Three little Trippertrots
Date: 2025-02-27T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy fiction; Humorous stories; Children's stories; Siblings -- Juvenile fiction; Imagination -- Juvenile fiction

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Three little Trippertrots

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Title: Three little Trippertrots

How they ran away and how they got back again

Author: Howard Roger Garis

Illustrator: Griselda Marshall McClure

Release date: February 27, 2025 [eBook #75474]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: Graham & Matlack, 1912

Credits: Aaron Adrignola, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS ***

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.”

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.

“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.”

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

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.”

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

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Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

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Table of Contents

- Three Little Trippertrots
- PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
- CONTENTS

- ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE THE TRIPPERTROTS ARE LOST

- ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE KIND POLICEMAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HAND-ORGAN MAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY HORSES

- ADVENTURE NUMBER FIVE THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE OLD FISHERMAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER SIX THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FALSE-FACE MAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD LADY

- ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHT THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD MAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER NINE THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FIREMAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER TEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY BOY

- ADVENTURE NUMBER ELEVEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PIEMAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER TWELVE THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE BANANA MAN

- ADVENTURE NUMBER THIRTEEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE DANCING BEARS

- ADVENTURE NUMBER FOURTEEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PINK COW

- ADVENTURE NUMBER FIFTEEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TRAIN OF CARS

- ADVENTURE NUMBER SIXTEEN THE TRIPPERTROTS IN A TROLLEY CAR

- ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVENTEEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LAME BIRD

- ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHTEEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE NICE BIG DOG

- ADVENTURE NUMBER NINETEEN THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE POOR LITTLE BOY

- ADVENTURE NUMBER TWENTY THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE GIRL

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE