you to stay in the house until I get back. It is rather chilly out of
doors, and it looks as if it might rain. So stay in, play with your
toys, or look at your picture books, but don’t go out.”
“Can’t we go out at all, mamma?” asked Mary Trippertrot, as she looked
in a glass to see if her hair ribbon was on straight.
“No,” said her mother, as she looked in the glass to see if her hat was
on straight.
“Not even if the house should tumble down on us?” asked Tommy
Trippertrot.
“Well, if something most extraordinary like that happens, you _may_ run
out,” said Mrs. Trippertrot, trying not to laugh.
“Of course,” spoke Johnny, “we wouldn’t want to be all squashed up,
like pancakes.”
“Oh, I just love pancakes--the kind you eat, I mean!” exclaimed Mary.
“May we have some, mamma?”
“Perhaps. I’ll see about it when I get back. Now good-by,” she said to
them, “and be good children, and don’t go out unless you really have
to.”
[Illustration: HE BEGAN TO PLAY A JOLLY LITTLE TUNE]
So they promised, and they all crowded to the window of the big front
room to wave their hands to their mamma as she went down the steps.
Then they began to play with their toys, and to look at picture books,
until pretty soon Mary said:
“Oh, dear! This isn’t any fun!”
“No, indeed,” agreed Tommy.
“I--I almost wish we could run away again, and get lost,” said Johnny
boldly.
“Oh-o-o-o-o-o!” exclaimed Mary. “You wouldn’t really go tripping and
trotting off again, would you?”
“I would, if something happened,” said Johnny, and he tried to make
all of his toy soldiers stand up in a line, but they fell over and
bumped their noses on the carpet, and one soldier lost his sword. Then
the children played circus for a while, and Tommy was a make-believe
elephant, who lived in a cave under the big chair, until all at once
Mary said:
“I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask Suzette to build a nice
fire in the open grate. Then we can sit and watch the flames go up the
chimney, and we can make-believe we see pictures in them.”
“Oh, that will be fine!” cried Tommy and Johnny.
So Suzette came in, and built a fine, big fire on the large open brick
hearth. And dear me! how the flames did roar up the chimney! for
Suzette put on a great deal of wood. It burned and it blazed, and then,
all of a sudden, the front doorbell rang.
“There’s mamma come back!” cried Mary, as she ran to open the door.
Tommy and Johnny followed her, but instead of Mrs. Trippertrot being
there, it was a fireman, in his nice blue uniform, with silver buttons
on the coat, and he was wiping his feet on the mat.
“Quick!” he cried, for firemen always have to be quick, you know.
“Quick! Let me in! The chimney is on fire, and I must put it out!”
“Put out which, the fire or the chimney?” asked Tommy, who was often a
funny sort of a little fellow.
“Put the fire out, of course,” cried the fireman. “Ha! I thought so!”
he exclaimed, when he had rushed into the front room and had seen the
big blaze in the fireplace. “There is too much wood on there. Quick,
get me a lot of salt!”
So Mary ran to the kitchen to get the salt, for Suzette had gone
upstairs, to make the beds, I guess, and the nursemaid didn’t even
know the fireman was in the house. Back Mary came running with a whole
bowlful of salt.
“Oh, please, Mr. Fireman,” said Tommy, “before you put out the fire,
mayn’t we just run out on the sidewalk and see it spouting up out of
the chimney top? Mayn’t we, please? We’ve never seen a chimney on fire.”
“Mamma said we weren’t to go out,” spoke Mary.
“But this is a most extra-extra-extraordinary occasion,” said Tommy.
“It isn’t exactly like the house falling down, but if the fire in the
chimney burns long enough it may fall down, mightn’t it, Mr. Fireman?”
“Oh, yes,” he answered, and he got ready to throw salt on the fire, for
that puts out a blaze in the chimney, you know. Yes, really it does.
I’m not fooling a bit, honestly.
