Three little Trippertrots on their travels

“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:

“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.