
+
+“What is the matter? Are you hurt?”
+
+“No, I am lost,” said the poor little boy, and he cried harder than
+ever.
+
+“My! My!” exclaimed Tommy, in his jolly little voice. “That is nothing.
+We are lost, too, and we don’t mind it a bit. We are always getting
+lost. But the coachman is taking us home, and I know he’ll take you
+home also. Get in the carriage.”
+
+So the poor little ragged boy started to get into the carriage. The
+coachman saw him and cried out:
+
+“I say now, where are you going?”
+
+“He is coming with us,” answered Mary. “He is lost; and will you please
+take him home, too?”
+
+“Oh! Oh!” cried the coachman. “This is the worst I ever heard! Here are
+you children who don’t know where your own home is and you’re trying to
+find a home for another lost boy. Oh, dear! This is terrible! Terrible!”
+
+“But I _do_ know where my home is,” said the poor little boy, “only it
+got away from me somehow or other. I know what street it’s on.”
+
+“Do you, indeed?” cried the coachman. “Then that’s more than the
+Trippertrots know. Whisper now, and tell me where is your home, and
+I’ll take you to it as fast as the horses can trot. And then, maybe,
+we’ll have good luck, and find out where these children live.”
+
+So the little boy, who had stopped crying now, told the name of his
+street and the number of his house. I forget where it was, but that
+doesn’t matter.
+
+“Oh, joy! Now I know where I’m going,” said the coachman, and the
+horses started up. Inside the coach the three Trippertrots were eating
+peanuts, and, of course, they gave the little boy some, and he liked
+them very much.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, the little boy cried:
+
+“Oh, there’s my house!”
+
+“Are you sure?” asked the coachman. But the little boy didn’t have to
+answer, for just then out ran a lady.
+
+“Oh, Teddy!” she cried, when she saw the poor little boy. “I thought I
+would never see you again! Where have you been?” and she took him in
+her arms.
+
+“I’ve been lost, mamma,” he said, “and these nice children brought me
+home.”
+
+“And where do you live?” asked the lady.
+
+“That’s the trouble,” said Mary sadly. “Everyone seems to have a home
+but us.”
+
+And now I’m coming to the strange part of this adventure. Just as Mary
+said that, along the street came a man with a long, white beard, and as
+soon as Johnny saw him he cried out:
+
+“Oh, there is the nice old fisherman! You’ll take us home, won’t you?”
+
+“Yes, please do,” said Tommy.
+
+“We wish it so very much,” added Mary. “Won’t you, please?”
+
+“To be sure I will,” said the old fisherman, and there he stood, the
+same one who had fished up the rubber boots and the raincoat and the
+umbrella, and who had taken the children to the house of the false-face
+man. “I’ll take you home,” he said. So he got into the carriage with
+the Trippertrots, and away they went.
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURE NUMBER TWENTY
+
+THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE GIRL
+
+
+“And where have you been since I saw you last?” asked the fisherman of
+Mary, as she and her brothers sat on the coach cushions eating peanuts.
+
+“Oh, we have been getting lost nearly every day,” she replied. “Haven’t
+we, boys?”
+
+“Yes, indeed,” answered Tommy and Johnny together. “This time it was a
+nice big dog that made us get lost,” added Tommy.
+
+“And on other times it was a pink cow, or the dancing bears,” added
+Johnny.
+
+“My! You children certainly have strange adventures,” said the old
+fisherman, with a jolly laugh. “But I think they will soon be over
+to-day, as we will be home in a little while.”
+
+“Tell me,” said the coachman, as he turned around to speak to the old
+fisherman, “do you know where these children live? For they don’t
+themselves, and I never saw nor heard of such a thing in all the born
+days of my life. Do you know where they live?”
+
+“Oh, yes,” said the old fisherman.
+
+“Thank goodness for that!” exclaimed the coachman. “Get up, horses, we
+will soon have them home, and then we can go home ourselves, and I’ll
+give you your suppers. Not that I want to be impolite,” the coachman
+said quickly, “but you must see that it is a strange thing to be
+driving around with children who don’t know where they live.”
