[Illustration: THE HAT BLEW UP A TREE]
Three Little Trippertrots
On Their Travels
THE WONDERFUL THINGS THEY SAW
AND
THE WONDERFUL THINGS THEY DID
BY
HOWARD R. GARIS
AUTHOR OF “THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS,” “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 on Their Travels_
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 AND THE LITTLE FAIRY 7
II. THE TRIPPERTROTS GO SAILING 18
III. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TOY BALLOONS 29
IV. THE TRIPPERTROTS’ THANKSGIVING 36
V. THE TRIPPERTROTS IN A GROCERY WAGON 42
VI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE POOR FAMILY 51
VII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE GROCERY BOY 60
VIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE BASKET OF CLOTHES 67
IX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE POSTMAN 76
X. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE MILKMAN 82
XI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE BABY 92
XII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE BABY CARRIAGE 98
XIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE OLD MAN’S HAT 104
XIV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE 110
XV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TOY SHIP 119
XVI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE MUSIC-BOX 128
XVII. THE TRIPPERTROTS’ CHRISTMAS 135
XVIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HUNGRY FAMILY 144
XIX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE ELEPHANT 150
XX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TWO-HUMPED CAMEL 156
Three Little Trippertrots on Their Travels.
ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE FAIRY
They were sitting around the fire after supper--Mary and Tommy and
Johnny Trippertrot, their papa and mamma, and the old fisherman. The
three children had just come home, after having had some wonderful
adventures, and they were rather tired.
“I don’t believe I’m ever going away again,” said Mary, who was older
than her two brothers. “Never again am I going away. Home is too nice.”
And she cuddled close up to her papa and mamma.
“Yes, it is nice,” replied Johnny. “I guess we won’t go away any more.”
“But we had good times, didn’t we?” asked Tommy, as he looked over at
the old fisherman, who was gazing at the fire as if wondering whether
or not he could catch anything in the flames. “We had lots of good
times.”
“Yes, you certainly did have lots of good times,” agreed the old
fisherman.
“There was the time we met Simple Simon, and the pieman, and Jiggily
Jig, the funny boy, who was always turning somersaults,” cried Mary.
“Yes, and there was the time we rode on the funny horses--the
sawhorse, the clothes-horse and the rocking-horse,” went on Tommy. “And
when we met the man with the dancing bears, and the man with the pink
cow, and the little lost girl, who wanted to be a boy, and whose name
was Jack. Remember that?”
“I guess I do,” replied Johnny. “And then there was the time we rode
in the train, and met the little old lady, and when the fireman put
out the blaze in our chimney, and then the false-face man! Oh, he was
jolly!”
“Wasn’t he!” exclaimed Mary. “But I’m glad we have you with us,” she
said to the old fisherman. “You are the only friend who came home with
us to stay.”
“I am glad I did,” returned the old fisherman.
And now I suppose I had better tell you, children, that the
Trippertrots were always running away, and getting lost, though they
didn’t mean to, and they came home again as soon as they could. On
their trips they met many strange people and animals, and I have told
the stories of them in the book before this, called, “Three Little
Trippertrots; How They Ran Away, and How They Got Back Again.” The
people whom the children spoke about, as they sat around the fire,
are all mentioned in that book. The Trippertrots, you know, lived
with their papa and mamma in a house in a big city, and there was a
nursemaid, named Suzette, who was supposed to look after them, although
she didn’t always do it, being so busy.
“It was very good of you to bring the children home,” said Mrs.
Trippertrot to the old fisherman. “Very kind of you, indeed.”
“Oh, it was a pleasure for me,” answered the fisherman, who had met the
children on their last adventure, and who had taken care of them. “We
had a nice ride home in the carriage.”
“And he caught a man’s tall hat by dangling a hammock-hook out of the
carriage window,” explained Mary Trippertrot.
“And a lady’s bonnet,” added Tommy.
“And a little girl’s loaf of bread,” said Johnny.
“But he gave them all back,” exclaimed Mary. “And, oh, Mr. Fisherman,
you promised to do some tricks for us,” she went on. “You really did,
and I think you might do some now, to amuse us. It isn’t quite bedtime.”
“Oh, yes, I’d love to see some funny tricks,” said Tommy. “Can you
make a rabbit come out of a hat, or take papa’s watch, and make a rice
pudding out of it?”
“Yes, please do that trick!” cried Johnny. “Wouldn’t it be funny to
see a rice pudding made from father’s watch? And could you leave the
tick-tick part in the pudding, Mr. Fisherman?”
“Hold on!” exclaimed Mr. Trippertrot, “I am not sure that I want my
watch made into a pudding. I need my watch to tell the time by, so I
can go to work in the morning.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” spoke the old fisherman, with a jolly
laugh. “Even if I should make a pudding of your watch, it would not
hurt it in the least, or stop it from tick-ticking. But I think I will
do some other trick. Mary,” he said, to the little Trippertrot girl,
“please let me take your hair ribbon.”
So Mary handed him her hair ribbon, and her curls fell down all about
her face, making it look very pretty in the light of the fire.
“Now, Johnny, you hold one end of this ribbon,” said the old fisherman,
and Johnny did so.
“And, Tommy, you take hold of the other end,” went on the nice old
fisherman, and there the two Trippertrot brothers stood, each one
having hold of Mary’s hair ribbon by the end.
“What kind of a trick is this going to be?” asked Mrs. Trippertrot.
“Well, I don’t rightly know myself,” said the old fisherman, “for
it never happens twice alike. Sometimes it comes out one way, and
sometimes another.”
“Oh, do you think you will make a rabbit come out of my hair ribbon?”
asked Mary, eagerly.
“I’d rather have an elephant,” said Tommy.
“Oh, an elephant would be too big to get in this house,” said Johnny.