“Oh, may we go out?” asked Mary this time, and the fireman said they
might, and that he’d wait a minute before he threw the salt on the
flames. So out the Trippertrots ran, and sure enough, there was a lot
of fire coming out of the top of their chimney. You see, the soot--that
is, the black stuff inside--had caught fire from the big blaze Suzette
had made on the hearth.
Then, all of a sudden, as the children stood on the sidewalk, the fire
went out, for the fireman threw on the salt.
“Now we must run in,” said Mary. “It’s chilly here, and the fire’s out,
anyhow, so there’s nothing more to see. Come on, boys.”
In the children ran, and the fireman was getting ready to go out, for
he had finished his work. He said he happened to be passing along the
street, when he saw the chimney on fire, and then he hurried in.
“But now the fire is out, and so I am going out, too,” said the
fireman; and out he went, as quickly as you can stub your toe on a
stone in the road.
“Now there isn’t any nice warm blaze on the hearth,” said Mary, after a
while. “What shall we play now? We can’t look at pictures in the fire.”
“Oh, I just thought of something!” cried Tommy.
“What?” asked Johnny.
“We forgot to thank that fireman,” went on Tommy, “and that’s very
impolite. He did us a great favor in putting out the chimney fire, and
now I’m going to run after him and thank him.”
“So am I,” said Johnny.
“Oh, but mamma wouldn’t like us to go out; you know she wouldn’t,” said
Mary quickly.
“She wouldn’t like us not to thank the fireman, either,” spoke Johnny.
“I guess this is one of those most extra-extra-extraordinary occasions
she spoke of, like the house falling down, so I’m going.”
Then he put on his hat and coat, and Tommy did the same.
“Well, if you two are going, I’m not going to stay here alone,” said
Mary. “I’ll come also.”
Well, Suzette wasn’t there to stop them, and in another minute away
the Trippertrot children were tripping and trotting again. They just
couldn’t seem to stay home, could they?
They looked up the street, but they couldn’t see the kind fireman. Then
they looked down the street, but they couldn’t see him there, either.
“I know what we’ll do,” said Tommy. “We’ll walk along until we come to
the fire-house where he lives, and then we’ll thank him.”
So, hand in hand, they went down the street, looking for the
fire-house. Pretty soon they met a man.
“Can you please tell us where to find the fireman?” asked Tommy
politely.
“Why, is your house on fire?” asked the man quickly.
“No, but the chimney was, and the kind fireman put it out, but we
forgot to thank him, and now we’re looking for him,” said Mary.
“Oh, well, the fire-house is just around the corner, and down the
street a little way,” said the man. “But don’t get lost,” and he smiled
at them.
“I guess he knows we’re the Trippertrots,” spoke Johnny. “But we won’t
get lost this time.”
Pretty soon they were at the fire-house where the firemen live, and
where they keep the fire-engine and the horses. There were some firemen
in front of the place, so Tommy went up to them and said:
“If you please, we want to thank the kind fireman who put out the blaze
in our chimney, because we forgot it when he was at our house. But I
don’t see him here,” the little Trippertrot boy went on, as he looked
among all the firemen, and couldn’t pick out the special one he wanted.
“Oh, yes,” said the captain of the firemen, “that was George. He
telephoned to me that he had put out a chimney fire on his way home to
dinner. You see, he hasn’t yet come back,” the captain said to the
children, “but if you would like to stay here a while he will soon
come, and you can thank him.”
“Shall we stay?” asked Mary of her brothers.
“Yes,” said Johnny and Tommy quickly, but they didn’t look at Mary, for
they were looking through the doorway at the shining fire-engine and
the big brass bell on the wall.
“But maybe we’ll get lost, and mamma wouldn’t like us to stay here,”
went on Mary.
“Oh, we can’t get lost in a fire-house,” said Tommy, and he wished the
horses would run out, so he could see them.
“Besides, I guess the firemen know where our house is,” said Johnny.
“You do, don’t you?” he asked of the captain. “It’s a house with a red
chimney on it.”
