Part 2

“You don’t say so!” cried the newsboy. “I never thought of that. I haven’t seen any green houses to-day, though, and maybe the first one we come to will be yours. It’s very strange. I never thought there would be so much trouble in finding the house of the Trippertrots. But never mind. Have some more molasses cookies,” and he took a number of them out of his pockets, and the children were very glad to get them, for they were hungry again.

Then they sailed on some more, and some more, and they were wondering if they would ever get home, and they began to wish that they hadn’t chased out after the fairy mouse, for they had not been so far away from home since the time they went on a train after seeing the pink cow.

And then, all at once, just as the drygoods box-ship was sailing around the corner of the street, and the Trippertrot children and the newsboy were down under the papers on top, so the rain wouldn’t get them--all at once, I say--there was a bumpity-bump noise.

“What’s that?” cried Tommy.

“We’ve hit something,” said Mary.

“Yes, you’ve hit me!” exclaimed a voice, and then the big box suddenly stopped, and a funny boy poked his head in the top through the newspapers.

“We didn’t mean to hit you,” said Tommy, politely, “but our box went very fast.”

“And we couldn’t see where we were going,” added Johnny.

“All except the newsboy, and he has to keep looking through the knot-hole to see our green house,” explained Mary. “He might have seen you, but he didn’t.”

“We’re very sorry if we hurt you, funny boy,” said the newsboy, sad like.

“Oh, pray do not mention it,” said the boy who had stopped the drygoods box, as it was floating down the street. “It was merely a little bump on my nose.” Then he began to turn somersaults until he had somersaulted through the papers on top, just as the circus man jumps through a paper hoop, right inside the box where the Trippertrot children were, and all of a sudden Mary cried out:

“Why, it’s Jiggily Jig, the funny boy!”

“Yes, of course it is!” cried Tommy and Johnny.

“Not the least doubt of it,” said Jiggily Jig, who was called that, you remember, because he was always dancing a jig.

“But where did you leave Simple Simon?” asked Mary, for the last they had seen of Jiggily Jig was when he was running off with Simple Simon, after they had met the pieman coming from the circus.

“Oh, Simple Simon has gone to work for the pieman,” said Jiggily Jig. “He had to have pie so often that his mother sent him there instead of after water in a sieve. Now watch me,” and Jiggily Jig turned two somersaults, one after another, and the drygoods box nearly upset, and the rain came down harder than ever.

“Wait! Hold on!” cried the newsboy. “This will never do! Do you know these children, Jiggily Jig?”

“To be sure I do,” answered the funny boy, “and I will take them home, for they are lost. I know they are. They are always lost; aren’t you?” and he looked at Mary and Tommy and Johnny.

“Yes,” said the Trippertrot children, in a chorus, “we are always lost.”

“But don’t worry, I will take you home,” said Jiggily Jig, with a jolly laugh. “You are going the wrong way. This boat must be turned around,” and with that he jumped out, and turned a somersault in the water, turned the box around, jumped in again, and the rain came down harder than ever.

“We’ll soon be home!” cried Jiggily Jig. “We’ll soon be at your green house,” and then the wind began to blow, and Jiggily Jig made a sail out of the newspapers, put it up on the edge of the box, with a piece of wood for a mast, and away they went as fast as fast could be, sailing in the drygoods box-ship.

All of a sudden, the wind began to blow harder than ever, and the children were afraid that it might blow the sail off their little ship.

“Don’t worry about that,” said Jiggily Jig. “I made the sail good and strong. It won’t blow away.”

“But hadn’t you better look?” suggested Mary. “It would be no fun to be sailing along without a sail.”

“I will look, just to oblige you,” spoke the funny boy. “First I will do a little dance in here, and then I will peek out to see if the sail is all right.”

“Well, kindly do not step on my toes, and wake me up,” begged the newsboy, speaking in his sleep, for he had stretched out on the bottom of the box, and was slumbering.