“Besides, he might break through the floor, and fall into the cellar,
and we couldn’t get him out of the coal-bin.”
“That’s so,” said the fisherman. “Then I guess I’d better not make an
elephant. But now we must go on with the trick. Close your eyes, all of
you children, and I’ll say the magical words that will change the hair
ribbon into something wonderful.”
So Mary and Tommy and Johnny closed their eyes, and the old fisherman
waved his hands in the air. Then he recited this little verse. But
please don’t any of you children say it, or I can’t tell what might
happen. This is what the old fisherman said:
“A magic trick will now be done,
For children three, and two and one.
This ribbon must be folded tight,
And put away, far out of sight.
And then you all must patient wait,
Until the clock is striking eight,
Then look behind the parlor chair,
Perchance you’ll find a fairy there.”
“Oh, will we really find a fairy?” asked Mary, when the old fisherman
told Johnny and Tommy that they could open their eyes.
“You might,” said the old fisherman. “I never can tell what is going to
happen when I say that verse. Now the trick is working, so I advise you
all to go to bed.”
“But what about looking behind the parlor chair, when the clock is
striking eight?” asked Mary. “It’s nearly eight now, and mayn’t we stay
up until then, to see the finish of the trick?”
“Oh, I meant eight o’clock to-morrow morning,” said the old fisherman.
“Get up then, and look.”
So the children said good-night to the old fisherman, and they were
just trotting off to bed, when Mary exclaimed:
“Goodness gracious! We forgot to fold the hair ribbon tight. We must do
that, or there won’t be any trick.”
So she and her brothers folded the hair ribbon as tightly as they
could, and placed it far away under the big chair in the parlor, where
it was out of sight, just as the fisherman said must be done. Then the
Trippertrot children were soon fast asleep, and they could hardly wait
until eight o’clock the next morning to come, so they could see how the
trick worked.
“Where is the old fisherman?” cried Mary, as soon as she could run
downstairs when it was daylight again.
“Oh, he had to go away,” said her mamma.
“Then let’s go look, and see if the hair ribbon has changed into a
fairy,” suggested Tommy.
“No; Suzette says it isn’t eight o’clock yet,” objected Johnny. So they
ate their breakfast, and got ready for school, and then they sat down
and watched the clock until the hands should get to the place where it
would be time to look behind the parlor chair, to see what would be
hiding there.
“Now it’s time!” suddenly cried Mary, and she jumped up, and ran into
the parlor, followed by her brothers, just as soon as the clock began
to strike. The three children got there about the same time, but Mary
was the first to look under the chair. No sooner had she done so than
she screamed:
“Oh, my! Oh, dear! Look there!”
“What is it?” cried Johnny. “Has the hair ribbon turned into a doggie?”
“I wish it would turn into a camel with two humps on his back,” said
Tommy. “A camel isn’t too big for the house.”
“Oh, look!” cried Mary again. “The ribbon hasn’t gone away at all! But
look at that little animal sleeping on it!”
She pointed to something soft, and fuzzy, and furry, lying asleep on
the middle of her folded hair ribbon, which was on the floor under the
chair. And then Mary quickly hopped up on another chair.
“Why, it’s nothing but a little mousie!” said Tommy.
“A real, live mousie?” asked Johnny.
“Yes, that’s what it is,” said his brother, and at that Mary screamed,
and tried to jump on another chair, further away.
“What’s the matter?” asked Johnny. “A mouse can’t hurt girls.”
“But this is no trick!” cried Tommy. “That fisherman didn’t change that
hair ribbon into anything, and the mouse just came and slept on it
because he wanted to. I don’t like this.”
“Oh, boys, wait!” suddenly cried Mary. “I see it all now. This mouse is
a fairy. Yes, she really is. The fisherman made her come to sleep on
my hair ribbon. Oh, it’s just like in a story! I’m so glad. Probably
that mouse is a fairy princess in this shape until the magical spell is
broken, and she can turn into her real self again.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Tommy.
“Me either,” spoke Johnny. “It’s just an ordinary mouse, like Suzette
catches in the trap.”
“It is not! It’s a fairy!” insisted Mary. “Aren’t you a fairy, little
mouse?” she asked, and she liked the mousie so that she got down off
the chair, and went close to the small creature.
“Squeak-squeak,” said the little mouse.
“There, it said ‘yes-yes,’” cried Mary.
“Well, I’m glad you understand mouse language,” said Tommy. “I don’t
believe that’s a fairy.”
“Well, it is,” said Mary, “and pretty soon some wonderful things will
begin to happen. You had better look out.”
And just then, if you will believe me, the little mouse ran out from
under the chair, just like the one that was under the queen’s throne.
And the mousie ran out of the parlor, into the hall, and out of the
front door, that happened to be open.
“Oh, the fairy is running away! We must run after her!” cried Mary. “It
would never do to have a fairy run away, and especially the first fairy
we have ever seen! Run, boys, run!”
So Tommy ran and Johnny ran, and Mary ran, and in another minute the
three little Trippertrots were running after the mouse--the fairy mouse
it was, I guess--for some wonderful things really happened because of
that same mousie. You see, the Trippertrots had now started on their
travels.
“There she goes--down the street!” cried Mary. “Keep after the fairy
mouse, Tommy and Johnny!”
So Tommy and Johnny and Mary kept on running, and they forgot that they
were never to go away again--in fact, they forgot about everything,
except that they were chasing the fairy mouse.
Faster and faster ran the mousie down the street, around the corner, in
and out among the legs and feet of the people, faster and faster. But
still the Trippertrots kept on after the little creature, running as
hard as they could run, until, all of a sudden, the mouse saw a hole in
a fence and ran through the hole, and when Mary and Tommy and Johnny
got there, why--there wasn’t any mouse to be seen.