“I guess I can find it,” answered the captain, with a laugh, and all
the men laughed, too. Then the children went inside the fire-house, and
all of a sudden a big bell began to ring.
Ding! Dong! Cling! Clang!
Those firemen rushed about like anything, and the captain grabbed
up the children and set them on a table, and the horses ran out and
hitched themselves to the shining engine. Then men and horses ran out
with the engine, and there the Trippertrots were--left all alone in the
fire-house.
ADVENTURE NUMBER TEN
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY BOY
“Why, where in the world do you s’pose all the horses and the men went
to?” asked Mary Trippertrot, as she looked at her two brothers, who,
like herself, were on top of the table where the fireman captain had
set them. “Where did they go in such a hurry?”
“To a fire, of course,” answered Tommy. “Whenever the bell rings there
is a fire, and the horses and the men have to take the engine to it.”
“Does the engine want to see the fire?” asked Johnny.
“No. It wants to squirt water on it and put it out,” replied his
brother.
“Do the firemen have to go to a fire even at night?” asked Mary.
“Of course,” replied Tommy.
“Then I should think they’d take out the bell after supper, or fix
it so it couldn’t ring, and make them go to fires,” went on Mary. “I
shouldn’t like to go out in the dark. Why, some nights it rains or
snows!”
“Oh, ho! That doesn’t make any difference to a fireman,” said Tommy.
“Firemans is always brave; aren’t they, Johnny?”
“Of course,” replied Johnny. “And some one makes the bell ring in the
fire-house, so they will know where the fire is, and go to put it out,
same as the one put out the fire in our chimney.”
“That’s so,” spoke Mary. “I wonder when he is coming back? He missed
going to this fire.”
“Oh, he’ll be along pretty soon,” said Tommy. “We’ll just wait here.
The bell may ring some more, and besides, I haven’t seen half the
things. I guess we can get down off the table now.”
“But do you think we ought to stay?” asked Mary, who wasn’t exactly
sure that they were doing right.
“Of course we must stay,” said Johnny. “Why, we haven’t thanked the
fireman yet for doing us that favor, and mamma wouldn’t want us to come
home until we had done it.”
“That’s right,” added Tommy. “Why, don’t you remember once Mrs. Smith
gave me a piece of cake, and I forgot to thank her, and came home, and
mamma sent me back to tell Mrs. Smith I was much obliged? And I’m real
glad I went back, for she gave me a second piece of cake. Oh, yes, we
must always be polite in this world.”
“Yes; and now let’s look at all the shiny things,” suggested Johnny.
So he and his brother and sister went all around inside the fire-engine
house. Pretty soon the fireman came in who had put out the chimney fire
in the Trippertrot home.
“Why, bless me!” he exclaimed in surprise. “Everybody has gone to
another fire, and I must go, too!” And he was about to run out on the
street again, to find where the fire was, when Mary said:
“Oh, but if you please, couldn’t you first wait until we thank you, and
then can’t you take us home? For I’m afraid we’ll get lost if we go by
ourselves. We’re always getting lost, you know. But we forgot to thank
you, so we came here to do it.”
“Bless me! That was kind of you,” said the fireman. “But I really
haven’t time to stay, for I must go and help the captain and the men
put out this other fire. I really can’t stay.” And once more he was
about to run off.
“Quick! Thank him, Johnny and Tommy!”
“We thank you!” said Tommy and Johnny together, making two low bows.
“And so do I thank you for not letting our chimney burn up,” said Mary,
making her nicest bow.
“Well, you’re welcome, I’m sure,” replied the fireman. “But really,
now, I must hurry away.”
“Oh, I just know we’ll be lost!” cried Mary.
“Hold on! Wait a minute!” exclaimed the fireman. “I have an idea.
Here!” he called to a funny-looking boy who just then came into the
fire-house. “Jiggily, will you please take these children home, so
they won’t get lost? I put out a chimney fire in their house to-day,
and they came here to thank me. You take them home. You know where the
Trippertrot house is, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes,” said the funny boy. “I can take them home, all right, and
I’ll be glad to do it.”