+
+“It _is_ queer,” admitted Mary, as she ate the last of her peanuts.
+
+“The next time we get lost,” said Tommy, “we’ll tie a string to our
+house and take the cord with us, and when we want to go back, all we’ll
+have to do will be to follow the string.”
+
+“That’s a good idea,” said the old fisherman, and then he told the
+coachman where to drive, so as to get to the Trippertrot house as soon
+as possible.
+
+“Have you caught any more queer fish?” asked Tommy, as they drove
+along, for he could not help thinking of the rubber boots, and the
+umbrella, that the fisherman had pulled up on the hammock-hook out of
+the little lake.
+
+“No, I haven’t been fishing since then,” said the old gentleman. “But
+I have my hammock-hook now, and, if the driver will lend me one of the
+lines, I’ll fish right here, out of the carriage window.”
+
+“Why, you can’t catch anything by fishing out of a carriage window,”
+said Mary politely.
+
+“How do you know?” inquired the old fisherman, with a smile. “Did you
+ever try it?”
+
+“No,” said Mary, “I never have.”
+
+“Then you can’t tell!” exclaimed the fisherman. “Why, I have caught
+fish in the queerest places you ever heard of, and then again, I’ve
+gone fishing in places where I was sure there were fish, and I never
+got a bite--except a mosquito bite. So you never can tell.
+
+“Why, once I was in the market, getting something to eat, and I
+happened to drop my umbrella, that had a crooked handle. And when I
+picked it up, there was a fish fast to it. What do you think of that?”
+
+“Oh, well, yes, of course!” exclaimed Johnny. “There are fish in a
+market, for people want to buy them. I believe _that_ all right.”
+
+“So do I,” said Tommy.
+
+“But listen to this,” said the old fisherman. “Once I was in a lady’s
+house, and I went in the parlor, and there was a glass jar there on the
+table. I put my finger in the jar and a fish bit me. What do you think
+of that?”
+
+“Oh, yes, but,” said Mary, “they were goldfish, in water, in the jar. I
+have often seen goldfish in a parlor.”
+
+“Then,” said the old fisherman, “if there are goldfish in a parlor and
+other fish in the meat market, how can you tell but what there may be
+fish in this carriage? I’m going to try, anyhow, for I haven’t fished
+in some time. Please, Mr. Coachman, lend me a piece of the horse lines.”
+
+So the coachman did this, and the old fisherman fastened the line on
+his hammock-hook, and then he sat on the seat, and let the hook dangle
+on the floor.
+
+Every once in a while the old fisherman would pull up the horse line,
+with the hammock-hook on it, and he would look carefully at it. But
+each time there was nothing on, and the fisherman was much disappointed.
+
+“I’m afraid you will never get any fish in here,” said Mary, after a
+while.
+
+“No, indeed!” exclaimed Tommy. “For we have been riding in here for
+some time, and if there were any fish we would know it.”
+
+“Besides,” added Johnny, “there isn’t any water here, or else our feet
+would be wet, and fish can’t live without water.”
+
+“I believe you’re right!” exclaimed the old fisherman. “I never thought
+of that. I have made a mistake. I should have put my hook out of the
+back window of the carriage. I’ll do it now,” and he did so at once,
+and then he sat very quietly, waiting for a bite, while the coachman
+drove on to the Trippertrot house.
+
+All at once the old fisherman cried out:
+
+“I have a bite! I have a bite!”
+
+“Is it a mosquito bite?” asked Mary quickly. “Because if it is you must
+put witch hazel on it.”
+
+“No, it is a fish bite,” said the old gentleman.
+
+“On your finger?” asked Tommy.
+
+“No, on the hammock-hook,” said the old gentleman, and then he pulled
+in the horse-fish-line, and there, on the hammock-hook, was a tall silk
+hat, such as doctors sometimes wear.
+
+“Oh, what a funny catch!” exclaimed Mary.
+
+“Isn’t it, though!” agreed the fisherman. “I don’t know when I ever
+caught a silk hat before.”