“She--she’s gone!” cried Mary.
“Disappeared!” gasped Tommy, who could use big words, sometimes.
“Maybe she’s run home, and is sleeping under the chair again,”
suggested Johnny.
“Oh, then, we must go right back!” said Mary. “I want to get my hair
ribbon, and we must soon go to school, and I guess maybe the fairy
mouse is doing tricks now. Yes, let’s hurry back home, boys.”
“All right,” said Tommy and Johnny together, like twins, you know,
only they weren’t. Well, then a funny thing happened. The Trippertrot
children started to go home, but what do you think? They were lost!
They looked all around, but they didn’t know any of the streets, and
they didn’t see anybody whom they could ask where their house was, for
all the people had suddenly gone away.
“Oh, dear!” cried Mary. “It’s happened again.”
“What has?” asked Tommy.
[Illustration: _The Three Little Trippertrots Were Running After the
Mouse_]
“Why, we’re lost,” said Mary. “Can’t you see? We can’t find our way
home!”
“The fairy mouse did this,” said Johnny. “It’s all part of the game.
Wait, maybe she’ll come back, and change into a trolley car, and take
us home.”
And then, all of a sudden, it began to rain. Oh, my! How hard the drops
splashed down. The children looked to see if they could find the kind
fisherman, who might fish up an umbrella, or a pair of rubber boots, or
a raincoat for them, but he was not in sight. And Tommy looked to see
if the fairy mouse would come back, changed into an automobile, or a
trolley car, but nothing like that happened.
All at once, along the street came a newsboy, with a bundle of papers
under his arm. He didn’t seem to mind the rain, and he ran up to the
children, crying:
“Don’t worry, now. I’ll take care of you. Here, take some of my papers,
and hold them over your heads for umbrellas. Then you won’t get wet.
Come with me and I’ll take you home.”
Then he handed some papers to Mary, to Tommy, and to Johnny, who held
them over their heads like Japanese umbrellas, and they took hold of
each others’ hands and ran on. And the rain came down harder than ever,
and soon the streets were like little rivers of water.
“Don’t worry!” cried the newsboy. “I’ll look after you.”
“Oh, I think he must be the fairy mouse changed into a boy,” said Mary
to her brothers, and Tommy and Johnny nodded their heads, for they
thought the same thing.
And, then, all of a sudden, they saw a big wooden box floating down the
street, which was now filled with water.
“Oh, this is just the thing!” cried the newsboy. “Come on, little
ones,” and he ran toward the box. “We’ll go sailing!”
ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO
THE TRIPPERTROTS GO SAILING
The newsboy kindly helped the children to get in the box, first lifting
in Mary, and then Johnny, and then Tommy. Then he got in himself. And
all the while it kept on raining harder and harder.
“Oh, my!” cried Mary, as she sat down in a corner of the big box. “This
is terrible! Here we are lost again, and we don’t know where we are
going.”
“Ah, that is just the best part of it,” said the newsboy.
“Why do you say that?” asked Johnny.
“Because,” said the newsboy, “if you knew where you were going there
wouldn’t be any surprise when you got there. And you would know just
when you were going to get there, and what you were to do after you
arrived. Now it’s all different. We don’t know where we are going, and
we don’t know when we’ll get there, and we don’t know what we will do
when we get there--if we ever do. At least, I don’t,” he said, with a
smile. “Perhaps you children do.”
“No,” answered Mary, with a shake of her head. “I don’t.”
“And I don’t, either,” spoke Tommy.
“Nor I,” added Johnny.
“Oh, this is jolly fun!” cried the newsboy, and then the rain came down
harder than ever, and some of it splashed into the big box, which was
like a boat sailing along the watery street.
“Oh, dear!” cried Mary, “my dress will get all wet!”
“Oh, I should have thought of that before!” said the newsboy, for the
children had taken away the newspapers from over their heads. “Wait,
and I’ll make a top over the box. Then we will be as dry as if we were
in a house.”
So what do you think he did? He took a lot of his papers from inside
the pile under his arm, where they were pretty dry, and he laid them
over the open top of the drygoods box, and he fastened them down with
some pins, and then the rain didn’t come in any more, for there was a
paper roof over the box-ship.
“That’s fine!” exclaimed Mary. “Tell me, are you the fairy mousie,
changed into a boy?”
“No,” answered the boy, “I am not. What made you think so?”
“Well, because you think of doing things so quickly, you know. We
were chasing after the fairy mousie, that we found asleep on my hair
ribbon,” said Mary, “and that’s how we got lost.”
“Well, I’m sorry I’m not the fairy mousie,” said the newsboy, “but
perhaps I can help you find her. Now, do you happen to be hungry?”
“Well,” said Tommy, turning his head on one side, so as to let some
water run out of his ear, “we had breakfast a little while ago, but I
guess I _am_ hungry.”
“And so am I,” said Mary and Johnny.
“Then here is the very thing,” said the newsboy, and with that he
pulled some ginger cookies out of his pockets, and gave them to the
children--gave them the cookies, not his pockets, you understand.
“Don’t you want some yourself?” asked Mary, politely.
“Oh, bless you, no,” said the newsboy. “I never eat cookies. I’m too
big to eat cookies. I’ll chew on a bit of paper instead. Here is a
piece with a nice picture on it of a dish of ice-cream and some cake.
I’ll eat that bit of paper, and I won’t be hungry for ever so long.”
And, then, what do you think? Why, that funny newsboy ate the piece of
paper with the picture of the ice-cream and cake on it, and he wasn’t
hungry any more. But, of course, none of you must do that, as it’s only
allowed in fairy stories.
“Do you think we’ll ever get home?” asked Johnny, after a bit, when the
box had floated down the street for some distance.
