Part 1
[Illustration: THE FIREMAN RUSHED ABOUT LIKE ANYTHING]
Three Little Trippertrots
HOW THEY RAN AWAY AND HOW THEY GOT BACK AGAIN
BY HOWARD R. GARIS
AUTHOR OF “THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS ON THEIR TRAVELS,” “THE BEDTIME STORIES,” “UNCLE WIGGILY’S ADVENTURES,” ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK GRAHAM & MATLACK PUBLISHERS
THE TRIPPERTROT STORIES
BY HOWARD R. GARIS
Quarto. Illustrated. Price, per volume, 60 cents, postpaid
THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS
How They Ran Away and How They Got Back Again
THREE LITTLE TRIPPERTROTS ON THEIR TRAVELS
The Wonderful Things They Saw and the Wonderful Things They Did
GRAHAM & MATLACK, Publishers, New York
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY GRAHAM & MATLACK
_Three Little Trippertrots_
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
The stories of the Three Little Trippertrots, though never before published, have been told to thousands of children, in a way, probably, that no tales have ever before been related. They were read _over the telephone_, nightly, to thousands of little folks, by means of the system operated by the N. J. Telephone Herald Company. The stories so delighted the children that the author has yielded to the request to issue them in book form.
CONTENTS
ADVENTURE PAGE
I. THE TRIPPERTROTS ARE LOST 1
II. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE KIND POLICEMAN 7
III. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HAND-ORGAN MAN 15
IV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY HORSES 21
V. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE OLD FISHERMAN 29
VI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FALSE-FACE MAN 35
VII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD LADY 44
VIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE OLD MAN 50
IX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FIREMAN 58
X. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE FUNNY BOY 64
XI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PIEMAN 73
XII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE BANANA MAN 80
XIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE DANCING BEARS 86
XIV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE PINK COW 92
XV. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TRAIN OF CARS 102
XVI. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TROLLEY CAR 106
XVII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LAME BIRD 113
XVIII. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE NICE BIG DOG 122
XIX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE POOR LITTLE BOY 131
XX. THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE LITTLE GIRL 138
Three Little Trippertrots
ADVENTURE NUMBER ONE
THE TRIPPERTROTS ARE LOST
Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, there were two little boys, and a little girl, who lived with their papa and mamma in a house in a big city. One of the boys was named Tommy, and the other was called Johnny, and the little girl’s name was Mary. Mary was seven years old, Tommy was six, and Johnny was the youngest of all, being only five years old. Now the children had a last name, which was the funny one of Trippertrot. They were called this because they were always tripping or trotting off somewhere or other.
One day, when Tommy and Johnny and Mary were at play in their house, the telephone bell rang, and Suzette, the nursemaid, who had charge of the children, ran to answer it.
“Who do you s’pose it is calling up?” asked Tommy of Johnny.
“I don’t know; maybe it’s the milkman,” answered Johnny.
“Milkmen don’t have time to talk on a telephone,” said Mary. “But I know what let’s do, Johnny and Tommy. Now that Suzette isn’t here, let’s go out for a walk. She won’t see us.”
“Oh, goody! Let’s do it!” cried Johnny and Tommy together, like twins, you know, only they weren’t, of course. They jumped up very quickly, and followed Mary out of the house.
Now, of course, that wasn’t just the right thing to do--to go away when Suzette wasn’t looking. But the Trippertrots didn’t always do what was right, any more than do some children whom I know--but, of course, I don’t mean any of you. Anyhow, the Trippertrots ran away, and I’m going to tell you what happened to them.
“Which way shall we go?” asked Tommy, when they stood outside on the pavement.
“Let’s go off and see if we can find a fairy,” suggested Mary.
“No, don’t do that,” cried Johnny, “for we might meet a bad fairy, and she might turn us into an automobile with a honk-honk horn, or an elephant with a long nose, or something like that.”
“Well, if we’re going to take a walk, we’d better hurry,” said Mary. “Suzette will soon be back from the telephone, and she’ll miss us, and come looking for us, and then we’ll have to go in and have our faces and hands washed. Hurry up!”
