Part 10

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.

“Yes,” kindly said the elephant, “I’ll stay a little while, and do some of my tricks for you.” Then he explained how he suddenly found that he could talk, and he liked it very much, and so he kept on doing it. I, myself, don’t know how an elephant can talk, so, if you please, don’t ask me why. But I know this one did it, just the same.

Then he did a lot of tricks, such as sitting down on the wash-bench, and sucking a whole lot of water up his nose, and then squirting it out again, like a fire engine. And he lifted all the children up together, as they stood on a table, and he sat down on a very strong chair, and rang the dinner bell, only, of course, everybody had had dinner, and so they didn’t eat again. And then the elephant played a mouth-organ that Tommy had given the poor boy--what do you think of that?--the elephant played it by blowing on it through his trunk.

“Well, now it’s time to go home,” said the jolly sailor at last. So they said good-by to the poor family, and Mary and Tommy and Johnny promised to send them something more to eat, and some warm clothes to wear, and the sailor said he would ask Mr. Trippertrot to get the poor man some work--and he did, I’m glad to say.

“Up on my back!” cried the elephant, as he walked out of the poor family’s house, for it was a very large house, you know, and had once belonged to a rich family, so an elephant could easily get in it through the wide doors. Then the elephant lifted Mary and Tommy and Johnny up on his back, and then the sailor--the jolly sailor, you know--and away they started through the night (for it was now dark) to the Trippertrot home. The jolly sailor knew the way very well, and so the children could enjoy themselves.

Then, all of a sudden, a man came running along. “Hold on there, Mr. Elephant!” he called.

“What is the matter?” asked the elephant.

“Why, I guess you have forgotten that you are to do your tricks in my theatre to-night,” said the man. “You must come with me, if you please.”

“So I must,” spoke the elephant. “I did forget. I can’t go along any farther with you children just now.”

“But how are we ever to get home?” asked Mary, sorrowfully.

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” said the elephant, kindly. “I will send my friend, the two-humped camel, along, and you can ride home on his back--you and the sailor.”

So the elephant lifted them all down off his back with his trunk, and when he had told them good-by, and promised to see them again, he went off with the man to do his tricks in the theater, and the Trippertrots and the jolly sailor were left standing in the street. And it got darker and darker.

ADVENTURE NUMBER TWENTY

THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TWO-HUMPED CAMEL

“How long do you suppose it will be before the two-humped camel gets here?” asked Mary, as she and her brothers waited in the street with the jolly sailor.

“I hope the elephant sends him along pretty soon,” said Johnny.

“I think I see something coming,” answered Tommy, slowly, and then, all of a sudden, they all heard a queer voice singing:

“I’m a great big two-humped camel, From a sandy desert waste, And I’m coming now to get you, dears, With most particular haste.

“I’ll ride you far upon my back, Between my fuzzy humps, And try to step most softly o’er The lumpy, bumpy-bumps.”

“Oh, I do believe that’s our camel!” cried Mary, in delight.

“I’m sure it is,” said Tommy.

“And I’m glad it is,” added Johnny, for now he was as hungry as his brother, and wanted to get home to supper.

“Avast and belay there!” called the sailor, in his jolly voice. “Are you the camel which the kind elephant was to send to take the Trippertrots and me back home?”

“I am that very self-same individual and particular camel,” was the answer, for, you see, the camel could talk just like the elephant, only not so much through his nose. And then he came closer, and my! how big and tall he was! and what a long, funny curve there was to his neck. But what the children liked best of all was to see on his back, between his humps, a little house, with long, soft, warm red curtains all around it, and inside a red lamp was burning, and it looked just as nice and warm and cosy as it could be.

“Oh, won’t we have fun going home in that!” cried Tommy.

“Won’t we just, though!” said Johnny, jumping up and down.

“Why, it’s just like a cabin in a ship,” the sailor declared. “This is just fine!”

“Oh, but look how high up it is!” cried Mary. “I never can climb up there--never--never! And there is no ladder!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” said the two-humped camel, kindly. “I will show you how you can get in the little house on my back with no more trouble than it is to wash your face. Are you all ready to start for home?”

