Chapter IV: Part 4

“Oh, see the Christmas trees!” cried Mary, as she and her brothers stopped to look.

“Oh, aren’t they fine!” exclaimed Tommy. And then, all of a sudden, one of the trees fell off the wagon.

“Quick! We must tell the driver man!” shouted Johnny. “He doesn’t know he’s lost a tree.”

“Oh, maybe we can pick it up, and take it around to the front of the wagon to him,” said Mary. So the three Trippertrot children ran up to the tree. But, as it happened, the tree was fast to the wagon by a rope, and when the horses kept on going, of course they pulled the tree along the street with the wagon, like a boy hitching his sled on behind the milkman’s sled.

And then, bless your hearts! just as Mary and Tommy and Johnny ran up to the tree they all stumbled and fell, and down they sat right on the soft branches, and they were being dragged along by the wagon.

“Mercy on us!” cried Suzette, the nursemaid, who was waiting for the children, and who had seen what happened. “Mercy! There they go off once more!”

Then she was so afraid that the children would be carried off, and lost again, that she ran after the wagon and the moving Christmas tree. She grabbed up Mary and her doll, and set the little girl on her feet. Then she ran on a little more and grabbed up Johnny and his music-box, and she set him on his feet, and then she grabbed up Tommy and his ship, and set him on his feet, and then the nursemaid ran to the sidewalk with the three children.

“My! That was a narrow escape!” she exclaimed, all out of breath. “You might all have been lost again. Come into the house at once. Where have you been? Your mamma is waiting for you.”

“Oh, we helped the man get back his hat, that the wind blew off,” said Tommy.

“And just now we were going to tell the man about the Christmas tree that slipped off his wagon,” said Mary.

“Only we didn’t, because we fell down,” spoke Johnny.

“Oh, I’ll tell the man,” said Suzette, the nursemaid. So she called to the tree man, and he stopped his horses, got down, and put the Christmas tree back on his wagon, and he was very thankful that he hadn’t lost it.

Then Suzette took the Trippertrots safely into the house and they thought they would never run away again. But, bless you! just wait and see what happens in the next story.

ADVENTURE NUMBER FIFTEEN

THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TOY SHIP

Up in the nursery of their house the three little Trippertrots were having a good time. Mary was playing with her doll that the kind man had bought for her, and Tommy was playing with his toy ship, and Johnny was playing with his music-box, making believe he was a hand-organ man. Only, of course, he didn’t have any monkey, except a make-believe one.

“Now come on,” said Johnny, as he played a funny tune called: “If It Should Snow or Hail or Rain, Just Get Aboard the Choo-Choo Train.” Yes, Johnny played that tune, and then he called out: “Come on, now, Jacko, climb up and get the pennies.”

“Why, who in the world are you talking to?” asked his sister Mary, as she put her doll to bed in her crib.

“Why, I am talking to my monkey,” answered Johnny. “I am a hand-organ man, and they all have monkeys to climb up the rainpipes on houses, or else up the front stoop to get the pennies for the masters. My monkey doesn’t want to climb, as he is a very little monkey. But I guess he will soon learn.”

“I don’t see any monkey,” spoke Tommy, looking all around the playroom.

“Oh, he’s only a make-believe monkey, just as I am a make-believe hand-organ man,” explained Johnny. “Only my music-box is real, of course, and it plays real tunes. Listen!”

Then he played another one for his brother and sister, and they liked it very much.

“I know what I am going to do,” said Johnny, when the tune was over. “I’m going to put a cushion down on the floor, and then my little make-believe monkey won’t be afraid to climb up, for if he falls he won’t get hurt.”

“Why, how funny!” exclaimed Mary. “If he’s a make-believe monkey he 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!”

“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.

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.

“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Mary. “I--I don’t think I quite like what I picked out. You--you may have ’em, Tommy. I’ll take next choice, and maybe I’ll get a red automobile, and we can go for a make-believe ride.”

Before Tommy could answer, the sailorman said in a soft sort of voice:

“May I have that little boy and girl?--make-believe, you know; the same as you play.”

“Oh, of course,” answered Mary. “You may have them.”

“But what are you going to do with them?” asked Johnny.