“Wait a minute, and I’ll take a look,” said the newsboy, and he peeked
through a knot-hole in the side of the box. “Is your house a red one?”
he asked the children.
“No, it’s painted green,” said Mary.
“Then the one I saw isn’t it,” spoke the newsboy. “But we may come to
it pretty soon.” And then he looked out again, and asked: “Is your
house a pink one?”
“Why, no,” said Mary, in surprise, “I think I told you a little while
ago that it was painted green.”
“Oh, yes, so you did. Please excuse me,” said the newsboy. “Well, pink
is a very pretty color. Wouldn’t you like to live in a pink house?”
“Oh, how funny!” exclaimed Johnny. “We can’t live in any house but our
own, you know.”
“No more you can,” said the newsboy. “Well, perhaps we shall come up to
it very soon. Where is it?”
“Why, don’t you know?” asked Tommy.
“No, I thought you did,” said the boy. “All the children I ever saw
knew where they lived.”
“Oh, but we’re lost,” spoke Mary.
“And besides,” said Johnny, “we’re the Trippertrots. We never know
where we live; do we, Tommy?”
“No,” said Tommy, with a laugh.
“Well, it’s very strange,” went on the newsboy. “I’ll give one more
look, and then, maybe, I can see your house. I thought I could take you
home, but if you don’t know where you live I’m sure it’s going to be
quite a puzzle--quite a puzzle,” and he shook his head up and down, and
sideways.
Then the drygoods box-ship went sailing on and on down the street, and
the rain kept on raining down harder and harder, and the Trippertrots
went on faster and faster. Presently the newsboy said:
“Well, now I’ll take another look and see if I can find your house.” So
once more he looked out of the knot-hole in the drygoods box, and then
he asked Mary: “Could your house possibly be a purple one? I see a nice
purple one just ahead of us.”
“No, our house is green!” exclaimed Mary, as politely as she could. “I
told you that before.”
“Oh, so you did!” cried the newsboy. “How very careless of me to forget
so often. I don’t suppose you’d like to live in a purple house, would
you?” and he looked at Johnny and Tommy.
“I don’t think I would,” said Johnny.
“No, green is our color,” spoke Tommy.
“I was afraid so,” went on the newsboy, with a sigh. “Well, all I can
do is to float along with you until we get to a green house. Then
you’ll be home.”
“But it might be some other green house than ours,” said Mary. “Many
houses are painted green.”
“You don’t say so!” cried the newsboy. “I never thought of that. I
haven’t seen any green houses to-day, though, and maybe the first one
we come to will be yours. It’s very strange. I never thought there
would be so much trouble in finding the house of the Trippertrots. But
never mind. Have some more molasses cookies,” and he took a number of
them out of his pockets, and the children were very glad to get them,
for they were hungry again.
Then they sailed on some more, and some more, and they were wondering
if they would ever get home, and they began to wish that they hadn’t
chased out after the fairy mouse, for they had not been so far away
from home since the time they went on a train after seeing the pink cow.
And then, all at once, just as the drygoods box-ship was sailing around
the corner of the street, and the Trippertrot children and the newsboy
were down under the papers on top, so the rain wouldn’t get them--all
at once, I say--there was a bumpity-bump noise.
“What’s that?” cried Tommy.
“We’ve hit something,” said Mary.
“Yes, you’ve hit me!” exclaimed a voice, and then the big box suddenly
stopped, and a funny boy poked his head in the top through the
newspapers.
“We didn’t mean to hit you,” said Tommy, politely, “but our box went
very fast.”
“And we couldn’t see where we were going,” added Johnny.
“All except the newsboy, and he has to keep looking through the
knot-hole to see our green house,” explained Mary. “He might have seen
you, but he didn’t.”
“We’re very sorry if we hurt you, funny boy,” said the newsboy, sad
like.
“Oh, pray do not mention it,” said the boy who had stopped the
drygoods box, as it was floating down the street. “It was merely a
little bump on my nose.” Then he began to turn somersaults until he
had somersaulted through the papers on top, just as the circus man
jumps through a paper hoop, right inside the box where the Trippertrot
children were, and all of a sudden Mary cried out:
“Why, it’s Jiggily Jig, the funny boy!”
“Yes, of course it is!” cried Tommy and Johnny.
“Not the least doubt of it,” said Jiggily Jig, who was called that, you
remember, because he was always dancing a jig.
“But where did you leave Simple Simon?” asked Mary, for the last they
had seen of Jiggily Jig was when he was running off with Simple Simon,
after they had met the pieman coming from the circus.
“Oh, Simple Simon has gone to work for the pieman,” said Jiggily Jig.
“He had to have pie so often that his mother sent him there instead
of after water in a sieve. Now watch me,” and Jiggily Jig turned two
somersaults, one after another, and the drygoods box nearly upset, and
the rain came down harder than ever.
“Wait! Hold on!” cried the newsboy. “This will never do! Do you know
these children, Jiggily Jig?”
“To be sure I do,” answered the funny boy, “and I will take them home,
for they are lost. I know they are. They are always lost; aren’t you?”
and he looked at Mary and Tommy and Johnny.
“Yes,” said the Trippertrot children, in a chorus, “we are always lost.”
“But don’t worry, I will take you home,” said Jiggily Jig, with a jolly
laugh. “You are going the wrong way. This boat must be turned around,”
and with that he jumped out, and turned a somersault in the water,
turned the box around, jumped in again, and the rain came down harder
than ever.
“We’ll soon be home!” cried Jiggily Jig. “We’ll soon be at your green
house,” and then the wind began to blow, and Jiggily Jig made a sail
out of the newspapers, put it up on the edge of the box, with a piece
of wood for a mast, and away they went as fast as fast could be,
sailing in the drygoods box-ship.
