Three little Trippertrots on their travels

“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.”

And, would you ever believe it if I didn’t tell you? Why, that boy Tommy just wiggled his feet, as if he was walking on the ground, you know, and he kept tight hold of the string of the balloon, and my goodness sakes alive and the pancake turner! There he was, walking along, just as if he was on the sidewalk. Only it was ever so much easier, you know.

“Oh, I can do it! I can do it!” cried Tommy, in delight. “You do it, Mary and Johnny. Come up here where I am.”

“All right, wait for us,” spoke his sister. “Don’t get too far ahead, or we might not be able to catch up to you.”

So Tommy stopped walking in the air, and then Mary and Johnny wiggled their feet, and as true as I’m telling you, they, also, could move along, the balloons holding them up as easily as an airship could have done.

“Oh, this is great fun!” cried Johnny.

“Yes, let’s look down and see how high up we are,” said Tommy.

So Mary and Johnny and Tommy looked down, and surely enough, they were almost as high as the church steeple. They were floating along over the trees, and the roofs of the houses, and the people walking along in the streets below them didn’t even know that the three little Trippertrots were away up over their heads in the air.

“Oh, suppose we should ever fall!” exclaimed Mary, shivering like.

“Nonsense!” said Tommy. “You mustn’t suppose anything of the kind.”

“Especially as the man said these were very strong balloons,” put in Johnny. “They can lift an elephant, and we’re not as heavy even as a baby elephant.”

“No, I guess not,” said Mary. “But I am just wondering what will happen when we get over our house, if we ever do. How are we going to get down to see papa and mamma? It won’t be any fun for us to be up in the air, and have them down on the ground, or in the house. Maybe we can talk to them, but they can’t hold us in their arms and—and——”

“And they can’t reach up, and give us anything to eat,” exclaimed Tommy, sorrowfully.

“Oh, yes, they can!” cried Johnny.

“How?” asked Tommy and Mary together, real excited like.

“Why, they can put up a ladder, and reach us that way, or we can go down the ladder,” said the little Trippertrot boy.

“Yes, that’s so,” admitted Tommy. “I didn’t think of that. I wonder when we will be home? We must keep looking down until we see our house.”

So the three children walked on, by wiggling their legs in the air, and they looked down to see if they could pick out their green house, but they couldn’t seem to find it.

And then, all of a sudden, there was a flutter of wings and a whole lot of sparrows flew around them.

“Oh, see the birds!” cried Mary. “I guess they must take us for birds, too. Oh, I wish I could fly!”

“Yes, it would be nice,” said Tommy.

“But this is almost as good as flying,” spoke Johnny. “Especially when you wiggle your legs very fast. See, I can almost catch up to the birds,” and he made his legs go as if he was running, and, surely enough, he fairly whizzed through the air, and Mary and Tommy had to run to catch up to him.

Then the sparrows flew away, and the children kept on floating over the roofs of the houses, and they looked down at the people in the streets, and they were wondering when they would be home, when, all at once, Tommy cried:

“Oh, see that big bird flying along!”

Down below the Trippertrot children was a large bird, flapping its broad wings.

“I guess that’s an eagle,” said Johnny, who had seen a picture of one in his bird and animal book, once upon a time.

“I wish it would come up here closer, where we could see it,” spoke Mary. “I like eagles.”

And then, all at once, the big bird opened its beak, and it cried out:

“Gobble-obble-obble!” just like that.

“Why!” exclaimed Tommy. “That’s not an eagle.”

“No, it’s a turkey gobbler,” said Johnny.

“And look!” cried Mary. “It’s flying right down toward that house with the red roof.”

“Oh! Oh!” suddenly cried Tommy, wiggling his little fat legs. “I know where we are now. That house with the red roof is ours.”

“But our house is painted green,” objected Mary.

“The sides of it are green, but the top is red,” said Tommy. “I know, ’cause when the men were painting our house the one who was on the roof spilled some of his paint, and it fell on the end of my nose, and it was red.”

“What was red, the paint or your nose?” asked Johnny.

“My nose was red after the red paint fell on it,” said Tommy. “That’s how I know that the roof of our house is red.”

“But there are other red roofs besides ours,” spoke Mary.

“Oh, but there’s another reason why I know that is our house,” went on Tommy.

“How?” asked Johnny.

“Because that turkey gobbler went in there. I heard Suzette, our nursemaid, say this morning that we were going to have turkey for Thanksgiving. To-day is Thanksgiving, and there goes the turkey into a house with a red roof, and our house has a red roof, so that’s our home. Oh, how glad I am! Come on, we must wiggle ourselves until we get right over the top of it, and then we can call out, and papa and mamma will come out with the step-ladder, and get us.”

So the children walked along through the air, holding to the strings of their toy, green balloons, until they were right over their house. Then they all cried out together, as loudly as they could:

“Papa! Mammal Here we are! Up in the air! Come and get us!”

A minute later Mr. and Mrs. Trippertrot ran out on the balcony over the front porch and looked up. There they saw their children.

“Oh, my darlings!” cried their mamma, waving her hand to them. “I thought I should never see you again! However did you get up there?”

“We got lost this morning, chasing after the fairy mouse,” said Mary, “and the balloon man sold Jiggily Jig, the funny boy, these balloons, and they took us up, and the turkey showed us which was our house, so we’re home again.”

“I’m glad of it!” said their papa. “But why don’t you come down?”

“We can’t, the balloons hold us up,” said Johnny, and he and Tommy tried to pull themselves down, but they couldn’t, because the balloons were so strong.

“You must get a ladder and reach it up to us, and then we can let go of the balloons, and walk down,” said Mary.

So Mr. Trippertrot was hurrying away to get the ladder when Suzette, the maid, said:

“Oh, I know a better way than that. If Miss Mary has a pin she can just make a little pin-hole in her balloon and also in Master Johnny’s and Tommy’s, and let out a little of the gas from the green balloons, and then the children will float safely down.”

“That is a good way,” said Mr. Trippertrot, so he called to Mary to do that. Very carefully she made little holes in the three balloons, and, in another minute, the Trippertrot children were safely down on the balcony over the front porch of their house, and their papa and mamma were hugging and kissing them.

“And you must never go away again,” said their mamma.

“We won’t,” said Mary.

“Is the Thanksgiving dinner ready?” asked Tommy.

“For we are very hungry,” spoke Johnny.

“It is nearly ready,” said Suzette.

And then, pretty soon, the Trippertrot family sat down to a fine Thanksgiving dinner. There was turkey and cranberry sauce, and oysters, and celery, and nuts, and cake, and oranges, and figs, and cookies, and oh! ever so many things. I can’t remember half of them.

But the Trippertrots were careful not to eat too much, as that isn’t proper, and, besides, it makes you ill. So they ate just enough, and they had a fine time afterward playing many kinds of games.

And then—oh, well, I guess you had better look at the next story, to see what happened afterward.