+
+He was just taking the hat off the hook, and looking at it to see if
+there were any holes in it, when all at once the coach stopped and the
+coachman said:
+
+“If you please, sir, there is trouble out here.”
+
+“What sort of trouble?” asked the old fisherman.
+
+“Why, there is a gentleman here, sir, without any hat, and he says,
+sir, that it’s in my coach.”
+
+“I shouldn’t wonder but what he was right,” spoke the queer fisherman.
+“I think _I_ have his hat.”
+
+“Ha! What do you mean by taking off my hat?” asked a voice, and there,
+at the coach window, stood a little man, with a very red face. “Where
+is my hat?” he cried.
+
+“Here it is,” answered the fisherman. “I beg your pardon. You see when
+I fish I never can tell what I am going to catch. I hope I haven’t
+bothered you.”
+
+“Well, if I don’t catch cold I won’t mind,” said the little man with
+the red face. And he took the hat from the fisherman, put it on his
+head, and hurried off.
+
+Then the coachman drove his horses on some more, and the queer old
+fisherman dangled his hammock-hook out of the back carriage window
+again.
+
+“I wonder what we shall catch this time?” he said to the children, with
+a jolly laugh.
+
+“Oh, maybe you’ll catch a chocolate cake,” said Tommy.
+
+“Or an orange pudding,” added Mary.
+
+“Or a dish of ice cream,” said Johnny.
+
+“Well, it might happen,” spoke the fisherman. “Hello! I have something,
+anyhow,” he cried, as he pulled in the hook and line.
+
+And what do you suppose was dangling on the end of it?
+
+Why, a lady’s bonnet, of course! Yes, a real lady’s bonnet, all covered
+with flowers, and lace, and ribbons, and things like that. I mean the
+bonnet was covered with those things--not the lady, you understand.
+
+“Why--why!” exclaimed the fisherman, with a pleased laugh. “I don’t
+know when I have caught a lady’s bonnet before. I am having very good
+luck to-day.”
+
+Then, just as he was taking the bonnet off the hook, the coachman
+stopped the horses and said:
+
+“If you please, sir, there is more trouble out here!”
+
+“What sort of trouble?” asked the fisherman.
+
+“Why, there is a lady here, sir, that says you have her new bonnet.”
+
+“I shouldn’t wonder,” spoke the fisherman. “This must be it. It got
+caught on my hook by mistake.”
+
+“Oh, I hope it’s not torn!” cried the lady, as she looked in at the
+coach window.
+
+“Not in the least,” said the fisherman politely, as he gave the bonnet
+to her.
+
+And on they went again.
+
+“I must be careful what I catch next time,” said the fisherman, as he
+once more put the hammock-hook out of the back window of the coach. In
+a minute he pulled it in again, and this time there was a loaf of bread
+on it, all wrapped up in paper, and tied with a pink string. And no
+sooner had the bread been pulled in, than there was a crying sound out
+in the street, and a voice said:
+
+“Oh, my bread! Some one has taken my loaf of bread, and I haven’t any
+money to buy any more! Oh, dear!”
+
+“Bless me!” cried the old fisherman. “I wouldn’t have taken any one’s
+loaf of bread for the world.”
+
+Then he looked out of the coach window, and he saw a poor little girl
+crying real, salty tears.
+
+“Oh, my! don’t cry,” said the kind fisherman. “Are you lost, too?”
+
+“No, but I was coming home from the store, with a loaf of bread,” said
+the poor little girl, “and all at once I--I didn’t have it.”
+
+“Ah, here it is,” said the old fisherman kindly, and he handed it to
+her out of the coach window. Well, you just should have seen how wide
+open the little girl’s eyes were.
+
+“Are--are you one of the magicians that makes rabbits come out of a
+hat?” the poor little girl asked.
+
+“Oh, yes. I can do those tricks sometimes,” said the old fisherman. “I
+just caught your bread by mistake.”
+
+“Oh, will you do some tricks?” cried Mary and Johnny and Tommy, all
+together.