“I know what’s the best thing to do,” exclaimed Tommy. “We’ll go down the street, where the toy store is, and get some things to play with.”
“But we haven’t any money,” said Johnny.
“That doesn’t make any difference,” Tommy replied. “I mean we can look in the toy-store window and choose what things we’d like to have.”
“Oh, yes, that is fun!” agreed Johnny. “I heard a boy do that one day, and he choosed a whole train of cars and an engine.”
“But did he get them?” asked Mary.
“No; but it was fun just the same. Come on.”
So down the street the Trippertrot children went, hand in hand, hurrying as fast as they could, and looking back every now and then to see if Suzette was following them. But she wasn’t.
And oh! what wonderful things those children saw as they ran along! An automobile nearly banged into a trolley car, and a dog just missed being run over by a peanut wagon, and he barked almost as loudly as a lion can roar when he’s hungry for popcorn balls in the circus.
Then the Trippertrots saw a man selling red and green and yellow balloons, and pink paper pin-wheels. And pretty soon they turned a corner, and there was a lady wheeling two babies in the same carriage. What do you think of that? They were twins, you know.
“Oh, aren’t they cute babies!” exclaimed Mary. “Let’s stop and look at them, boys.”
“No, we haven’t time,” said Johnny. “We’ve got to hurry down to that toy store, and choose things, or we won’t be back in time for tea, and we’d be hungry if we missed that.”
So they hurried on faster and faster, still holding hands. They went past one store, in the windows of which were lots and lots of cakes, with pink and brown and white frosting on, and Johnny wanted to stop there and choose one, but Tommy hurried him on.
Then they went around a corner where a Chinaman was ironing clothes right in the window of his shop, and past another place where a man was digging a big hole in the ground, and Mary nearly fell down in it, and she was very much frightened, only her brothers pulled her away from it just in time.
Then, all of a sudden, a big automobile whizzed past, just as the Trippertrots were crossing the street, and a kind man called to the children:
“Look out, little ones, or you’ll get run over!” Then they ran as fast as they could run, and the man called after them: “Aren’t you children lost?”
“No, indeed, thank you,” answered Tommy. “We’re going to the toy store to choose presents.”
“All right,” said the man, and he went on his way, laughing.
A little while after that Tommy stubbed his toe and fell down. But do you suppose he cried? No, sir! not a bit of it. Not a single tear, though he wanted to very much.
“But if I cry, and get my eyes full of water,” he thought, “I might not be able to see in the toy-shop window to choose things. So I’m not going to cry.”
Then Mary and Johnny rubbed the sore place on Tommy’s leg, and Mary kissed him, and the Trippertrots went on farther.
Then, just as the postman blew his whistle, they came to the toy shop. Oh, I just wish you could have seen it! The window was full of toy trains, and toy elephants who could wiggle their heads and their trunks, and there were dolls, and steam engines, and rocking-horses, and camels, and lions, and tigers--not real, you know, only make-believe--so don’t get frightened. And then there was an airship, with a thing in front that went around whizzy-izzy.
“Oh, I’m going to choose that airship!” cried Johnny, as soon as he saw it.
“No, it’s Mary’s turn first,” said Tommy. “Ladies are always first, you know.”
“Oh, yes, of course. I forgot,” admitted Johnny. “Go on, Mary, you choose.”
“Well,” said Mary slowly, “I’ll take the doll with the pink dress and the blue eyes.”
“Now I am going to take the airship!” cried Johnny eagerly.
“And I want the big elephant that wiggles his nose,” said Tommy. “Now it’s your turn again, Mary.”
“I’ll take the little brass bed for my doll,” spoke the boys’ sister.
And so they went on. Well, those children just stood there, choosing all the pretty toys in the store window, until there were hardly any left. Only, you know, of course, that it was only make-believe, for they didn’t really take the things away.