“Not for this whole world, and part of the moon,” answered the funny boy. So he did his little dance, being careful not to step on the newsboy’s toes, and then Jiggily lifted up the papers, that were over the top of the box, and looked out. Next he gave a cry:

“Oh, my!” he exclaimed.

“What is the matter?” asked Mary, quickly.

“Are we at our house?” inquired Tommy, hopefully.

“Far, far from it,” replied Jiggily Jig, sadly. “Look for yourselves, children,” and he took all the paper covering off the top of the box, for it had stopped raining.

“Oh!” gasped Mary, as she looked out.

“Oh! oh!” cried Tommy.

“Oh! oh! oh!” exclaimed Johnny.

And well they might be surprised, for their boat had been blown by the wind far away from the city streets, where they had been sailing, and now they were away out on a sort of lake, in a big green meadow. Off in the distance were hills, with trees on them, and it was just like some picture they had seen of a fairy boat sailing over a fairy lake.

“Oh, where are we?” asked Mary.

“I never saw this place before,” spoke Johnny.

“Nor I,” added Tommy.

“No matter where we are, it is a nice place,” went on Jiggily Jig. “Wake up, newsboy, and see where we are. There is no more rain, and you can’t get wet.”

So the newsboy stretched out his arms and his legs, and he opened his mouth, and he opened his eyes, and then he was awake, and he stood up to see what he could see.

“Oh, this is lovely!” he cried. “I always wanted to go out to the country, and now I am here. This must be the country, for it isn’t the city,” he added.

Then the box-ship sailed on farther and farther, over the lake in the meadows, and the Trippertrots and the newsboy and Jiggily Jig looked all about them, and were quite happy.

Suddenly the wind blew them right toward a little island, that was in the middle of the lake.

“Let’s get out here, and pretend we’re camping in the woods,” suggested Johnny.

“Oh, yes!” cried Mary and Tommy. So they all got out of the drygoods box, and landed on the island. It was a nice island, with trees on, and some dry wood piled up in a little cave near a place where there were some flat stones.

“I know what let’s do,” proposed Tommy. “Let’s make a fireplace, and cook a dinner, just as if we were shipwrecked sailors.”

“Oh, fine!” exclaimed Johnny.

“And I’ll wash the dishes,” said Mary.

“But we haven’t any dishes to wash,” spoke Tommy.

“And nothing to cook at the fire, or even put on the dishes, so there is no use washing them,” added his brother, sorrowful like.

“That’s so,” agreed Mary. “But perhaps Jiggily Jig, or the newsboy, has something we can cook.”

They both looked in their pockets, and the newsboy shook his head.

“I have nothing,” he said.

“Oh, but I have!” cried Jiggily. “I have found some apples. The pieman gave them to me the other day. They will be fine to roast at the fire.”

Tommy and Johnny made the fire on the flat stones, taking care not to burn themselves, and then, when there were some hot embers ready, the apples were put down in front of them, on the warm stones, and they began to roast--I mean the apples roasted, not the stones, you understand.

“Oh, how lovely they smell!” exclaimed Mary, as Jiggily turned the apples around with a sharp stick, so they wouldn’t burn.

“Yes, they will soon be ready to eat,” said the funny boy, and, surely enough, they were.

“But what shall we do for forks?” asked Tommy.

“A pointed stick will do for a knife and a fork, too,” said the newsboy. “I’ve often eaten that way. You just stick your roast apple on the point of the stick, and eat it.”

“What, eat the stick?” asked Tommy.

“No, eat the apple,” said the newsboy, laughing.

“Well, the apples are roasted now, and you can eat them,” said Jiggily, after a bit. So he whittled out a pointed stick for everybody, and stuck an apple on each one, and soon the travelers were sitting about the camp-fire, eating the apples, and very good they were, too. I wish I had one right this minute, but I’m not allowed to, you know.

“Well, perhaps we had better start off again,” suggested Tommy, when the apples were eaten. “We must soon get home, if we can.”

“All right,” said Jiggily.