“Then I can go to this other fire,” said the fireman, and away he ran,
like Tom-Tom the piper’s son, waving his hand to the children as he
hurried along the street.
“Come on, little ones!” called the funny boy. “I’ll see you safely
home.”
“Is your name Jiggily?” asked Mary, and she didn’t quite know whether
she liked the funny boy or not, for he was very funny-looking.
He had on a funny suit, partly green and partly yellow, and his nose
was stubby and short and turned up at the end, as if it was always
trying to fly up to the stars; but the boy looked kind, and he was
always laughing or smiling.
“Yes, my name is Jiggily,” he said to Mary, as they all walked out of
the fire-engine house.
“Haven’t you any other name?” asked Tommy.
“Oh, yes, of course,” answered the funny boy. “My other name is Jig; so
you see my whole name is Jiggily Jig.”
“How did you get that name?” inquired Johnny.
“Why, they call me that because I can dance a jig,” said the funny boy.
“Would you like to see me?”
“Indeed we would,” spoke all the Trippertrot children together, and
then and there that funny boy did a funny little dance in front of the
fire-engine house. And a little black poodle dog that was running past
in the street saw him, and would you ever believe it, if I didn’t tell
you? but that dog tried to dance just as Jiggily Jig was doing.
But, bless you, all of a sudden the doggie slipped on a piece of banana
skin, and he almost fell down. He would have, too, only Jiggily Jig
caught him by the tail and stood him on his feet again--on the dog’s
feet, you understand, not those of Jiggily Jig--which shows you that
you must never, never throw banana skins on the sidewalk, as they are
very slippery.
“Oh, that was a very nice dance,” said Mary, who went to dancing school
sometimes.
“Can you do anything else?” asked Tommy, and he wished the funny boy
would come and live with them.
“Yes, I can whistle on my fingers,” said Jiggily Jig. So he put his
fingers in between his lips, just as if he was going to eat a piece of
pie, only, of course, he didn’t really have any pie, or cake, either,
and then the funny boy whistled as loudly as an automobile horn can
toot.
“Oh, my!” cried Mary, and she had to put her hands over her ears,
because Jiggily Jig whistled so loudly.
“My, that was fine!” cried Johnny and Tommy, who wished they could
whistle that way.
“Can you do anything else?” asked Johnny.
“Yes. I can stand on my head and wiggle my feet in the air,” answered
Jiggily Jig; and before anybody could stop him, even if they had wanted
to, which, of course, they didn’t, that funny boy was standing on his
head in front of the engine-house, and he was waving his feet in the
air, as easily as a baby can wiggle its pink toes.
“Oh, that’s great!” cried Tommy and Johnny together.
“Yes; I’m going to try it,” said Johnny.
“No! You mustn’t!” exclaimed his sister. “You might slip, and get
dirty.”
“Yes, and you might slip and also get hurt,” said Jiggily Jig. “The
best place to try that trick, until you learn how, is safely at home,
in the middle of the bed. Then, if you fall, you won’t get hurt.”
“I’m going to do it as soon as I get home,” said Johnny.
“Do you know any more tricks?” asked Tommy.
“Oh, my gracious goodness me sakes alive!” cried Mary, shaking her
finger at her brothers and the funny boy. “Please don’t show them any
more tricks, or we’ll never get home to-day. Can’t you take us home
now, Jiggily Jig?”
“Oh, yes,” answered the funny boy. “I forgot where we were going. Come
along, little ones.”
So along the street they went, the Trippertrots and Jiggily Jig. But
they couldn’t go very fast, because every once in a while Jiggily Jig
would have to stop and dance, and, of course, he couldn’t walk then.
And sometimes he would whistle on his fingers, and all the dogs in all
the streets for half a mile around would think he was whistling at
them, and they’d come running up, wagging their tails; and, of course,
when there were a whole lot of dogs around them the children couldn’t
walk at all.
