Three little Trippertrots on their travels

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:

“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.