“And we had better take some sticks, to use for oars, or paddles, or to push ourselves along with, in case there is no wind to blow the sail,” spoke Tommy. They all thought this was a good plan, so the three Trippertrots, and the newsboy, and Jiggily each got a tree branch.

Well, they climbed into the box-ship again, and Jiggily pushed off from the island, and away they went sailing once more. Then Jiggily and the newsboy stretched out on the bottom of the box, where you couldn’t see them unless you went up in a balloon, and they both went fast, fast to sleep.

On and on sailed the drygoods box, over the pretty lake, over toward the hills with trees on them, until finally Tommy said:

“Oh, let’s use our sticks to row with, and then we’ll go faster. There isn’t much wind now, and we’re not going along very quickly. Let’s push and row with the sticks.”

So they did that, and they went along very well. Only, they had accidents. Sometimes Tommy’s hat would blow off into the water, and he and Johnny would have to fish it out with their stick-oars. And sometimes Johnny’s hat would blow off, and he and his brother would have to reach for it.

And sometimes Tommy would reach for his own hat all alone, and sometimes Johnny would have to fish up his own hat all alone, when Tommy was attending to the sail. And so it went on; when it wasn’t one thing it was another.

The newsboy and Jiggily Jig slept on, in the bottom of the box, and they had a lovely time, with nothing to do. And the Trippertrots had lots of fun, too, sailing away.

Sometimes it would rain, and they would put the papers over the top of the box, and then the drops would stop coming down, and they could take off the papers, stand up, and paddle again.

On and on they went, and once the newsboy awakened, and most unexpectedly he found some more molasses cookies in his pocket, and he gave all his friends some, and some he ate himself, and then he went to sleep again--he and Jiggily.

Farther and farther they sailed--those Trippertrot children, until, all of a sudden, Mary looked out from behind the newspaper sail, and she exclaimed:

“Oh, here we are back in the streets of the city again! We are sailing in the gutters, just as we were before.”

“Sure enough, so we are!” said Tommy, and they really were back where they had been, before they got out on the little lake in the meadow. Then the wind blew on the sail, and the box-ship went on and on, through the rain, which came down pitter-patter again.

And a very funny thing happened soon after that.

ADVENTURE NUMBER THREE

THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE TOY BALLOONS

“Oh, do you think you will ever find our house?” asked Mary, as she sat down on the bottom of the box, and ate up the last crumbs of the molasses cookies which the newsboy had given her and her brothers.

“Oh, I’m sure we will!” exclaimed Jiggily Jig, suddenly awakening.

“And will we be there soon?” asked Tommy.

“Very soon,” answered Jiggily Jig, trying to turn a somersault inside the box. But there wasn’t room enough, and Jiggily stepped on the newsboy’s toes.

“Ouch! Don’t do that, please!” cried the newsboy. “Please don’t step on my toes.”

“Why, did I hurt you?” asked the funny boy.

“No, but you woke me up. I was asleep,” answered the newsboy. “As long as you are captain of this box-ship I know everything will go along all right, and you will get the Trippertrots home safely, so I am going to sleep. But I can’t sleep if you turn somersaults in here, and step on my toes. Nobody could sleep when their toes were being stepped on. I leave it to you, now; could they, children?”

“I don’t hardly think they could,” said Mary, politely, for she did not want to make Jiggily Jig feel badly.

“And I’m not sure, as no one ever stepped on my toes when I was asleep,” said Tommy, “but I think it must be quite unpleasant.”

“There, you see how it is, Jiggily Jig!” exclaimed the newsboy. “I’m quite right about it.”

“To be sure you are,” admitted Jiggily Jig. “I never thought of it that way before. I’ll stop turning somersaults directly. But may I dance a few jigs?” he asked, and he made a polite bow to Mary, and also to Tommy and Johnny, and the newsboy.

“Do you really _have_ to dance?” the newsboy asked. “Because if you don’t really _have_ to, it might be just as well not to. You might step on my toes again.”