Mary had just picked out a lovely doll carriage, and Tommy was going to take a small automobile with wheels that really went around, when, all of a sudden, the lady who kept the toy store came out on the sidewalk, and said:
“I am afraid you children had better run home. You have been standing here for some time, and your mamma will worry about you, I’m sure. Run along, now, and take this,” and she gave each of them a stick of nice candy.
“Yes, I guess we had better go home,” said Tommy. “Which way do we go, Johnny?”
“Why, don’t you know the way home, Tommy?” asked his brother.
“No. Don’t you?”
“Not a bit of it!” answered Johnny, surprised like. “I am all turned around. Maybe Mary knows.”
“What!” exclaimed the little Trippertrot girl, “you boys don’t mean to tell me you don’t know where our house is, do you?”
“I don’t know,” spoke Tommy.
“And I’m sure I don’t know,” answered Johnny.
“We don’t either of us know,” went on Tommy in a sad voice. “Do you know, Mary?” and he began to eat his candy.
Mary shook her head. Then two tears came into her blue eyes. Then came still more tears, until they rolled from her cheeks, and splashed down on the sidewalk, like salty rain.
“Oh, dear!” she cried. “If none of us knows where our home is we’re lost! We can’t ever find our house! What shall we do?”
And there was no one there to tell the children what to do, for the toy-store lady had gone back into her shop and shut the door.
Then, all of a sudden, along came a big, kind-looking policeman, with a blue coat covered with brass buttons. Tommy saw him first.
“Oh! Oh!” exclaimed Tommy. “Run! Run! Here comes a policeman after us!”
“Yes, and he may put us in jail!” said Johnny. “Run!” So he and Tommy started to run, but Mary caught hold of them.
“Stop, you silly boys!” she cried. “Don’t be afraid. Mamma always said that if ever we got lost we should go to a policeman right away. Now the policeman is coming to us, and that is much better; so it’s all right.”
Then the nice big man with the brass buttons on his coat came closer, and Mary said to him:
“Please, Mr. Policeman, we’re the Trippertrot children, and we’re lost. We don’t know where our house is. Will you please find it for us?”
“To be sure I will,” answered the policeman, with a jolly smile. “Come along with me.”
ADVENTURE NUMBER TWO
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE KIND POLICEMAN
“Are you going to take us home right away, Mr. Policeman?” asked Mary, as she and her brothers walked along beside the big man.
“Of course I am,” he answered kindly. “But you must first tell me where your home is, and then I can go there by the shortest way. Where is your home?”
“Why, don’t you know?” asked Johnny, and he stopped there in the street and looked at a big automobile which was whizzing along close behind a little fuzzy dog that was trying to get out of the way of the big rubber wheels. “Don’t you know where our house is, Mr. Policeman?” asked Johnny again.
“Well,” spoke the big officer with the blue clothes, and the brass buttons down the front, like a whole lot of shiny eyes, “if you will tell me which street your house is on, I think I can easily take you to it.”
“Don’t--don’t you even know the _street_?” asked Johnny, and two tears came into his eyes, one in each, and splashed down on the sidewalk.
“Why, can’t you tell me the street?” the policeman wanted to know.
Mary shook her little head. Johnny shook his little head. Tommy shook his little head. Then they all shook their heads together, and they said, all at once:
“We--don’t--know!”
“My! My!” exclaimed the policeman. “What am I going to do with three lost children who don’t know where they live?”
“I thought policemans knew everything,” said Mary Trippertrot. “You ought to know about our house.”
“I only wish I did,” replied the officer. “But I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll give you a nice ride in a wagon, and I’ll take you to a place where there are a whole lot of policemen, and perhaps some of them may know where you live.”
“Oh, goody!” cried Johnny. “Now we’ll be all right.”
“Yes, and I know where he’s going to take us,” said Tommy. “It’s to a fire-engine house, ’cause I once saw a little lost boy in a fire-engine house.”