“Oh, yes!” said all the Trippertrot children at once.

And then the camel gave a grunt, and he knelt down in the street, and that made his back come quite low, and the little house with the red lamp and the red curtains was near enough so that the jolly sailor could lift up Mary and Tommy and Johnny into it.

“Now, hold fast!” cried the camel, “for it sort of jiggles one about, when I get up off my knees. Hold fast.”

Inside the house were some benches, and a little table, and the children and the sailor held fast to the benches. And it is a good thing they did, or they might have fallen out, for the camel nearly stood on his head when he got up off his knees.

“Now, here we go,” called the camel, and off he started for the Trippertrot home, swinging along with big strides.

And then, all of a sudden, the children, who had drawn the curtains of the little red house close together, so they couldn’t see outside--all at once, I say, they heard some one shout:

“Hold on, stop, if you please! I’d like to come up there!”

“Shall I stop?” asked the camel, of the jolly sailorman, turning his long neck around so he could look into the little house on his back.

“Well, who wants to come up here?” inquired Mary.

“If it’s Jiggily Jig, or the pieman, or Simple Simon, let them come,” added Johnny.

“Especially if it’s the pieman,” spoke Tommy, “for I would love a pie now.”

“It isn’t any of them,” said the camel, as he stopped and looked at the person who had called to him. “It’s the old fisherman. Do you want him to come up?”

“Oh, yes,” cried all the children at once, “and perhaps he can fish up something for us to eat,” added Tommy, who was getting hungrier and hungrier.

“Very well,” answered the camel, “come on up, Mr. Fisherman.”

“My! how nice and cosy it is here!” cried the old fisherman. “And how glad I am to see you all! Isn’t it fine to ride on a camel?”

“It is,” agreed Johnny.

“And it would be nicer if we had something to eat,” put in Tommy.

“Well, we will soon be at your house,” spoke the camel, “but if you can’t wait, why, perhaps the old fisherman can catch something for you. He catches such odd things when he fishes.”

“Will you please try?” asked Mary, of the old fisherman.

“To be sure I will,” he said, kindly. So he took a piece of clothes-line, and his hammock-hook, which wasn’t sharp enough to hurt any one, and he dangled it out of the little house, over the side of the camel. And then, all of a sudden, he pulled it up, and there, fast to the hook, were a lot of nice pies.

“Here you are!” cried the old fisherman, as he passed the pies around.

“Oh, dear! Who took my pies? Who took my pies?” suddenly cried a voice down on the ground.

“It’s the pieman, and Simple Simon is with him,” spoke the camel. “Your hook went right into his basket of pies, old fisherman, and you hooked up some.”

“Who took my pies? Who took my pies?” cried the pieman, once more.

“I did, for the Trippertrot children,” answered the old fisherman, sticking his head out between the curtains of the little house. “Is that all right?”

“Oh, yes, surely,” answered the pieman. “The Trippertrots can have all my pies they want for nothing. Good-by, I have to go home to bake some more. Good-by.”

So he and Simple Simon hurried away, and the Trippertrots and the jolly sailor and the old fisherman in the little house on the camel’s back ate the pies, and the camel ate some, too, and then he ran as fast as anything, and in a little while he was at the Trippertrot house, and the runaway children were safely home at last. And, oh! how glad their papa and mamma and Suzette were to see them. And they thanked the old fisherman, and the jolly sailor, and the camel, for taking such good care of the little ones.

Then the two-humped camel went back to see the elephant do tricks in the theatre.

And now I think I have told you enough stories of the three little Trippertrots for this book, but if you should happen to want any more I believe I can write them for you. Mind, I’m not saying for sure, but I might, and if I do, they will be in the third book, which will be called “Three Little Trippertrots and Their Winter Fun.” And I will tell how they built a snow fort, how they went sliding down hill, how they chased after an airship, and did many other queer things.

But, for a while, we will bid them good-by, for they are very tired from their many Christmas adventures and must go to bed.

THE END

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.