can’t fall, so what good will a cushion do him?”
“Oh, but I’m only going to put a make-believe, pretend cushion down
for him, so that part is all right,” went on Johnny, and then Mary and
Tommy both laughed, and so did Johnny.
They went on playing, Mary with her doll, and Tommy with his toy ship,
and Johnny with his music-box and his make-believe monkey. And he
pretended that a chair was a house, and he had lots of fun making the
make-believe monkey climb up the porch.
After a while Johnny got tired of this game, and Mary got tired of
playing with her doll.
“Oh, I wonder what we can do next?” asked the little Trippertrot girl.
“I know,” answered Tommy. “We can pretend that my ship is a real big
one, and we can go sailing all over the world. Where shall we go? Mary
can have first choice, because she is a girl.” And then Tommy put his
ship in the middle of the playroom floor, and the three children sat
around it, and made-believe they were on the deck of it. “Where shall
we go first, Mary?” asked her brother, politely.
“Oh, I think I’d like to go to the land where the figs grow,” said
Mary. “I just love figs.”
“So do I!” exclaimed Johnny. “And after that can we go to the land
where the oranges grow?”
“Yes,” answered Tommy. “And, after we come back from there, with a
whole shipload of oranges, we’ll go to the land of the peanuts, and
have a lovely party.”
Well, the Trippertrot children played this game for some time, and
then, all at once, they heard a pitter-patting out on the porch roof,
just as if some one was throwing beans down from the clouds.
“My! What’s that?” cried Tommy, jumping up and running to the window.
“Why, it’s raining--and what big drops!” exclaimed Mary. “It’s a
regular summer shower, and here it is pretty nearly Christmas.”
“Oh, let’s open the window a little way,” suggested Johnny, “and stick
our hands out to get wet. I like to feel the raindrops on me. It’s like
a shower bath, after you’ve been in bathing in the ocean.”
“But, if it’s cold, we must close the window right off again,”
said Mary, who was a wise little girl. “We mustn’t get the
sniffle-snuffles,” she said.
So the boys agreed to this, and then they opened the window to let the
rain splash on their hands. And it was a very nice, warm rain, so they
thought they wouldn’t get cold.
My! how those big drops did come down! Faster and faster they fell,
until there was a regular little pond in the tin gutter of the porch
roof.
“Oh, I have an idea!” suddenly cried Tommy. “I’m going to sail my toy
ship here on the roof. There is plenty of water, and then it can go on
a really-truly voyage.”
“Fine!” exclaimed Johnny.
“But don’t lean too far out,” cautioned Mary. So Tommy said he
wouldn’t, and he got his ship, and put it out on the porch roof, where
there was almost a whole bathtubful of water.
More rain came down, nice, warm rain, and the wind blew a little bit
and puffed out the sails of the toy ship, and then, all of a sudden,
before any one could stop it, that ship sailed right over the edge of
the porch roof, down and down in all the raindrops, and then the wind
came in a big, puffing, gusty gust, and lo and behold!
There was Tommy’s nice toy ship blown down to the street gutter, and
as the gutter was filled with water, the ship was sailing down it as
nicely as a little mouse can eat a bit of cheese. Really, it was, I’m
not fooling at all.
“Oh! oh! oh!” cried Mary, as she looked down at the toy ship sailing
away.
“Oh, me! Oh, my!” exclaimed Johnny.
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” gasped Tommy. “My ship! My ship! I’ll never see
it again.”
“Oh, yes, you will!” said Johnny.
“Why, will it sail back to me?” asked his brother.
“No, but we can go after it,” said Johnny. “We can put on our
raincoats, and our rubber boots, and take umbrellas and run down the
street until we find the ship.”
“Oh, but mamma wouldn’t like us to go out,” spoke Mary.
“Yes, she would,” said Tommy, eagerly. “This is a most special,
extra-extraordinary occasion, and I’ve just got to get my ship!”
[Illustration: _On Ran the Trippertrots, Faster and Faster._]
“Besides, it’s a nice, warm rain,” went on Johnny, “and if we do get a
little wet it won’t hurt us. I heard Suzette say she was going to
give us our baths to-night, and this may save her the trouble.”
“All right, if you boys go, I suppose I’ll have to go, too,” said Mary.
So they slipped down to the hall, got on their rubber boots, and,
taking their raincoats and umbrellas, they let themselves quietly out
of the front door without any one seeing them.
They didn’t mean to do what was naughty, you know, but they didn’t
think, and really Tommy wanted his toy ship very much. So down the
street they ran after it, through the rain, splashing in and out of
puddles, and not getting very wet at all, and anyhow, it was a very
warm rain, even if it was almost Christmas time.