“Oh, no, it isn’t,” said Mary. “He must be going to take us to a police station. But I don’t care, for it’s nice there. Once, Sallie Jones was lost, and she was taken to a police station, and the men there gave her candy until her mamma came for her. I know, ’cause she told me.”
“Then I’m glad we’re lost,” said Tommy, “’cause the candy the toy-shop lady gave us is all gone.” And that’s as true as I’m telling you, the Trippertrots had eaten up all their candy.
“Come along, now, little ones,” said the kind policeman, “and I’ll telephone for a wagon so that I can give you a ride.”
“Oh, if you’re going to telephone,” cried Mary, “you can telephone to our house and tell mamma we’re coming home. I know where our house is now! It’s where the telephone is. We have one, and to-day, when Suzette went to answer it, we ran out. That’s how we got lost. All you have to do, Mr. Policeman, is to go to the house where our telephone is, and we’ll be home.”
[Illustration: _On the Pole Was a Blue Box._]
Mary looked up at the big officer, but he only shook his head.
“There are so many houses which have telephones in,” he said, “that I could never find yours that way. But come on.”
So he led them down the street until pretty soon he came to a big fat telephone pole that looked like an elephant’s leg in the circus. And on the pole was a blue box, which opened just like the door of the cupboard where mother keeps the bread and jam.
And inside the box were a whole lot of shiny things, and a bell rang, like a telephone bell, and pretty soon the policeman was talking into that box and telling some one away far off at the police station to send a wagon for three little lost children.
So there they stood, the three Trippertrots and the kind policeman, waiting for the wagon to come. And a whole lot of people gathered around and looked at the children, and felt very sorry for them because they were lost. But Mary and Johnny and Tommy weren’t a bit sorry. They knew it would be all right, and that the policeman would take care of them.
And then, all of a sudden, a dog came running up the street. He was a nice, fuzzy, yellow dog, and he had a tail that he could wag. And what do you think he did? Why, he crawled right in between the legs of a fat man who was looking at the lost children, and then that dog went right up close to Mary, and barked softly, just as if he was saying:
“Don’t you be worried now. I’m here, and I’ll take care of you.”
“Oh, look! See the dog!” exclaimed Tommy.
“Is he your dog?” asked the policeman.
“No,” answered Johnny, “but I guess we can have him if we wish. Maybe he’s lost, too.”
“I believe he is!” cried Mary. “Look how tired he is! I think we shall call him Fido, and he’ll be our dog; won’t you, Fido?”
Well, I just wish you could have seen the dog wag his tail at that! He nearly wagged it off, he was so happy because Mary had called him Fido, for that was really his name; and he was lost, but he didn’t care, now that he had some children to love.
And then, while they were standing there, the three Trippertrots and the dog and the kind policeman, along came the wagon to take the children to the police station. And there was a fine, big brown horse pulling the wagon.
“Now get in, little ones,” said the policeman kindly.
“You go first, Mary,” said Tommy politely. “Ladies are always first.”
“No, let Fido get in first,” suggested Johnny. “He is so tired, and he can lie down in the wagon. Here, Fido, jump in!”
“But you can’t take that dog in the wagon,” said the policeman, his face turning red.
“Why not?” asked Mary, and she patted Fido on the head, so that he wagged his tail harder than ever.
“Because,” said the policeman, “we don’t like dogs in our wagons; and besides, he isn’t your dog.”
“Of course he’s our dog!” cried Johnny. “He came to us, and he’s ours. We’re going to keep him.”
“Of course,” added Tommy. “He’s lost, and we’re lost, so he belongs to us.”
“And if we can’t have him we don’t want to ride in your wagon, Mr. Policeman, though we like you very much,” said Mary. “Fido must come with us. You want to come, don’t you, Fido?” And she patted the dog’s head again.
Then what do you suppose that dog did? Why, he wagged his tail up and down, instead of sideways, right up and down he wagged it, like a pump handle.
“See!” cried Mary. “He’s saying ‘yes’ with his tail! He wants to come, Mr. Policeman.”