All of a sudden, the wind began to blow harder than ever, and the
children were afraid that it might blow the sail off their little ship.
“Don’t worry about that,” said Jiggily Jig. “I made the sail good and
strong. It won’t blow away.”
“But hadn’t you better look?” suggested Mary. “It would be no fun to be
sailing along without a sail.”
“I will look, just to oblige you,” spoke the funny boy. “First I will
do a little dance in here, and then I will peek out to see if the sail
is all right.”
“Well, kindly do not step on my toes, and wake me up,” begged the
newsboy, speaking in his sleep, for he had stretched out on the bottom
of the box, and was slumbering.
“Not for this whole world, and part of the moon,” answered the funny
boy. So he did his little dance, being careful not to step on the
newsboy’s toes, and then Jiggily lifted up the papers, that were over
the top of the box, and looked out. Next he gave a cry:
“Oh, my!” he exclaimed.
“What is the matter?” asked Mary, quickly.
“Are we at our house?” inquired Tommy, hopefully.
“Far, far from it,” replied Jiggily Jig, sadly. “Look for yourselves,
children,” and he took all the paper covering off the top of the box,
for it had stopped raining.
“Oh!” gasped Mary, as she looked out.
“Oh! oh!” cried Tommy.
“Oh! oh! oh!” exclaimed Johnny.
And well they might be surprised, for their boat had been blown by the
wind far away from the city streets, where they had been sailing, and
now they were away out on a sort of lake, in a big green meadow. Off in
the distance were hills, with trees on them, and it was just like some
picture they had seen of a fairy boat sailing over a fairy lake.
“Oh, where are we?” asked Mary.
“I never saw this place before,” spoke Johnny.
“Nor I,” added Tommy.
“No matter where we are, it is a nice place,” went on Jiggily Jig.
“Wake up, newsboy, and see where we are. There is no more rain, and you
can’t get wet.”
So the newsboy stretched out his arms and his legs, and he opened his
mouth, and he opened his eyes, and then he was awake, and he stood up
to see what he could see.
“Oh, this is lovely!” he cried. “I always wanted to go out to the
country, and now I am here. This must be the country, for it isn’t the
city,” he added.
Then the box-ship sailed on farther and farther, over the lake in the
meadows, and the Trippertrots and the newsboy and Jiggily Jig looked
all about them, and were quite happy.
Suddenly the wind blew them right toward a little island, that was in
the middle of the lake.
“Let’s get out here, and pretend we’re camping in the woods,” suggested
Johnny.
“Oh, yes!” cried Mary and Tommy. So they all got out of the drygoods
box, and landed on the island. It was a nice island, with trees on, and
some dry wood piled up in a little cave near a place where there were
some flat stones.
“I know what let’s do,” proposed Tommy. “Let’s make a fireplace, and
cook a dinner, just as if we were shipwrecked sailors.”
“Oh, fine!” exclaimed Johnny.
“And I’ll wash the dishes,” said Mary.
“But we haven’t any dishes to wash,” spoke Tommy.
“And nothing to cook at the fire, or even put on the dishes, so there
is no use washing them,” added his brother, sorrowful like.
“That’s so,” agreed Mary. “But perhaps Jiggily Jig, or the newsboy, has
something we can cook.”
They both looked in their pockets, and the newsboy shook his head.
“I have nothing,” he said.
“Oh, but I have!” cried Jiggily. “I have found some apples. The pieman
gave them to me the other day. They will be fine to roast at the fire.”
Tommy and Johnny made the fire on the flat stones, taking care not
to burn themselves, and then, when there were some hot embers ready,
the apples were put down in front of them, on the warm stones, and
they began to roast--I mean the apples roasted, not the stones, you
understand.
“Oh, how lovely they smell!” exclaimed Mary, as Jiggily turned the
apples around with a sharp stick, so they wouldn’t burn.
“Yes, they will soon be ready to eat,” said the funny boy, and, surely
enough, they were.
“But what shall we do for forks?” asked Tommy.
“A pointed stick will do for a knife and a fork, too,” said the
newsboy. “I’ve often eaten that way. You just stick your roast apple on
the point of the stick, and eat it.”
“What, eat the stick?” asked Tommy.
“No, eat the apple,” said the newsboy, laughing.
“Well, the apples are roasted now, and you can eat them,” said Jiggily,
after a bit. So he whittled out a pointed stick for everybody, and
stuck an apple on each one, and soon the travelers were sitting about
the camp-fire, eating the apples, and very good they were, too. I wish
I had one right this minute, but I’m not allowed to, you know.
“Well, perhaps we had better start off again,” suggested Tommy, when
the apples were eaten. “We must soon get home, if we can.”
“All right,” said Jiggily.
“And we had better take some sticks, to use for oars, or paddles, or
to push ourselves along with, in case there is no wind to blow the
sail,” spoke Tommy. They all thought this was a good plan, so the three
Trippertrots, and the newsboy, and Jiggily each got a tree branch.
Well, they climbed into the box-ship again, and Jiggily pushed off from
the island, and away they went sailing once more. Then Jiggily and the
newsboy stretched out on the bottom of the box, where you couldn’t see
them unless you went up in a balloon, and they both went fast, fast to
sleep.
On and on sailed the drygoods box, over the pretty lake, over toward
the hills with trees on them, until finally Tommy said:
“Oh, let’s use our sticks to row with, and then we’ll go faster. There
isn’t much wind now, and we’re not going along very quickly. Let’s push
and row with the sticks.”
So they did that, and they went along very well. Only, they had
accidents. Sometimes Tommy’s hat would blow off into the water, and
he and Johnny would have to fish it out with their stick-oars. And
sometimes Johnny’s hat would blow off, and he and his brother would
have to reach for it.