“I--I think I’m going to try to make them happy,” said the jolly sailor, only his voice wasn’t quite so jolly now, though it was very kind. “I don’t think they look very happy, do you? I don’t believe they’ve had any Christmas at all,” and the sailorman’s voice was low and gentle, and he blew his nose very hard, almost like a horn.

“I don’t believe they’ve had any Christmas, either!” exclaimed Mary.

“Nor I! Nor I!” added Tommy and Johnny.

“But I know what I’m going to do!” went on the little Trippertrot girl. “I’m going down and get a whole basketful of good things to eat, and I’m going to take some of my toys, and some of the music-box money, and I’m going to give them to those poor children that I choose. I’m going to make-believe keep ’em,” she said, to the sailorman, “and I’m going to try to make ’em happy!”

“So am I!” cried Tommy. “So am I!” cried Johnny.

“I thought you would!” said the sailorman, and now his voice was as happy again as heart could wish, and he was smiling, as he stumped all around the room on his wooden leg.

And then the Trippertrot children, and the sailorman, filled a fine big basket of good things to eat, and they put in some toys for the girl and boy, and some money, and then they hurried out to give it to them--the sailor stumping along behind, and blowing his nose like a Christmas trumpet.

“Here!” cried Mary, as she handed the basket to the poor boy.

“What--what’s this for?” he asked.

“It’s for you!” exclaimed Mary. “For your Christmas--to make you happy!”

“For our Christmas! To make us happy!” repeated the girl, slowly. “Oh, I--I didn’t think we’d ever have a Christmas--or be happy again.”

“Nor me,” said her brother. “Oh, how kind you are!”

“It was the jolly sailor who thought of it,” said Tommy.

“And we’re going home with you, and make you happier yet,” added Johnny, and then, before the jolly sailorman could stop them, Mary had seen a big red auto coming down the street.

“Here,” she cried, “we’ll all get into this. I know the man will let us.” And, when the auto came rumbling up, Mary said to the man who was steering it:

“Please take us, and this boy and girl, home to their house so we can help them have Christmas.”

“Why, certainly I will,” said the man, kindly. Then he helped Mary and Tommy and Johnny and the poor boy and girl into his auto, and he put in the big basket of good things, and away they all went.

“Here! Here! Come back, if you please!” called the jolly sailor, trying to stump along after them with his wooden leg. “You Trippertrots will be lost again, sure pop!”

But Tommy and Mary and Johnny were so interested in going to make a Christmas for the poor boy and girl, that they forgot the jolly sailor, and never heard him calling to them. And they went on and on, farther and farther away, and what happened when they got to the poor boy’s and girl’s house I shall have to tell you in the next story.

ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHTEEN

THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HUNGRY FAMILY

“Well, well!” exclaimed the sailor, as he stumped on along behind the automobile, trying to catch it, but he couldn’t, of course. “Well, well,” he said. “This is certainly very strange. I never saw such odd children, always tripping and trotting off some place or other. I wonder where they’ll land now? I must keep on after them, for it’s partly my fault that they went to give a Christmas dinner to the poor boy and girl, so I must bring them safely back home.”

Well, the automobile kept going faster and faster, for the kind man in it had promised to take the children to where the poor boy and girl lived, and he was doing it. And now I will start and tell you what happened to the children, and then, later, I will tell you what happened to the jolly old sailor.

“Do you live very far from here?” asked Tommy Trippertrot, of the poor boy, as he helped him hold the big basket of turkey, and other good things to eat.

“Oh, not very far,” replied the poor boy. “And we will soon be there, if this auto keeps on going as fast as this.”

“Oh, I will surely do that,” said the man who owned it.

“And didn’t you really have any Christmas dinner?” asked Mary, of the poor girl.

“Oh, my, no!” exclaimed the poor girl. “We haven’t had a Christmas dinner in so long that I’ve forgotten how one tastes. Papa hasn’t any work, you know, and mamma isn’t very well, and--and----”

“And we don’t have even ordinary every-day dinners very often!” exclaimed the poor boy.

“Hush!” said his sister, softly; “you mustn’t tell all your troubles.”