“I see it! I see it!” suddenly cried Tommy, as they raced along.
“There’s my ship just ahead there.”
“Yes, I see the white sails,” said Mary.
“And I can see the little flag on it,” added Johnny. “Come on! Come on!”
On the Trippertrots ran, faster and faster through the rain, but the
toy ship went fast, too, for there was lots of water in the gutter
where it was sailing, and the wind was blowing quite hard.
On and on the three children raced, but still the toy ship kept ahead
of them. Down one street after another it sailed, and there was no one
on the sidewalks to tell the Trippertrots that they had better go back
home before they got lost, and they were almost lost now, if they had
only known it.
All of a sudden, as the ship was going along in the gutter, it happened
to strike against a stone, and that made it stop.
“Come on, we can get it now,” called Tommy, so he ran a little faster
through the rain, and this time he caught up to his nice little ship
and lifted it out of the water. “Ah, ha! Now I have you back again!” he
cried, in delight.
“Oh, but look!” cried Mary, turning slowly around.
“Why, what’s the matter?” asked Johnny.
“We are lost!” said the little Trippertrot girl. “I don’t see a single
house, or a tree, or a street that I know. We are certainly lost!”
“Well, don’t worry about it,” spoke Johnny, cheerfully. “We are always
getting lost, but we always get home again somehow. I think it’s nice
to be lost in the rain.”
“And I’m glad I’ve got my ship,” said Tommy.
The children didn’t exactly know what to do, but they stood there,
holding the umbrellas over them, and Tommy was clasping his ship under
his arm, when, all at once, out from behind a big tree, stepped a jolly
sailorman, with a wooden leg, and as soon as he saw the children he
began to sing this song:
“Oh, I’m a jolly-jolly sailorman,
I sail the ocean blue.
I’ve been in many, many, many lands,
But I’ve come back to you.
“So now we’ll sail, we’ll sail away again,
And o’er the seas we’ll roam.
And when we’ve sailed a million-billion miles
I’ll bring you all back home.”
“Ha! ha! How was that for a song, even if I have a wooden leg?” asked
the sailorman. “Wasn’t that pretty good?”
“It was very nice,” answered Mary, “but, if you please, sir, we don’t
want to sail a million-billion miles.”
“Why not?” asked the sailor. “I see you have your ship already with
you. Nothing is easier than to sail. There is plenty of water here.
Come, we’ll all get aboard,” and he took Tommy’s ship in his big hands,
very carefully.
“No, if you please,” spoke Tommy, “we can’t sail away, because mamma
doesn’t know we ran out.” And he told the sailorman how the ship had
come to be blown off the porch roof.
“And we got lost chasing after it,” explained Johnny.
“Oh, my! Oh, dear! Oh, me!” laughed the jolly sailorman. “That is just
fine! It’s too jolly for anything!”
“I don’t think it is--to be lost,” spoke Mary.
“Why, I’ll take you home,” said the sailorman. “That’s what I’m for--to
take the lost Trippertrots home. Come with me,” and he stumped off in
front of them, banging his wooden leg down on the sidewalk, and the
Trippertrots laughed because they were happy again.
Now to see what happens next.
ADVENTURE NUMBER SIXTEEN
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE MUSIC-BOX
As he walked along with the Trippertrots the nice sailorman became more
and more jolly every step he took, with his one wooden leg, and his one
regular kind of leg.
“And so you children chased after this toy ship, when it went floating
down the gutter, did you?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered Mary, and she told how they had been playing sail
Tommy’s little boat on the porch roof in the rain, when it was blown
off, just as I told you in the adventure before this.
“And so you got lost?” asked the sailorman.
“That’s the way it was,” replied Tommy; “but you will take us home,
won’t you?”
“To be sure I will,” answered the jolly sailorman, stumping along on
his wooden leg.
“But do you know where we live?” asked Mary.
“To be sure I do,” answered the sailorman, with another jolly laugh. “I
can easily find your house. Why, I have sailed all over the world, and
I have found countries where monkeys live in trees, and throw cocoanuts
at you, and countries where there is gold, and other countries where
there are diamonds, and I have even found countries where there
are little fairies, so it won’t be any trouble for me to find your
house--no trouble at all, I do assure you. On the contrary, it will be
a pleasure for me,” and then he whistled a jolly tune, and stumped
along on his wooden leg harder than ever.