And sometimes Tommy would reach for his own hat all alone, and
sometimes Johnny would have to fish up his own hat all alone, when
Tommy was attending to the sail. And so it went on; when it wasn’t one
thing it was another.
The newsboy and Jiggily Jig slept on, in the bottom of the box, and
they had a lovely time, with nothing to do. And the Trippertrots had
lots of fun, too, sailing away.
Sometimes it would rain, and they would put the papers over the top of
the box, and then the drops would stop coming down, and they could take
off the papers, stand up, and paddle again.
On and on they went, and once the newsboy awakened, and most
unexpectedly he found some more molasses cookies in his pocket, and he
gave all his friends some, and some he ate himself, and then he went to
sleep again--he and Jiggily.
Farther and farther they sailed--those Trippertrot children, until, all
of a sudden, Mary looked out from behind the newspaper sail, and she
exclaimed:
“Oh, here we are back in the streets of the city again! We are sailing
in the gutters, just as we were before.”
“Sure enough, so we are!” said Tommy, and they really were back where
they had been, before they got out on the little lake in the meadow.
Then the wind blew on the sail, and the box-ship went on and on,
through the rain, which came down pitter-patter again.
And a very funny thing happened soon after that.
ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TOY BALLOONS
“Oh, do you think you will ever find our house?” asked Mary, as she
sat down on the bottom of the box, and ate up the last crumbs of the
molasses cookies which the newsboy had given her and her brothers.
“Oh, I’m sure we will!” exclaimed Jiggily Jig, suddenly awakening.
“And will we be there soon?” asked Tommy.
“Very soon,” answered Jiggily Jig, trying to turn a somersault inside
the box. But there wasn’t room enough, and Jiggily stepped on the
newsboy’s toes.
“Ouch! Don’t do that, please!” cried the newsboy. “Please don’t step on
my toes.”
“Why, did I hurt you?” asked the funny boy.
“No, but you woke me up. I was asleep,” answered the newsboy. “As long
as you are captain of this box-ship I know everything will go along all
right, and you will get the Trippertrots home safely, so I am going to
sleep. But I can’t sleep if you turn somersaults in here, and step on
my toes. Nobody could sleep when their toes were being stepped on. I
leave it to you, now; could they, children?”
“I don’t hardly think they could,” said Mary, politely, for she did not
want to make Jiggily Jig feel badly.
“And I’m not sure, as no one ever stepped on my toes when I was
asleep,” said Tommy, “but I think it must be quite unpleasant.”
“There, you see how it is, Jiggily Jig!” exclaimed the newsboy. “I’m
quite right about it.”
“To be sure you are,” admitted Jiggily Jig. “I never thought of it that
way before. I’ll stop turning somersaults directly. But may I dance
a few jigs?” he asked, and he made a polite bow to Mary, and also to
Tommy and Johnny, and the newsboy.
“Do you really _have_ to dance?” the newsboy asked. “Because if you
don’t really _have_ to, it might be just as well not to. You might step
on my toes again.”
“Oh, yes, I have to dance,” said Jiggily Jig, “or else I would have to
change my name to Joggily Jog, and I wouldn’t like that at all. But
I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll dance just a little bit, and I’ll take
good care not to step on anybody’s toes.”
So then and there, in the drygoods box-ship, Jiggily Jig danced a nice
dance, and as truly as I’m telling you, he didn’t step even on his own
toes. Oh, Jiggily was quite a wonderful boy!
And, all this while the box-ship, with the paper sail, was sailing down
the street, which was filled with water from the rain-storm. But none
of the rain came inside, because the newsboy had put more papers over
the top of the box to keep the wet outside.
“We don’t seem to be getting home very fast,” said Johnny, after a
while, “and I’m sure when we do get there, we’ll be late for school.”
“I’m afraid so, too,” said Mary.
“Never mind,” spoke Jiggily Jig. “You can tell the teacher all about
what happened to you, and how you went after the little fairy mouse,
and then how you went sailing. She will surely excuse you.”
“Maybe she will,” said Tommy. “But I wish we were home, because I
am hungry again. I wonder if the newsboy has any more cookies in his
pockets. I’m going to ask him.”
“Hush! Don’t do that,” said Mary, softly, “for he is asleep, and we
ought not to wake him up.”
“But I am hungry,” said Tommy.
“Wait, I think I can look in his pockets without making him wake up,”
spoke Jiggily Jig, and he did so. But, alas! there were no more cookies
to be had.
“Never mind,” said Mary, “we will soon be home.”
“Yes,” said Jiggily Jig, “I’ll look out of the knot-hole in the box,
and see if I can find your house.”
So Jiggily Jig did this, and all of a sudden he cried out:
“Oh, joy! Oh, joy! Oh, joy!” three times, just like that, he cried it.
“What! do you see our house?” asked Mary, and she was so excited that
she turned around and nearly stepped on the toes of the newsboy, who
was asleep--he was asleep, and his toes were, too, I guess, just as,
sometimes, your foot goes to sleep when you sit on it. “Do you see our
house?” asked Mary.
“No, but I can see that it has stopped raining again,” answered Jiggily
Jig. “Now we can sail along without having the newspapers over the top
of the box to keep out the water. I’m real glad of that.”
So he took the papers off the top of the box again and it sailed down
the street for quite a distance, with the wind blowing the paper sail
as nicely as could be, and the Trippertrot children thought they would
soon be home. You see, the newsboy’s papers had some wax on them, which
the kind honey-bees had put there, so the rain didn’t melt them.
“Will you please look again, Jiggily Jig,” asked Tommy, “and see if
you can find our house now? It’s painted green, you know.”