“Oh, yes, I have to dance,” said Jiggily Jig, “or else I would have to change my name to Joggily Jog, and I wouldn’t like that at all. But I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll dance just a little bit, and I’ll take good care not to step on anybody’s toes.”

So then and there, in the drygoods box-ship, Jiggily Jig danced a nice dance, and as truly as I’m telling you, he didn’t step even on his own toes. Oh, Jiggily was quite a wonderful boy!

And, all this while the box-ship, with the paper sail, was sailing down the street, which was filled with water from the rain-storm. But none of the rain came inside, because the newsboy had put more papers over the top of the box to keep the wet outside.

“We don’t seem to be getting home very fast,” said Johnny, after a while, “and I’m sure when we do get there, we’ll be late for school.”

“I’m afraid so, too,” said Mary.

“Never mind,” spoke Jiggily Jig. “You can tell the teacher all about what happened to you, and how you went after the little fairy mouse, and then how you went sailing. She will surely excuse you.”

“Maybe she will,” said Tommy. “But I wish we were home, because I am hungry again. I wonder if the newsboy has any more cookies in his pockets. I’m going to ask him.”

“Hush! Don’t do that,” said Mary, softly, “for he is asleep, and we ought not to wake him up.”

“But I am hungry,” said Tommy.

“Wait, I think I can look in his pockets without making him wake up,” spoke Jiggily Jig, and he did so. But, alas! there were no more cookies to be had.

“Never mind,” said Mary, “we will soon be home.”

“Yes,” said Jiggily Jig, “I’ll look out of the knot-hole in the box, and see if I can find your house.”

So Jiggily Jig did this, and all of a sudden he cried out:

“Oh, joy! Oh, joy! Oh, joy!” three times, just like that, he cried it.

“What! do you see our house?” asked Mary, and she was so excited that she turned around and nearly stepped on the toes of the newsboy, who was asleep--he was asleep, and his toes were, too, I guess, just as, sometimes, your foot goes to sleep when you sit on it. “Do you see our house?” asked Mary.

“No, but I can see that it has stopped raining again,” answered Jiggily Jig. “Now we can sail along without having the newspapers over the top of the box to keep out the water. I’m real glad of that.”

So he took the papers off the top of the box again and it sailed down the street for quite a distance, with the wind blowing the paper sail as nicely as could be, and the Trippertrot children thought they would soon be home. You see, the newsboy’s papers had some wax on them, which the kind honey-bees had put there, so the rain didn’t melt them.

“Will you please look again, Jiggily Jig,” asked Tommy, “and see if you can find our house now? It’s painted green, you know.”

So Jiggily Jig looked out of the knot-hole in the side of the box, and all at once he cried out:

“Oh, joy! I see something green. That must be your house. Get ready now, the boat is going to land,” and he was so excited that he turned a somersault without thinking, and came down on the toes of the sleeping newsboy.

“Oh! Ouch! Oh, my!” cried the newsboy, as he woke up. “What has happened?”

“I saw something green. It’s the house of the Trippertrots!” cried Jiggily, as he danced a little jig. “Forgive me for stepping on your toes,” he said to the newsboy, politely. “I was so excited that I could not help it.”

“Oh, that is all right,” answered the newsboy, kindly. “As long as I can be sure that these children get safely home I don’t much care what happens. May I see the house?”

“Yes, look through this hole,” said Jiggily Jig, and he pointed to the one in the side of the box. “You will see something green,” he went on, “and that must be the home of the Trippertrots.”

“Oh, I don’t have to look through the hole,” said the newsboy. “As long as the rain isn’t coming down any more, I can look out of the top of the box, and I can see better.”

So he stood up, and looked at the green thing that Jiggily Jig had seen, and then, all of a sudden, the newsboy cried out:

“Oh, dear! What a disappointment! Oh, dear!”

“Why, whatever is the matter?” asked Mary, surprised like.

“Oh, that isn’t your house at all,” went on the newsboy.

“Why, it’s green; isn’t it?” asked Jiggily Jig.