[Illustration: “DID YOU SPEAK?” ASKED THE SAILOR OF THE ELEPHANT]
And all at once, as the jolly sailorman was whistling a jolly tune,
and singing a jolly song--all at once, I say--out from behind a big
box jumped Jiggily Jig, the funny boy. He turned a somersault, and he
didn’t mind the rain a bit, and when he was standing right side up
again he made a low bow to the sailorman and said:
“Well, I see you have found the Trippertrot children. Some one is
always finding them, for they are always getting lost. Don’t you want
me to take them home for you?”
“Oh, no, thank you just the same, Jiggily Jig!” exclaimed Mary. “Every
time you try to take us home we get lost worse than before. You
are very kind, and you mean all right, but we had rather the jolly
sailorman would take us home. Though you may come along, if you like.”
“Indeed, I will,” said Jiggily Jig, as he did a funny dance in
the middle of the sidewalk, then he walked along with the three
Trippertrots and the jolly sailor.
But they didn’t go along so fast now, because Jiggily Jig had to stop
every once in a while to turn a somersault, or do one of his funny
dances. But still they were in no hurry, and after a while, just as
true as I’m telling you, they came to where Tommy and Johnny and Mary
lived.
“Why, there’s our house!” exclaimed Johnny, in surprise.
“The very place!” added Tommy.
“How did you ever find it?” asked Mary.
“Oh, I told you I had sailed all over the world,” answered the jolly
sailor, “and to find just one house is as easy for me as eating pie.
Why, I once found a whole big city that was lost.”
“How could a whole city be lost?” asked Tommy.
“Well, the city wasn’t exactly lost,” explained the jolly sailor, “but
maybe we were. We were on a ship, just like Tommy’s, only bigger, away
out on the ocean, and we couldn’t find the city we wanted. It was very
foggy, you know. Then I got up out of bed, and I sniffed and I smelled,
and I says to the captain, says I, ‘I smell apple pies. They bake apple
pies in the city that we can’t find, and so I know we must be close to
it.’ And, sure enough, we were, for we hadn’t sailed on much farther
before we came to the lost city, and surely enough, everybody in it was
eating apple pies. So that’s how it was, and that’s how I found your
house for you.”
“Why, how funny!” exclaimed Mary. “Mamma was baking apple pies just
before we went out to chase after Tommy’s ship.”
“I knew it!” cried the jolly sailor. “I can smell apple pies a good way
off. So this is your house, eh? Well, now I will leave you.”
“Oh, no, you must come in!” said Tommy. “Mamma will want to thank you
for bringing us home. And so will Suzette, for if you hadn’t brought us
home, she would have had to go after us.”
“Yes, please do come in,” invited Mary. “And you, too, Jiggily Jig.” So
they all went in the Trippertrot house, and I can’t tell you how glad
Mrs. Trippertrot was to see her children back again, and so was Suzette
glad to see them.
They were also glad to see the jolly sailorman and Jiggily Jig, and
Mrs. Trippertrot at once went out to the kitchen and got some apple
pie, and some glasses of milk, and gave the children some, and the
jolly sailorman some, and also some to the funny dancing boy.
“Oh, I knew I smelled apple pie,” said the sailor, as he rubbed his
wooden leg with his napkin. “I can always tell when I smell apple pie.”
So the jolly sailorman and Jiggily Jig stayed at the Trippertrot house
that night, because it still rained very hard. And now I am going to
tell you what happened the next day. It was quite an adventure for the
Trippertrots.
The children were up in the playroom, showing their toys to the jolly
sailorman, and to Jiggily Jig. Mary showed her new doll, and Tommy his
toy ship, and then Johnny brought out his music-box, and played some
jolly tunes, and the sailor sang the jolly songs that went with them.
“We got these for Christmas presents, from the man whose hat we chased,
when the wind had blown it off,” explained Mary. “Of course it isn’t
Christmas yet, but it will be on Monday, and we children must ask papa
for some money, so we can buy some presents for our friends,” she said
to her two brothers.
“Oh, would you ask your papa for money to buy presents?” inquired the
jolly sailor, while Jiggily Jig was off in one corner of the room,
trying to stand on his head on a soft cushion.
“Why, how else would we get it, if we didn’t ask papa?” Tommy wanted to
know.
“Why, earn it, of course,” said the jolly sailorman. “Money that you
earn is the best kind of money in the world, and it buys the nicest
kinds of presents, except those you make for yourself. I would rather
have a Christmas present that some one made for me, than any other
kind, except a kind that some one bought with the money they had
earned.”
“But how can we earn money?” asked Tommy.