“Well, aren’t we often hungry?” he asked. “You know we are!”

“Yes,” replied his sister, “but we’re going to have something to eat _now_,” and she looked at the basket of good things that Mary and her brothers had packed for them.

“Where do you want me to take you?” asked the auto man. “Do you know where your house is?”

“Do you mean us, or them?” asked Tommy, as he looked at the poor boy and girl.

“Because, if you mean us,” went on Johnny, “we don’t know where our house is. We’re lost again, I can easily tell that.”

“How?” asked the man.

“Because we are always getting lost,” spoke Mary. “And, besides, we’ve never been on this street before, or in this part of the city. Oh, there’s no doubt of it--we’re lost, but we don’t care. It happens so often that we’re used to it by this time.”

“Besides,” said Johnny, “some one is sure to come for us. Either the old fisherman, or the pink-cow man, or Jiggily Jig, the funny boy, or Simple Simon, or the pieman. Oh! some one will find us and take us home.”

“Besides, there’s the jolly sailor,” remarked Mary.

“That’s so!” cried Johnny. “We forgot him. I wonder where he is?”

“You left him behind,” replied the poor boy. “I heard him calling after us, but I thought he wanted to stop us from having a Christmas dinner, or for going too fast, so I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, the poor, jolly sailorman!” cried Mary. “I hope he is all right.”

“Oh, I guess he can take care of himself,” said the auto man, with a smile. “But now can you tell me where you live?” he asked of the poor boy and girl. “I do hope you aren’t lost.”

“No, indeed,” answered the poor girl. “We live away at the other end of the city, and it’s not in a very nice place. If you don’t want to take your auto there, you can stop at the corner, and we can walk the rest of the way.”

“I guess my auto isn’t afraid of poor streets, as long as there aren’t any tacks in them, to make holes in the tires,” spoke the man, with a laugh.

Then they went on for quite some distance farther, and, all of a sudden, the man cried out:

“Oh, look! What is that funny thing? It keeps jumping up and down, and then turning over. What can it be?”

“Where?” asked all the children, as they looked around, and the man pointed right ahead of his auto.

“Why, it’s Jiggily Jig!” exclaimed Mary, in surprise, as she saw the funny boy doing his funny dance in the street and turning his funny somersaults. “How in the world did he ever get here?”

“I danced all the way,” answered Jiggily Jig, as he heard Mary speak. “I was paying a visit to Simple Simon, and the pieman, but they had to go to the fair, to sell the pieman’s pieware, and so I went off dancing by myself. But I’m very glad to meet you all again,” and he made such funny little bows, and sang such a queer little song, and was altogether so happy and jolly, that he was almost as good as the sailor with the wooden leg, and the poor boy cried out:

“Oh, I wish we had some one jolly like that at our house.”

“Why, Jiggily will come; won’t you?” asked Mary. “Won’t you come and help us make a jolly Christmas for these new friends of ours?” and she pointed to the poor boy and girl.

“Of course I will!” answered Jiggily, quickly. “I’ll sing and dance and turn somersaults. I can somersault all the way there, if you want me to.”

“Oh, no, get into the auto,” invited the man, and soon Jiggily was riding along with the others. And in a little while they came to the place where the poor family lived. And it was also a very hungry family, as well as very poor, for none of them had had anything to eat that day, and the papa had no work to earn money, and the mamma was sick, and there were some other children besides the poor boy and girl.

“Oh, mamma!” cried the poor girl, as she rushed into the house with the big basket of good things to eat, which her brother helped carry, “we have a Christmas dinner at last!”

“And real turkey,” said the boy, his eyes opening very big, as he thought of the good things in the basket.

Well, I can’t tell you how pleased the poor, hungry family was at what the Trippertrots had brought. They almost cried, they were so happy, and then they began to eat, and Jiggily Jig did some of his funny dances, and made them all laugh. Of course, he and Tommy, Mary and Johnny, didn’t eat, because they had had their Christmas dinners that day, and so weren’t hungry.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a noise outside, and the auto man called:

“Well, good-by, I’m going!”

“Wait! You must take the Trippertrots home!” called the poor girl after him.