“Yes, it’s green,” said the newsboy.

“Well, the Trippertrot house is green,” answered Jiggily Jig.

“I know, but just you take a look at this,” invited the newsboy. “Why, that green thing you saw was a man with a whole lot of toy, green balloons, such as you see in the circus. And he is coming this way with them.”

“Oh, goody!” cried Tommy Trippertrot, “maybe he will give us some, and we can have a lot of fun with them.”

“Have you got any money?” asked Johnny.

“No,” said Tommy, sorrowfully, “I haven’t.”

“Then you can’t get any toy balloons,” spoke his brother.

“Perhaps Jiggily Jig, or the newsboy, would lend us a little money, until we can get some of our own when we reach home,” said Mary.

“Yes,” spoke the newsboy. “I will lend you as much as you need.”

Then the man with the toy, green balloons came closer to the drygoods box-ship, and he caught hold of it, and stopped it from sailing any farther, and he sang this little song:

“Toy balloons! Oh, toy balloons! They sail as high as silver moons! If you a toy balloon will buy, You may sail up into the sky. Toy balloon! Oh, toy balloon! Please to buy one very soon.”

“We would like to buy one,” said Mary, politely. “How much are they, if you please?”

“They are a banana and two oranges apiece,” said the man.

“No, she means how much money do they cost,” explained Tommy.

“You can get them for ten cents in the circus,” said Johnny. “I know, for my papa once bought me one.”

“Ah, but these are very different,” said the man. “They are colored green, and they are much larger and stronger than the circus balloons. Why, if I had enough green balloons I could lift an elephant with them. That’s why I don’t sell them for money. I want a banana and two oranges for each balloon.”

“Then we can’t have any,” said Mary, sorrowfully.

“Oh, yes, you can,” exclaimed Jiggily Jig. “I have just the very thing.” Then he put his hands in his pockets, and pulled out a lot of bananas and oranges. “I forgot I had them,” he said, with a laugh, as he tossed them to the man.

Then the man gave Mary a big toy, green balloon, and he gave one to Tommy, and one to Johnny. And then a very strange thing happened. All at once Mary found herself rising up in the air. Up and up she floated, for the balloon lifted her, just as an airship would have done.

“Oh! Oh!” she cried.

“Don’t get excited,” said the balloon man, kindly. “Hold on tight, and you will soon be home. The balloons will take you there.”

Then Johnny and Tommy began to float up into the air also, holding fast to the strings of their big toy balloons, and Mary held on to the string of hers, too, and there the three little Trippertrots were, sailing away just as if they were in airships.

And, down below them, looking up, was Jiggily Jig, and the newsboy, and the toy balloon man, standing near the box-ship.

“Good-by!” called Jiggily Jig, waving his hand to the children. “I’ll see you again soon.” Then the man and the newsboy waved their hands, and Mary and Tommy and Johnny went floating softly off, blown by a gentle wind.

“Oh, isn’t this the most surprising adventure!” exclaimed Mary.

“It’s jolly fun!” declared Tommy.

“I think so, too,” added Johnny. “It’s nicer to go home this way than in a box-ship.”

So they floated on for quite some time.

ADVENTURE NUMBER FOUR

THE TRIPPERTROTS’ THANKSGIVING

“We must be careful to keep together,” said Mary to her brothers, as they floated along, carried by the balloons. “It would be dreadful if we lost each other.”

“Oh, we’re lost, anyhow,” said Tommy. “We’re always getting lost, it seems to me.”

“Yes, that is so,” admitted Johnny, “but Mary is right. We must try to keep together. I don’t want to float off all by myself alone.”

“And I guess I don’t, either,” said Tommy.

“But the funny part of it is that we can’t walk when we’re up in the air this way,” said Mary. “If the wind happens to blow me away from you boys, or if it blows you boys away from me, why, we can’t walk back again.”

“How do you know?” asked Tommy, politely. “We haven’t tried it yet. I’m going to see if I can walk in the air.”