[Illustration: _Jiggily Jig Would Stand on His Head._]
And then, again, Jiggily Jig would stand on his head, and that would
make a crowd of people come around; and then, too, the Trippertrots
couldn’t walk on through the crowd.
“Oh, we’ll never get home, at this rate!” said Mary, and she felt a
little bit like crying, for she thought her mamma would be in the house
by this time, and would worry because her little children weren’t home.
“Yes, we will soon be there,” said Jiggily Jig, as he looked around
to see if he could locate the Trippertrot house. But he couldn’t yet
discover where it was.
“I think it must be around the next corner,” said the funny boy at
last. “Come on. We will soon be there.”
Well, they turned the corner, but still the Trippertrot home wasn’t
in sight, and even Tommy and Johnny were beginning to be worried now,
when, all of a sudden, they saw coming toward them a man pushing a
little wagon on two wheels, and on the wagon were a lot of pies; and
behind the man was another queer-looking boy, almost like Jiggily Jig.
“Oh! Who is that?” cried Mary.
“Why, the man pushing the wagon is a pieman,” said Jiggily Jig.
“And who is the boy?” asked Johnny.
“Why, that is Simple Simon,” answered Jiggily Jig. “You know he used
to be in Mother Goose’s book. ‘Simple Simon met a pieman going to the
fair. Said Simple Simon to the pieman, let me taste your ware.’ That’s
who the boy is.”
“Oh, how glad I am to meet them!” cried Mary.
“And is the pieman going to a fair or circus?” asked Johnny.
“No, he is just coming back, because the circus is over!” exclaimed
Simple Simon. “But he’s got lots of pies left. Hey, Jiggily Jig!”
called Simple Simon to the funny boy. “Let’s see who can turn the most
somersaults.”
And then those two funny boys began turning somersaults down the
street, going over and over, faster and faster, and getting farther and
farther away from the Trippertrots.
“Oh, he’s gone--Jiggily Jig is gone, and we’ll never get home!” cried
Mary.
“Never mind,” said the kind pieman, “I think I can take you home. Come
with me.”
ADVENTURE NUMBER ELEVEN
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PIEMAN
The Trippertrot children stood on the sidewalk, looking after Jiggily
Jig, the funny boy, and Simple Simon, turning somersaults. Then the
Trippertrot children looked at the pieman.
“Whatever shall we do?” asked Mary. “Oh, I wish we had never left the
house when mamma told us not to! What shall we do?”
“Go with the pieman, of course,” answered Johnny.
“Yes, and maybe he’ll give us each a pie, and mamma or Suzette could
pay him when he gets to our house. I’m very hungry,” spoke Tommy.
“So am I,” said Johnny.
“And I guess I am also,” added Mary.
“Why, bless your hearts!” exclaimed the kind pieman. “Hungry, eh? That
will never do! I can’t bear to see hungry children. Step right up to
the pie wagon, and help yourselves. I have apple pie, peach pie, lemon
pie, cocoanut pie, orange pie, cranberry pie, and even sawdust pie, but
I wouldn’t like to give you any of that last. Sawdust pie is very hard
to eat.”
“Who does eat sawdust pie?” asked Mary, wondering what it looked like.
“Oh, sawdust pie is for sawdust dolls,” said the pieman. “I make it
especially for them. That’s really the only thing they can eat. But
what kind would you children like--lemon, peach, custard----”
“Oh, I just love custard pie!” interrupted Johnny, smacking his lips.
“So do I!” cried Tommy.
“And mamma says it’s very good for us,” added Mary.
“Only--only,” spoke Tommy slowly, “we haven’t any money to pay you with
just now, Mr. Pieman.”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter in the least,” spoke the kind pieman, winking
both his eyes, one after the other.
“But when Simple Simon wanted to taste of your pies you made him show
you first his penny,” said Johnny.
“And he didn’t have any,” added Mary.
“Oh, but _that_ was Simple Simon,” said the pieman, with a laugh. “He’s
different, Simon is. Why, he’d eat every pie on my wagon if I didn’t
make him show me his penny every now and then. And sometimes he loses
it, and then he can’t have any pie for a week. But I don’t want any
money from you Trippertrot children.”