“Oh, that would be of no use,” spoke Mary, quickly. “We don’t know where we live, and it would take too much time riding around trying to find our house.”

“But what will you do?” asked the poor man, who was the head of the hungry family, as the auto puffed off.

“Oh, some one will be sure to come for us,” said Mary.

“That’s right,” agreed Tommy and Johnny, and they looked around the room, where the hungry family lived. It wasn’t a very nice room, but it was clean. And as for the hungry family, they weren’t hungry any more, because they had eaten nearly all the things in the basket. It was like when the Trippertrots took the Thanksgiving dinner to the poor family, you know.

And, all of a sudden, ten cute, little, tiny mice peeked out from a hole in the floor, and they made their whiskers go backward and forward, and they sniffed with their sharp little noses, and their bright eyes looked all around.

“Oh, aren’t they too dear for anything!” exclaimed Mary. “I wonder what they want?”

“I guess they want to be fed, too,” spoke the poor boy. “They live in this house, and they’re hungry, too. Nearly everybody around here is hungry, I guess, the same as we were.”

“Well, we’ll give them some crumbs,” suggested Johnny, and the children did this, and I just wish you could have seen the mice eat them up. It was Christmas for them, too.

So Mary and Tommy and Johnny Trippertrot stayed all that afternoon at the house of the hungry family, and they played games, and had a good time. But still no one came for the runaways.

“I wonder if no one is ever coming?” said Mary. “We can’t stay here forever.”

“I’m sure you’re welcome, as long as you like to stay,” said the poor lady, kindly.

“But what has become of Jiggily Jig?” asked Johnny. “He might know his way to our house by this time.”

“Jiggily Jig went dancing off after the auto,” said the poor man of the hungry family.

“Then I don’t see what has happened to the jolly sailorman,” spoke Mary. “He ought to be along soon.”

And now I am going to tell you what happened to him. As he was stumping along on his wooden leg trying to catch up to the auto with the Trippertrots in it, all of a sudden, he stepped into a mud-hole under some snow, and his wooden leg went away down in, and he couldn’t get it out again.

“Oh, dear! I’m stuck here, and I can’t keep on after Mary and Tommy and Johnny,” he cried. “Oh, what bad luck!”

Then he tried harder and harder to get his wooden leg out of the hole, but he couldn’t. He was stuck fast. So that’s the reason he couldn’t go get the Trippertrots, for, you see, he knew he could find the place where they were, as he was a sailor, and had sailed all over the world, and could find any place. But the Trippertrots didn’t know why the jolly sailor didn’t come.

ADVENTURE NUMBER NINETEEN

THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE ELEPHANT

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, me! Oh, my!” cried the jolly sailorman, as he pulled and struggled and twisted this way and that, trying to get his wooden leg loose. “Whatever shall I do?”

He looked all around to see if any one was coming to help him, but he could see no one, for it was still Christmas day, you remember, and I suppose most of the people were in their houses, sleeping after dinner, and the children were playing with their toys, and even the policemen must have had some presents to look at, for none of the officers were around to help the jolly sailorman.

I suppose you wonder how he could be jolly when he was in such trouble--his wooden leg stuck in the mud, and night coming on, when it would soon be cold and dark. And then, too, he was worried about what might happen to the Trippertrots, for he was sort of responsible for their having run away this time.

But, in spite of all that, the sailorman was real jolly, even as he pulled and tugged to get his wooden leg loose from the mud-hole. He laughed and he joked, even though there was no one there to hear him, and he even sang a little song that went something like this:

“Here I am, stuck hard and fast.
But surely I’ll get out at last.
And when I do I think I’ll take
And boil myself a chocolate cake!”

Then he whistled and sung the second verse, which tells about roasting a lemon pie, and once more he cried out:

“Oh, dear, will I ever get out of here?”

“Why, yes, I think so,” said a pleasant voice behind him, and there stood a great, big, kind elephant, with his trunk all packed ready to take a journey, and there was no man with him, only just the big elephant, all alone by himself.

“Did--did you speak?” asked the sailorman of the elephant, wondering whether he was dreaming or not.

“Why, yes, I did,” answered the big animal. “Have you any objections? For if you have----”

“Oh, no, not any, I do assure you,” spoke the sailor, quickly. “Only I didn’t know that elephants could speak.”