+
+“Not now, some other day,” said the old fisherman. “Get up in the
+carriage, little girl, and we will take you home.”
+
+So the poor little girl got up in the carriage, and as she knew where
+her home was, the coachman soon drove her there, and the old fisherman
+gave her ten cents.
+
+“And now for the Trippertrot house!” cried the old fisherman, as they
+started off again. “We’ll soon be there.”
+
+“And very glad I’ll be of it!” said the coachman, “for such queer
+goings on I never saw before in all the born days of my life. Fishing
+out of a coach! The idea!”
+
+All of a sudden, as the children and the old fisherman were riding
+along, a policeman, who was on a horse, galloped up to the coach, and
+holding up his hand to stop it, cried out:
+
+“Is the old fisherman in there?”
+
+“Of course I am,” replied the fisherman. “What is the matter?”
+
+“You are wanted at once,” spoke the policeman. “Down at the bird and
+animal store. The big glass globe, where the goldfish swim, was upset
+by a puppy dog wagging his tail, and the fish are all flopping over the
+floor. The man who owns them wants you to come and help him catch them.”
+
+“Of course, I’ll go at once,” said the kind old fisherman. “It will be
+fun for the children to watch me catch the fish.”
+
+“No, the Trippertrot children must stay here,” said the policeman. “I
+forgot to tell you that a snake also got loose when the fish fell out
+of the globe, and we wouldn’t want the children to be bitten by the
+snake.”
+
+“No, indeed, we don’t want to be, either,” spoke Mary. “But what is to
+become of us? Who will take care of us? How will we ever get home?”
+
+“Oh, I will look after you,” said the policeman. “Here, I will wrap you
+up in my nice coat,” he went on, taking off the coat that he wore.
+
+“But where will we stay?” asked Tommy.
+
+“Yes, we must stay somewhere, until the coach and the old fisherman
+come back for us,” went on Johnny.
+
+“Ha! I have it! The very thing!” cried the policeman, as he saw a man
+going past carrying a big rocking-chair on his head. “Let me take that
+chair for the Trippertrot children to sit in until this coach comes
+back,” the policeman said to the man, and the man did it at once.
+
+So the policeman wrapped the three children in his coat, and set them
+in the big rocking-chair, close to a street lamp-post, so the coachman
+could easily find them again when he came back.
+
+“I’ll just write your names and addresses on a card, and tie it to the
+chair,” said the policeman. “Then there will be no trouble about you
+getting home again.” So he did that, for he knew where the Trippertrots
+lived, though he didn’t have time to take them home himself.
+
+Then the policeman rode away on his horse, and the fisherman drove off
+in the coach to catch the goldfish, and the children were left sitting
+in the rocking-chair on the street, beside the lamp-post.
+
+And they didn’t mind it a bit, not even when it began to rain all of a
+sudden, for they were very snug in the coat.
+
+Well, it rained and it rained, and pretty soon the children were so
+nice and cozy and warm that they went to sleep. And then, who should
+come along but an expressman, driving his wagon, and the wagon was
+painted red.
+
+“Whoa!” called the expressman to his horse, as he saw the rocking-chair
+by the lamp-post. “I must see what this is. Maybe it dropped off some
+one’s wagon.”
+
+So he went up to the rocking-chair, and my goodness me sakes alive and
+a spoonful of mustard! Wasn’t he surprised when he opened the big
+coat, and saw Mary and Tommy and Johnny sleeping inside it.
+
+“Why, this is very strange!” said the expressman. “I wonder who could
+have left three little children out in the rain like this?” Then he
+looked at his wagon to see if he would have room for them inside it.
+And he thought he had.
+
+“My! My! My sakes alive and some Thanksgiving turkey!” cried the
+expressman. “I never heard of such a thing in all my born days and
+nights! I am certainly surprised!”
+
+“Heard of what? What is the matter?” cried Tommy, who suddenly
+awakened, and looked up at the expressman. “What is it that you are
+surprised at? Is it a surprise party?”
+
+“No, indeed,” replied the expressman. “But I am surprised that any one
+would leave you here in the storm like this.”