“What kind of pie does Simple Simon like best?” asked Tommy, as he
went close up to the pie wagon, and saw that there were several large
custard pies on it.
“Oh, he’ll eat almost any kind,” replied the pieman, “but most
especially he likes a Christmas pie, the kind I always make for little
Jack Horner, who sits in a corner. Yes, Simon is very fond of Christmas
pies, with sugar plums in them.”
“Do you make pies for Jack Horner?” asked Johnny.
“To be sure,” answered the pieman, “else he wouldn’t have any to stick
his thumb in. But come, now, choose your custard pie, and after you eat
it we’ll travel on and see if you can find your home.”
“Why, don’t you know where it is?” asked Mary.
“No,” answered the pieman. “I thought you did.”
“Oh, there we go again!” cried Tommy. “We’re lost once more! Jiggily
Jig knew where our house was, but he’s gone off!”
“Yes, he’s gone off, sure enough,” agreed the pieman, and he looked
down the street, but he couldn’t see either Jiggily Jig or Simple Simon.
“I thought perhaps Jiggily Jig would have told you where our house was
before he began turning those somersaults,” said Mary.
“Bless you, no, he didn’t,” answered the pieman. “But you never can
depend on Jiggily Jig. He’s too fond of doing funny tricks. But don’t
worry. I dare say I can manage to find your house. So come along, eat
your pie, and be happy.”
Then he cut a nice, fresh custard pie for them, and gave them each a
piece. Oh, it was most delicious! Which means very nice, you know. Yes,
that pie was certainly good, and I wish I could give you all some, if
you were allowed to eat it, but I’m not--I mean I’m not allowed to give
you any, because there wouldn’t be enough to go around.
“Well, now, if you’re all ready, we’ll start off,” said the kind
pieman, when the Trippertrot children had finished eating. “We will go
up one street and down another, and perhaps after a while we may come
to your home.”
“I’m afraid we won’t,” answered Mary. “We always do seem to have such
bad luck in losing our home. I’m sure we never mean to run off, but
something always seems to happen.”
“This time it was a fire,” said Johnny.
“And the other time it was a little lost girl, crying in the street,”
spoke Tommy.
“Well, never mind,” said the pieman. “I’ll sing a little song as we go
along, and people will come to the doors or windows of their houses to
see what I have to sell, and some of the people may see you children,
and know you. Then they can tell me where to take you home.”
“Oh, goody!” cried Mary, dancing up and down, almost like Jiggily Jig
did.
“Lots and lots of people know us,” said Johnny. “I’m sure that would be
a very good plan.”
“Then we’ll do it,” spoke the pieman. “Now let me see, what song shall
I sing? Oh, I know one.” And then he sang this song:
“I am a jolly pieman,
My pies are nice and sweet;
They’re made of many different things
For boys and girls to eat.
If you would kindly try them,
I think you’d like them, too,
Because there is a special pie
Made specially for you.
“There’s lemon, peach and apple,
And cocoanut and plum,
And custard pie and orange,
And also chewing-gum.
But, best of all, is Christmas,
A pie you all may eat,
The kind Jack Horner had when he
Sat in his corner seat.”
Well, no sooner had the kind pieman finished his song than all the
people along the street began opening their doors and windows, and
putting their heads out.
“Ho! Ho!” cried some boys and girls who were just home from school. “We
would like some pies.”
“Then come and get them,” said the pieman, and the boys and girls, and
lots of ladies, also, came around the pieman’s wagon, and bought his
pies.
Then, when he was wrapping up the pies, or taking in the money, or
making change, the pieman would say:
“Do any of you boys or girls, or ladies know where these children live?”
“Why, don’t they know where they live themselves?” asked one lady.
“Oh, no,” answered the pieman. “These are the three little
Trippertrots, and they are always getting lost. I am looking for their
house as I go along selling pies.”