So Jiggily Jig looked out of the knot-hole in the side of the box, and
all at once he cried out:
“Oh, joy! I see something green. That must be your house. Get ready
now, the boat is going to land,” and he was so excited that he turned a
somersault without thinking, and came down on the toes of the sleeping
newsboy.
“Oh! Ouch! Oh, my!” cried the newsboy, as he woke up. “What has
happened?”
“I saw something green. It’s the house of the Trippertrots!” cried
Jiggily, as he danced a little jig. “Forgive me for stepping on your
toes,” he said to the newsboy, politely. “I was so excited that I could
not help it.”
“Oh, that is all right,” answered the newsboy, kindly. “As long as I
can be sure that these children get safely home I don’t much care what
happens. May I see the house?”
“Yes, look through this hole,” said Jiggily Jig, and he pointed to the
one in the side of the box. “You will see something green,” he went on,
“and that must be the home of the Trippertrots.”
“Oh, I don’t have to look through the hole,” said the newsboy. “As long
as the rain isn’t coming down any more, I can look out of the top of
the box, and I can see better.”
So he stood up, and looked at the green thing that Jiggily Jig had
seen, and then, all of a sudden, the newsboy cried out:
“Oh, dear! What a disappointment! Oh, dear!”
“Why, whatever is the matter?” asked Mary, surprised like.
“Oh, that isn’t your house at all,” went on the newsboy.
“Why, it’s green; isn’t it?” asked Jiggily Jig.
“Yes, it’s green,” said the newsboy.
“Well, the Trippertrot house is green,” answered Jiggily Jig.
“I know, but just you take a look at this,” invited the newsboy. “Why,
that green thing you saw was a man with a whole lot of toy, green
balloons, such as you see in the circus. And he is coming this way with
them.”
“Oh, goody!” cried Tommy Trippertrot, “maybe he will give us some, and
we can have a lot of fun with them.”
“Have you got any money?” asked Johnny.
“No,” said Tommy, sorrowfully, “I haven’t.”
“Then you can’t get any toy balloons,” spoke his brother.
“Perhaps Jiggily Jig, or the newsboy, would lend us a little money,
until we can get some of our own when we reach home,” said Mary.
“Yes,” spoke the newsboy. “I will lend you as much as you need.”
Then the man with the toy, green balloons came closer to the drygoods
box-ship, and he caught hold of it, and stopped it from sailing any
farther, and he sang this little song:
“Toy balloons! Oh, toy balloons!
They sail as high as silver moons!
If you a toy balloon will buy,
You may sail up into the sky.
Toy balloon! Oh, toy balloon!
Please to buy one very soon.”
“We would like to buy one,” said Mary, politely. “How much are they, if
you please?”
“They are a banana and two oranges apiece,” said the man.
“No, she means how much money do they cost,” explained Tommy.
“You can get them for ten cents in the circus,” said Johnny. “I know,
for my papa once bought me one.”
“Ah, but these are very different,” said the man. “They are colored
green, and they are much larger and stronger than the circus balloons.
Why, if I had enough green balloons I could lift an elephant with them.
That’s why I don’t sell them for money. I want a banana and two oranges
for each balloon.”
“Then we can’t have any,” said Mary, sorrowfully.
“Oh, yes, you can,” exclaimed Jiggily Jig. “I have just the very
thing.” Then he put his hands in his pockets, and pulled out a lot of
bananas and oranges. “I forgot I had them,” he said, with a laugh, as
he tossed them to the man.
Then the man gave Mary a big toy, green balloon, and he gave one to
Tommy, and one to Johnny. And then a very strange thing happened. All
at once Mary found herself rising up in the air. Up and up she floated,
for the balloon lifted her, just as an airship would have done.
“Oh! Oh!” she cried.
“Don’t get excited,” said the balloon man, kindly. “Hold on tight, and
you will soon be home. The balloons will take you there.”
Then Johnny and Tommy began to float up into the air also, holding
fast to the strings of their big toy balloons, and Mary held on to the
string of hers, too, and there the three little Trippertrots were,
sailing away just as if they were in airships.
And, down below them, looking up, was Jiggily Jig, and the newsboy, and
the toy balloon man, standing near the box-ship.
“Good-by!” called Jiggily Jig, waving his hand to the children. “I’ll
see you again soon.” Then the man and the newsboy waved their hands,
and Mary and Tommy and Johnny went floating softly off, blown by a
gentle wind.
“Oh, isn’t this the most surprising adventure!” exclaimed Mary.
“It’s jolly fun!” declared Tommy.
“I think so, too,” added Johnny. “It’s nicer to go home this way than
in a box-ship.”
So they floated on for quite some time.
ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR
THE TRIPPERTROTS’ THANKSGIVING
“We must be careful to keep together,” said Mary to her brothers, as
they floated along, carried by the balloons. “It would be dreadful if
we lost each other.”
“Oh, we’re lost, anyhow,” said Tommy. “We’re always getting lost, it
seems to me.”
“Yes, that is so,” admitted Johnny, “but Mary is right. We must try to
keep together. I don’t want to float off all by myself alone.”
“And I guess I don’t, either,” said Tommy.
“But the funny part of it is that we can’t walk when we’re up in the
air this way,” said Mary. “If the wind happens to blow me away from you
boys, or if it blows you boys away from me, why, we can’t walk back
again.”
“How do you know?” asked Tommy, politely. “We haven’t tried it yet. I’m
going to see if I can walk in the air.”
And, would you ever believe it if I didn’t tell you? Why, that boy
Tommy just wiggled his feet, as if he was walking on the ground, you
know, and he kept tight hold of the string of the balloon, and my
goodness sakes alive and the pancake turner! There he was, walking
along, just as if he was on the sidewalk. Only it was ever so much
easier, you know.