+
+“The policeman did,” explained Mary, “but he wrapped us up in his big
+coat. We were with the old fisherman, but he had to go away to catch
+the goldfish that spilled all over the floor. I guess he is coming back
+for us.”
+
+“But if he doesn’t, what are we to do?” asked Johnny. “I wish some one
+could take us home now.”
+
+“Perhaps this nice expressman can take us home,” suggested Tommy, for
+he could see the expressman’s wagon standing there.
+
+“Of course, I could take you home, if I knew where you lived,” said the
+expressman.
+
+“It’s written on a tag tied to the chair,” said Mary, in her most
+polite voice.
+
+“What is?” asked the expressman. “What is written there?”
+
+“The address where we live,” went on the little Trippertrot girl. “Do
+you think you can find our house?”
+
+“Of course I can,” answered the expressman. “I’ll soon have you home.
+You’ll be all right now, and I’ll pull the canvas sides down on my
+wagon, and you’ll be as nice and snug as you can be, even though it
+rains all the while, for my express wagon has a top on it. And later on
+I’ll tell the policeman and the fisherman that I took you away. Then
+they won’t worry.”
+
+So he picked up the chair and the children, both at the same time,
+still wrapped in the coat as they were, and the expressman put them,
+chair and all, into his big wagon. Then, having looked at the address
+on the tag, which told on which street the Trippertrot family lived,
+and the number of the house, the expressman whistled a funny, jolly
+little tune to his horse, and away he galloped through the storm, up
+one street and down another.
+
+And, oh! how nice, and warm, and cozy it was for the Trippertrot
+children in the express wagon. The canvas sides kept out the wind and
+the rain, and none of the drops could get in the top, for there was
+a roof over the wagon. It was so warm in there (for there was a nice
+lantern all lighted and burning, as it was getting dark)--it was so
+warm, I say--that the children didn’t need the coat around them any
+more.
+
+“Let’s get out of the chair, and see the different things that are in
+the wagon,” suggested Mary, after a while.
+
+“Oh, yes, let’s,” agreed Johnny. “We have never ridden in an express
+wagon before. This is a new adventure.”
+
+So they laid aside the coat, and crawled out of the big rocking-chair.
+They saw lots of boxes and packages in the wagon, and they wondered
+what they contained, but they were too polite to ask. In fact, the
+expressman was too busy to answer them, for the storm was quite bad
+now, and he had all he could do to drive his horse through it. But it
+was fun for the children in the wagon, as they were warm, and they
+could see very well by the light of the lantern.
+
+All of a sudden, in one corner of the wagon they heard a noise that
+sounded like:
+
+“Cut! Cut! Cut-ka-dah-cut!”
+
+“What’s that?” cried Johnny.
+
+“That’s a chicken,” answered Tommy.
+
+“What, in this wagon?” asked Mary.
+
+“It sounded so,” went on Tommy. “Let’s look around and find it.”
+
+So the children began looking in and around the different boxes and
+packages, until, all of a sudden, Mary saw a little box, with slats
+nailed across the front, like a small chicken-coop, and inside was a
+dear, little red hen.
+
+“Cut! Cut! Cut-ka-dah-cut!” called the red hen.
+
+“Oh, you little dear!” exclaimed Mary. “I wish I had you for my own.”
+
+“Maybe it is coming to our house for a present to us,” suggested Tommy.
+
+“See if there’s a tag on it, like on our rocking-chair, to tell where
+the expressman is to leave it,” said Johnny.
+
+“No, there isn’t any,” said Mary, after she had looked.
+
+“Cut! Cut! Cut-ka-dah-cut!” cried the red hen again, just as if she was
+trying to tell where she belonged.
+
+“Has she laid any eggs?” asked Tommy.
+
+“I don’t see any,” spoke Mary, as she looked inside the little
+chicken-coop. “But maybe she will, if we wait a little longer.”
+
+So the three Trippertrot children sat down on the floor of the express
+wagon, and watched the little red hen, as she scratched around in the
+coop, but she didn’t seem to be laying any eggs. And all this while the
+expressman was driving through the rain toward the place where Tommy
+and Mary and Johnny lived.