“Oh, my! Then I suppose he’ll have to go,” said the officer, with a laugh, and everybody in the crowd laughed also. “Get in, Fido; and you, too, children,” the policeman went on.
So they all got in the wagon, the Trippertrots and the dog and the policeman, and away they went. Tommy had hold of Fido’s left ear, and Johnny had hold of his right ear, and Mary had her hand on the dog’s head, and every once in a while Fido would put his cold nose in the policeman’s hand, to show that he liked him, and then the policeman would jump as if a mosquito had bitten him, for he wasn’t thinking about the dog. But Fido didn’t mind, and he thumped his tail down on the floor of the wagon until it sounded like a baby’s rattle-box.
Pretty soon they were almost at the police station, and the policeman was wondering how he could find out where the lost Trippertrots lived, when, all of a sudden, Fido saw a pussy cat running along the sidewalk. And then, before you could look at a picture in a story book, out Fido jumped from the wagon to chase after the cat.
Fido didn’t want to catch her, you understand. Oh, no; he just wanted to see if he could run as fast as the pussy was running. So that’s why he jumped out of the wagon.
“Oh, my! There goes our dog!” cried Tommy.
“Yes, Fido is running away!” exclaimed Johnny sorrowfully.
“Oh, we must get him, or he’ll be lost again!” cried Mary. “Stop the wagon, please, Mr. Policeman, and we’ll get Fido back again. Come here, Fido!” she called.
Well, the policeman wasn’t going to stop the wagon, but just then a trolley car got in the way of it, and the driver had to stop, whether he wanted to or not. And that was just the chance the Trippertrots wanted.
First, Mary jumped out of the wagon, and then Tommy jumped out, and then Johnny jumped out.
“Come back! Come back!” cried the policeman. “You’ll be lost again, and I’ll have to find you.”
“We’re--going--to--get--our--Fido!” panted Mary.
And then, before the big, kind policeman could get out of the wagon, those three children had hurried around a corner of the street and were racing after Fido, and Fido was racing after the pussy cat, and there was such a crowd of people that the policeman couldn’t see the children, even when he put on his glasses.
“My! My!” he exclaimed. “They will be lost again!”
ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HAND-ORGAN MAN
“Oh, do you s’pose we’ll ever catch that dog?” asked Mary Trippertrot of her two brothers, as they raced along after Fido, and Fido was chasing after the cat.
“Of course we will,” answered Tommy.
“And maybe we’ll get the pussy cat, too,” said Johnny, who couldn’t run so very fast, as his legs were rather short.
“But we don’t want the cat,” spoke Mary. “For you see, she and Fido aren’t very well acquainted yet, and they might not like each other. I think we’ll just catch Fido, and then we’ll all go home and get something for him to eat. I’m sure he must be hungry. I know I am.”
“But we don’t know where our home is,” panted Johnny, as he tripped along beside Tommy.
“Why, you silly boy, we can go back to the policeman in the wagon, and he’ll find our home for us,” went on Mary. “Come on, now. We are catching up to Fido.”
So on the Trippertrot children tripped and trotted as fast as they could. And, all of a sudden, Mary slipped, and she would have fallen down, only Johnny caught her. And then Tommy was running so fast that he ran right into a lady who was carrying a basket full of loaves of bread, and the bread all bounced out on the sidewalk.
“Oh, dear! Oh, me! Oh, my!” cried the lady. “Now see what you have done!”
“We are very sorry,” said Tommy politely. “But you see we are lost, and our dog Fido is lost, too, only we know where he is, and we’re chasing after him, and he’s chasing after a cat, and that’s how I happened to run into you. But we’ll help you pick up the bread, though Fido may get so far ahead of us that we can’t find him.”
“Oh, my! What a lot of things to happen to three little children!” said the lady kindly. “Never mind about the bread. I can pick it up myself. You run on after your Fido, bless your hearts!”
So she began to pick up the bread herself, and a man helped her, and the Trippertrots ran on. And about a minute after that Johnny stubbed his toe, but he didn’t even cry half a tear, for he was a brave little fellow.