“Oh, there are lots of ways,” answered the jolly sailorman, just
as Jiggily Jig fell down from trying to stand on his ear. “But, of
course, your papa might not like you to do them, and that wouldn’t
be right. But I think I know of a way that he wouldn’t mind. You can
take Johnny’s music-box, and go out and play jolly tunes, and maybe
the people will give you pennies, and then you can buy some Christmas
presents; that will be better than if you got the money from your papa.”
“But will the people give money just to hear tunes on my music-box?”
asked Johnny.
“I think they will, especially if Jiggily Jig and I go along, to sing
and dance,” said the jolly sailorman.
“Oh, will you really do that?” asked Mary, clapping her hands.
“I will, really,” answered the sailor, as he stumped about on his
wooden leg, and helped Jiggily Jig get up, for the funny boy was all
tangled up in a sofa cushion, that he had stood on to try and turn a
new kind of somersault.
“Oh, then I’ll ask mamma if we can go,” said Johnny.
His mamma said they might, if the sailorman would take care that the
Trippertrot children weren’t lost, and so it was all arranged that they
were to start out the next day.
My, I can’t tell you how excited the three little Trippertrots were
that night! They could hardly sleep, waiting for next day to come, and
Jiggily Jig and the jolly sailorman stayed at the children’s house, in
order to be there early the next morning.
So they started out, and Mary took her doll along, and Tommy took his
toy ship with him. Of course, Johnny had his music-box, and oh! he
played the nicest tunes!
I wish I could play some of them for you, but I don’t know much about
music, except that I love it, just as much as you do. They went from
house to house, Johnny playing all the tunes in his music-box, and say,
I just wish you could have seen Jiggily Jig dance! It was as good as
going to the circus. Sometimes he would stand on one leg, and wave the
other in the air, and then, all of a sudden, he would bounce up, and
turn a double somersault, and then he would stand on his head, and all
the while Johnny would be playing tunes.
And then the jolly sailor! Well, say, he was too nice for anything!
And he sang jolly songs, all about the ocean blue, and sailing away to
distant lands, and about how storms came up, and made the sky dark, and
how the sunshine came out again. Oh! it was really very fine. And Mary
made-believe her doll danced, and Tommy pretended that his ship was
sailing over the ocean blue, and then----
Well, the people in the houses, and the children, too, just loved the
funny dances of Jiggily Jig, and the music that Johnny played, and the
songs the sailorman sang, and they tossed out lots and lots of pennies
to the Trippertrots.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you!” cried the children, as they picked them
up, and put them in their pockets. “Now we can buy lots of Christmas
presents.”
So they went on from street to street, playing and dancing and singing,
until, at last, along came the man who had the three trained dancing
bears--the big one, the middle-sized one, and the little one. And when
he heard what the Trippertrots were doing, he said:
“I’ll come with you, and let my bears dance when Johnny plays his
music-box, and perhaps we will get more pennies.”
So he did that, and, when the people saw the dancing bears, they threw
out more pennies than ever, until Johnny and Tommy and Mary had as many
as they could carry.
“Now I must take you back home again, so you won’t get lost,” said the
jolly sailorman, and so he did. Then he was going away again, but Mr.
Trippertrot asked him to stay and have his Christmas dinner with them,
and the sailor said he would.
They wanted Jiggily Jig to stay, too, but he said he had to eat his
Christmas dinner with Simple Simon and the pieman, and as for the
dancing-bear man, he said he would eat his meal with his pet bears, so
the sailorman was the only one who stayed with the Trippertrots.
And now you may read the story that starts on the next page, if you
like.
ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVENTEEN
THE TRIPPERTROTS’ CHRISTMAS
“Merry Christmas!” cried Mary Trippertrot, as she jumped out of bed on
Christmas morning.
“Merry, merry Christmas!” shouted Tommy.
“Very merry Christmas!” called Johnny.
“And ten thousand of the finest kinds of Christmas joy to everybody in
all the world!” cried the jolly old sailor with the wooden leg, as he
stumped down the stairs after the Trippertrot children, to see what
was on their tree, and what they had in their stockings. “Ten thousand
million of the merriest Christmas joys!” went on the jolly sailorman,
as he stumped along, for he couldn’t go quite as fast as could the
three children, you know.
But do you suppose that worried him? Not a bit of it! He was just as
jolly and happy and contented with his one regular leg, and his other
wooden leg, as if he had forty-’leven wooden legs, set with gold and
diamonds. So he stumped along.
Pretty soon, from the parlor where the children had gone, he heard
shouts and laughter, and the singing of songs, and the blowing on
horns and mouth-organs, and the banging on drums, and the playing of a
music-box, and then the children called again:
“Merry Christmas to everybody, and to papa and mamma especially, and
to Suzette, the nursemaid, and to the jolly sailorman, who brought us
home when we were lost!”