“Neither did I until I tried,” said the elephant. “One seldom does know what one can do until one tries. However, I’m glad I can speak, because I want to help you, but there are two things I’d like to mention before I do.”

“What are they?” asked the sailor. “Please ask them as quickly as you can, for my wooden leg is freezing fast in the mud, and I fear I shall never get loose in time to go get the Trippertrot children.”

“Well, my first question,” said the elephant, “is why did you sing about boiling a chocolate cake? A cake is baked, never boiled, you know.”

“Well,” said the sailor, “that just shows how little I _do_ know. I never made a chocolate cake, though I am very fond of them, and I supposed boiling them was as good as baking.”

“Never,” spoke the elephant through his long nose. “Never!”

“Well, what is your second question?” asked the jolly sailor, thinking how strange it was for the big animal to talk.

“For my second question,” spoke the elephant, “I should like to know how you could roast a lemon pie?”

“Well, I suppose I was wrong about that, too, just as I was about the cake,” admitted the sailor.

“You were,” said the elephant, flagging his big ears, “but no matter. You will know better next time you sing. Now I am going to help you out of the mud.”

And with that, the big, kind elephant put his trunk around the sailor’s wooden leg, close to where it was stuck in the mud, and he gave a long, strong pull, that brave elephant did, and up came the wooden leg, not a bit the worse from having been stuck in the mud, and the sailor was able to stump around on it once more as well as ever.

“Ah, thank you very much,” the sailorman said to the elephant. “Now I can go get the Trippertrot children.”

“And I’ll go with you!” exclaimed the elephant. “I will let you ride on my back, and the children can ride there, too.”

“Oh, that will be fine,” cried the jolly sailor. “But how does it happen that you are going about by yourself, and are not in the circus? Especially on Christmas day.”

“That is easily explained,” said the elephant. “You see, I am so well trained that the circus men trust me to go about all alone by myself. I am a trick elephant, you know, and I go to houses and do tricks for the people, and for the children. Shall I do some tricks for you?”

“One or two, if you please,” answered the sailor, “and then we must start after those children, for it is growing late.”

So the elephant did the funny trick of standing on one leg, and waving his trunk in the air, and then he stood up on the end of his trunk and waved his four feet in the air, and that was really very good. Indeed it was!

“Now get up on my back,” the elephant said to the sailor, “and away we’ll go after those children, for I just love children.”

And then, as easily as the baby can cry when it’s hungry, or when a pin sticks in it, which I hope never happens--as easily as that, I say--the elephant lifted the sailor in his trunk, and set him upon his back.

Away they started, and that sailor knew just where to look for the Trippertrot children, for he remembered which way the auto had gone with the poor boy and girl, and, in a little while, there they were--the sailor and the jolly elephant--oh, I mean the jolly sailor and the elephant were at the house of the poor family.

They could hear laughter and shouting inside, and they knew the poor people had been made happy by the Trippertrots. So the elephant tapped on the door with his trunk, and my goodness sakes alive! How surprised Tommy and Johnny and Mary were to see the big animal standing there, with the jolly sailor on his back.

“Look! Look!” cried Mary.

“Oh, I wonder if it’s a real elephant?” asked Johnny.

“We must be dreaming!” exclaimed Tommy. “Here, Johnny, you pinch me, and that will tell if I’m awake or not.”

So Johnny pinched Tommy and he pinched his brother’s leg harder than he meant to, for Tommy cried “Ouch!” Then he knew he was awake, for he could feel the pinch as quickly as anything.

“I guess it must be a real elephant,” said Mary.

“Well, if you have some real peanuts here I can eat them,” said the elephant, speaking through his long nose. “And then you can be sure about it.” And, as it happened, Johnny did have some peanuts in his pocket, and he gave them to the elephant, who ate them, and that proved that he was real, and not a dream.

“Come!” cried the jolly sailor, “I have come to take you home, children. It is getting late, and your papa and mamma will be worried about you, and so will Suzette, the nursemaid.”

“Oh, but can’t we look at the elephant a little while, before you take him away?” asked the poor children.