+
+And then, all of a sudden, there was a noise in another corner of the
+wagon, and when the children looked there they saw a dear, little white
+bunny-rabbit in a cage.
+
+“Oh, if we could only have that!” exclaimed Tommy, in delight.
+
+“Has it got a tag on it, to say that it is coming to our house?” asked
+Johnny eagerly.
+
+“No,” replied his sister Mary. “It’s just like the coop of the little
+red hen--no tag on it.”
+
+And then there was a queer little chattering sort of a noise in another
+corner of the express wagon, and when the children ran over there, they
+saw a squirrel, with a big, bushy tail, in a wire cage, and there was
+no tag on his cage to tell where he belonged.
+
+“Oh, maybe the expressman will let us keep the three pets!” cried Mary.
+“It would be lovely if he would.”
+
+And just then the express wagon stopped.
+
+“Here you are, children!” cried the man, in a jolly voice.
+
+“Where are we?” asked Tommy and Mary and Johnny all together, like
+twins.
+
+“Right in front of your own house!” said the expressman. “I have
+brought you home, and the big coat, and the rocking-chair, also. Here
+we go!”
+
+And with that he picked up Tommy and Johnny and Mary, and the chair,
+and the coat, and carried them into the house. And maybe Mr. and Mrs.
+Trippertrot and Suzette, the nursemaid, weren’t surprised to see their
+children back after such a long time away.
+
+“Oh, you runaway darlings!” cried their mamma. “Where have you been?”
+
+“Almost everywhere,” answered Mary. “But, mamma, dear, one minute,
+please. I want to ask the expressman if we can have the little red hen,
+and the rabbit, and the squirrel we found in his wagon, because they
+have no tags on the cages to show who owns them, and we might have
+them.”
+
+“Have them? Of course you may!” cried the expressman. “I’ll bring them
+right in. You see, the tags were torn off the boxes, and I don’t know
+what to do with them, and I’ll be glad to have some nice children feed
+the animals.”
+
+So he brought into the Trippertrot house the squirrel and the rabbit
+and the little red hen, and gave them to the children, who had lots of
+fun with them for many days after that.
+
+And then Papa Trippertrot thanked the expressman, and all of a sudden,
+who should come along but the old fisherman. He got to the house just
+as the expressman was driving away.
+
+“Oh, such a time as I had catching those goldfish!” the fisherman
+exclaimed. “They flopped all over the floor, and the monkey in the bird
+store nearly caught one, and the parrot almost had another. But, thank
+goodness, I got them all safe in the fish-globe again, and then I went
+to take care of you children, but I found you had gone away. So I came
+on here.”
+
+“How did you know we were here?” asked Mary.
+
+“I met Jiggily Jig, the funny boy, and he told me,” said the fisherman.
+“He came along just as the expressman was taking you home, and so I
+knew just what to do. I sent the coachman and coach back, and I came
+here by walking. Oh, but such a time as I’ve had! And how glad I am
+that you children are safe home!”
+
+And Mary and Tommy and Johnny were also very glad to get home, and
+their papa and mamma were very glad to see them, and they invited
+the old fisherman to stay to supper. And he said he would, and the
+Trippertrots thought they would never trip or trot away from home again.
+
+But, of course, that isn’t saying that they did not go away. In fact,
+they did, and they had many more wonderful adventures, and I will tell
+you about them in the next book of this series, which will be called,
+“Three Little Trippertrots on Their Travels.”
+
+So Mary and Tommy and Johnny, and their papa and mamma, sat talking
+to the old fisherman, who told them many strange stories of the funny
+things he had caught.
+
+“Oh, but it is nice to be home again,” said Mary.
+
+“Indeed it is,” agreed Tommy and Johnny.
+
+“And we are happy to have you home,” said their mamma and papa. And
+now, for a little while, we will say good-by to the Three Little
+Trippertrots.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
+
+
+  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
+
+  Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
+
+  Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
+
+  New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
+    public domain.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75474 ***