“Oh, I can do it! I can do it!” cried Tommy, in delight. “You do it,
Mary and Johnny. Come up here where I am.”
“All right, wait for us,” spoke his sister. “Don’t get too far ahead,
or we might not be able to catch up to you.”
So Tommy stopped walking in the air, and then Mary and Johnny wiggled
their feet, and as true as I’m telling you, they, also, could move
along, the balloons holding them up as easily as an airship could have
done.
“Oh, this is great fun!” cried Johnny.
“Yes, let’s look down and see how high up we are,” said Tommy.
So Mary and Johnny and Tommy looked down, and surely enough, they were
almost as high as the church steeple. They were floating along over the
trees, and the roofs of the houses, and the people walking along in the
streets below them didn’t even know that the three little Trippertrots
were away up over their heads in the air.
“Oh, suppose we should ever fall!” exclaimed Mary, shivering like.
“Nonsense!” said Tommy. “You mustn’t suppose anything of the kind.”
“Especially as the man said these were very strong balloons,” put in
Johnny. “They can lift an elephant, and we’re not as heavy even as a
baby elephant.”
“No, I guess not,” said Mary. “But I am just wondering what will happen
when we get over our house, if we ever do. How are we going to get down
to see papa and mamma? It won’t be any fun for us to be up in the air,
and have them down on the ground, or in the house. Maybe we can talk to
them, but they can’t hold us in their arms and--and----”
“And they can’t reach up, and give us anything to eat,” exclaimed
Tommy, sorrowfully.
“Oh, yes, they can!” cried Johnny.
“How?” asked Tommy and Mary together, real excited like.
“Why, they can put up a ladder, and reach us that way, or we can go
down the ladder,” said the little Trippertrot boy.
“Yes, that’s so,” admitted Tommy. “I didn’t think of that. I wonder
when we will be home? We must keep looking down until we see our house.”
So the three children walked on, by wiggling their legs in the air, and
they looked down to see if they could pick out their green house, but
they couldn’t seem to find it.
And then, all of a sudden, there was a flutter of wings and a whole lot
of sparrows flew around them.
“Oh, see the birds!” cried Mary. “I guess they must take us for birds,
too. Oh, I wish I could fly!”
“Yes, it would be nice,” said Tommy.
“But this is almost as good as flying,” spoke Johnny. “Especially
when you wiggle your legs very fast. See, I can almost catch up to
the birds,” and he made his legs go as if he was running, and, surely
enough, he fairly whizzed through the air, and Mary and Tommy had to
run to catch up to him.
Then the sparrows flew away, and the children kept on floating over the
roofs of the houses, and they looked down at the people in the streets,
and they were wondering when they would be home, when, all at once,
Tommy cried:
“Oh, see that big bird flying along!”
Down below the Trippertrot children was a large bird, flapping its
broad wings.
“I guess that’s an eagle,” said Johnny, who had seen a picture of one
in his bird and animal book, once upon a time.
“I wish it would come up here closer, where we could see it,” spoke
Mary. “I like eagles.”
And then, all at once, the big bird opened its beak, and it cried out:
“Gobble-obble-obble!” just like that.
“Why!” exclaimed Tommy. “That’s not an eagle.”
“No, it’s a turkey gobbler,” said Johnny.
“And look!” cried Mary. “It’s flying right down toward that house with
the red roof.”
“Oh! Oh!” suddenly cried Tommy, wiggling his little fat legs. “I know
where we are now. That house with the red roof is ours.”
“But our house is painted green,” objected Mary.
“The sides of it are green, but the top is red,” said Tommy. “I know,
’cause when the men were painting our house the one who was on the roof
spilled some of his paint, and it fell on the end of my nose, and it
was red.”
“What was red, the paint or your nose?” asked Johnny.
“My nose was red after the red paint fell on it,” said Tommy. “That’s
how I know that the roof of our house is red.”
“But there are other red roofs besides ours,” spoke Mary.
“Oh, but there’s another reason why I know that is our house,” went on
Tommy.
“How?” asked Johnny.
“Because that turkey gobbler went in there. I heard Suzette, our
nursemaid, say this morning that we were going to have turkey for
Thanksgiving. To-day is Thanksgiving, and there goes the turkey into
a house with a red roof, and our house has a red roof, so that’s our
home. Oh, how glad I am! Come on, we must wiggle ourselves until we get
right over the top of it, and then we can call out, and papa and mamma
will come out with the step-ladder, and get us.”
So the children walked along through the air, holding to the strings of
their toy, green balloons, until they were right over their house. Then
they all cried out together, as loudly as they could:
“Papa! Mammal Here we are! Up in the air! Come and get us!”
A minute later Mr. and Mrs. Trippertrot ran out on the balcony over the
front porch and looked up. There they saw their children.
“Oh, my darlings!” cried their mamma, waving her hand to them. “I
thought I should never see you again! However did you get up there?”
“We got lost this morning, chasing after the fairy mouse,” said Mary,
“and the balloon man sold Jiggily Jig, the funny boy, these balloons,
and they took us up, and the turkey showed us which was our house, so
we’re home again.”
“I’m glad of it!” said their papa. “But why don’t you come down?”
“We can’t, the balloons hold us up,” said Johnny, and he and Tommy
tried to pull themselves down, but they couldn’t, because the balloons
were so strong.
“You must get a ladder and reach it up to us, and then we can let go of
the balloons, and walk down,” said Mary.
So Mr. Trippertrot was hurrying away to get the ladder when Suzette,
the maid, said:
“Oh, I know a better way than that. If Miss Mary has a pin she can just
make a little pin-hole in her balloon and also in Master Johnny’s and
Tommy’s, and let out a little of the gas from the green balloons, and
then the children will float safely down.”