“Bless their hearts!” exclaimed the sailorman with the wooden leg, as
he stumped toward the parlor. “What a fine thing it is to be a child,
and to have Christmas! But there! I’m happy, too, for I have a wooden
leg, and it isn’t every one who has that.”
Then he went into the room where the Christmas tree was, all glowing
with colored lights, for it was still early morning, you know, and dark
yet. And the stockings were hung up, too, close by the fireplace, where
Santa Claus didn’t have much trouble to come down and fill them, and
they were filled, too, if you will kindly believe me.
And such a sight as the jolly sailor saw! There were the children
looking at their toys and picture books, and there stood Suzette, the
nursemaid, and Mr. and Mrs. Trippertrot, looking at the children, and
smiling to see them so happy.
“Well, what did you get, children?” asked the sailorman.
“Oh, what _didn’t_ we get!” gasped Tommy.
“Such a lovely Christmas!” said Mary, with a happy sigh.
“And such beautiful presents,” murmured Johnny, as he looked at a
little train of cars that ran by electricity, and the engine had a real
electric light in front, to scare pink or green cows off the track.
And Tommy was beating a drum, and walking around with a toy gun, making
believe he was a soldier.
And what do you think Mary was doing? Why, she was looking inside and
outside of the nicest doll house you could ever imagine. It had a real
chimney on top, and there was a bathtub, into which you could put real
water, to give a doll a bath, and there was a kitchen with real dishes
in it--only small ones, of course--and there was a parlor, with a tiny
piano in it, and a real rug on the floor. Oh, but Mary was the happy
girl!
And then, of course, there were presents for papa and mamma, and for
Suzette, and--there, if I nearly didn’t forget the jolly sailorman. But
Santa Claus didn’t forget him. The night before Christmas, Mary had
loaned him one of her stockings, and so had Tommy and Johnny, so there
were three stockings hanging up for the jolly sailorman. But he said
he ought only to hang up one, for his wooden leg never had a stocking
on it. However, they made him hang up all three, and now every one was
filled!
There was a nice knife for him, so he could whittle out ships for girls
and boys, and there was a warm scarf, to put around his neck, and warm
mittens, when he had to sail the ship in the cold, and a warm coat; not
all these in the stockings, you understand, of course, but on the floor
under them. And then there was some money, so he could buy a new wooden
leg when his old one wore out.
“Oh, but this is a fine Christmas!” cried the jolly sailorman, and he
danced a jig on one leg nearly as well as Jiggly Jig could on his two
legs. And the children laughed, and were happier than ever.
And, let me see, there’s something else I forgot. There were candies,
and nuts, and oranges, and white grapes, and figs, and oh! I can’t tell
you what else, for there was so much! And the sailorman was glad he had
stayed at the Trippertrots’ for Christmas.
“Well, now, after you have seen all your toys,” finally said Mrs.
Trippertrot, “you children must get dressed, and have breakfast. Then
you may play some more.”
And after breakfast what fun they had with the jolly sailorman! Oh, he
was the nicest sailor I have ever known. I wish you could see him, but
it’s not allowed, you know, and besides, he might knock some splinters
off his wooden leg if he came around to see you all, for there are so
many of you children.
Well, along in the afternoon of Christmas day, when the Trippertrots
had eaten turkey, and cranberry sauce, and lots of good things, they
were looking out of the window of their nursery-room, for they were a
little tired from playing with all their toys.
“Let’s play our choosing game again,” suggested Mary. “I choose the
first thing that comes along.”
“All right,” agreed Tommy and Johnny, and they stuck their little
stubby noses close against the window glass, as they could see out
better that way.
“And may I play your game, too?” asked the jolly sailorman.
“Of course,” answered Tommy and Johnny, “but we always let Mary have
first choice because she’s a girl, and that’s polite, you know.”
“Right you are, my hearties!” cried the sailor. And then Mary, looking
from the window, exclaimed:
“Oh, see what I got! I was to choose the first thing that came along,
and make-believe it was mine, and look! It’s a boy and a girl!”
And, as truly as I’m telling you, it was. Along down the street they
were slowly walking; a boy and a girl, holding hands, and they didn’t
look very happy, I’m sorry to say.
Their clothes were rather ragged, and the three little Trippertrots
could see that the boy’s shoes had big holes in them, where the snow
could come through, for there was snow on the ground, you know. And
the girl’s stockings had holes in them, where the wind could blow
through, and she had only a thin shawl over her head. And the boy had
no overcoat on, only a thin, little jacket.
[Illustration: _She Handed the Basket to the Poor Boy_]