Three little Trippertrots

For a few seconds after he had opened the door and spoken to the Trippertrot children, the queer little old man didn’t say anything more. He just stood there, bowing all the while, just like the pendulum of the clock, only he went up and down, and the pendulum in the clock goes sideways, you see.

“Well, are you coming along, children?” said the nice little old man, after a while, and he stopped bowing.

“Do you think we ought to go?” asked Mary of her two brothers.

“Well,” began Tommy, “the little old lady has gone for a policeman to take us home, and maybe we ought to wait until she comes back.”

“Oh, I think I can take you home as well as a policeman could,” said the little old man, and he came into the room, and tickled the pussy cat under the chin, and made the cat purr louder than ever.

“Do you know where we live?” asked Mary.

“No, but I can find out,” said the little old man. “I will look in the telephone book, or in the directory book, or something, and find your house for you. And if I can’t find your house I will take you to mine, and you can have some fun.”

“That will be nice,” said Johnny.

“How did you know we were here?” asked Tommy.

“Oh, I saw you come in,” replied the little old man. “I was out in the street, and I saw you. Then I saw the little old lady go away——”

“Yes, she went for a policeman for us,” said Tommy.

“Well, I was afraid she was going to run away and leave you all alone,” said the little old man, “and as I like children very much I thought I’d come and take care of you. So here I am, and if you come with me before the policeman gets here we’ll have a little fun with him. Maybe he’ll think you have flown up the chimney, as Santa Claus does.”

“Oh, fine!” cried Tommy.

And just then, all of a sudden, the little lost girl began to cry.

“Why, whatever in the world is the matter?” asked the little old man.

“Boo-hoo! I—I thought you were my papa,” said the little lost girl, and she let some salty tears fall down on the cat’s back. “I thought you were my papa, and you aren’t at all.”

Then she cried a lot more, boo-hoo! and boo-hoo!—like that, you know—and the little old man went up to her, and he put his arms around her, and he wiped away her tears, and he said:

“Now—now—never mind. It’s all right. I’m going to take you to your papa right away. Don’t cry.” And his voice was so gentle, and he seemed such a nice man, that the little lost girl didn’t cry a single tear more. And it’s a good thing, because the pussy cat was getting all wet from them, and cats don’t like water, you know, especially salty tear water.

“Come on, now; hurry up,” cried the little old man. “We must hurry away from here, or the little old lady will be back with the policeman before we know it. Come along.”

“But we can’t go without thanking her for being so kind to us,” said Mary.

“That’s so,” said the little man. “Wait. I’ll write her a nice letter.” So he did that, and told the little old lady how thankful the Trippertrots and the little lost girl were for what she had done for them, and he put the letter down in front of the pussy cat, where the little old lady would see it when she got back. And the pussy put its paw down on the letter, so it wouldn’t blow away, and then it went to sleep—I mean the cat went to sleep, not the letter, you understand, of course.

“Now we are all ready,” said the little old man, and then he went out of the front door, and led the children down the street.

A little while after that, when the little old man and the children had turned around a corner, along came the little old lady and the kind policeman. They went into the house, and the lady looked all around for the children.

“Why, my goodness sakes alive!” she cried. “They’re gone!”

“Gone, eh?” asked the policeman. “What were their names?”

“The Trippertrots,” said the little old lady.

“Oh, ho!” laughed the policeman. “Then you don’t need to worry. They are sure to be all right. They are always getting lost, but they will get safely home again. Don’t worry.”

So the little old lady didn’t worry very much, and the policeman went away, and then the lady found the thankful letter where the cat was sleeping on it.

“Oh, if the little old man has the children they are all right,” said the little old lady, and then she gave the cat some milk.

But now I must tell you what happened to the Trippertrots and the little lost girl. They walked along the street with the nice, kind old man until pretty soon they came to a place like a park, with beautiful trees in it, and little brooks flowing over stones, and in the brooks were goldfishes and some silver-fishes, too, and they were wiggling their tails, and swimming about, looking for something to eat.

“Oh, what a lovely place!” cried Mary.

“Yes. What is it?” asked Johnny.

“I’d like to go in there,” spoke Tommy.

“You may,” said the little old man. “This is a garden, and a playground for boys and girls. You may do just as you like, as long as you are kind and good and pleasant. And I know you will be that way. So come on in, and have some fun; and when you are through playing I’ll find where you live, and take you home.”

“And me, too?” asked the little lost girl named Jack.

“Yes; you also,” answered the little old man.

So the children went into the beautiful garden. Oh! I wish you could have seen it! And perhaps some day I will be allowed to come around and take you all there in a fairy automobile with big fat rubber tires. But not just yet.

Now, in this garden were many swings and hammocks, and shady trees under which to rest, and there were little hills all covered with grass, down which the children could roll over and over, and never get hurt, any more than if they rolled on a feather bed.

And there were also piles of sand in big boxes, and there the Trippertrots and the little lost girl had lots of fun. They made sand gardens and sand houses and castles, wherein lived beautiful knights and princes and their ladies, and then there was a place where a whole lot of soldiers could parade and shoot off their make-believe guns.

And the flower gardens! Oh, I wish you could have seen them. Even though it was almost winter, the flowers were in blossom, for the little old man knew how to make them bloom in cold weather. And the children were allowed to pick as many flowers as they wanted, only they thought they looked prettier on their stems, so they didn’t take many.

Well, the Trippertrots were playing away, and having lots of fun. Tommy was in the swing, and Johnny pushed him up so high that Tommy nearly hit the top of a tree. And then something happened. Mary was building a nice sand house for a dollie to live in, when the house fell down and covered her legs all up. Covered Mary’s legs, I mean, not the doll’s. Mary couldn’t see her legs, and she thought they might have dropped off.

“Oh, dear!” she cried.

“What is the matter?” called Tommy.

“My poor little legs!” said Mary, trying to pull them out from under the sand.

“Oh, they’re all right,” spoke Johnny, and then he took a piece of board and he dug the sand off Mary’s legs, and she was all right again, and she made a big sand bridge for boats to go under.

Soon out from his house in the beautiful garden came running the funny little man. He was waving his arms all around his head, like a windmill in a storm.

“Oh, I have found where you live! I have found where you live!” he cried, in his jolly voice.

“Where who lives, us or that little girl named Jack?” asked Tommy.

“I know where Jack lives,” said the little old man. “I called up on the telephone and found out. Her papa is coming for her in a minute.”

“Oh, goodie!” cried the little girl, jumping up and down.

“But what about us?” asked Mary Trippertrot.

“I’ll find where you live very soon,” said the little old man. And just then the little lost girl’s papa came for her, and took her home, after he had thanked the Trippertrots and the little old man for being so kind to her.

And then, all of a sudden, when the little old man was calling up on the telephone, trying to find where the Trippertrots lived—all of a sudden, I say—along came Suzette, the nursemaid, looking for them.

“Oh, you children!” she cried, when she saw them in the garden. “I thought I would never find you. Come home at once. Why did you run away?”

“We went to help a little lost girl, and we got lost ourselves,” said Mary; “but we didn’t mean to, did we, boys?”

“No,” answered Tommy and Johnny together. Then Suzette thanked the little old man, and she took the children home, and oh! how glad their mamma was to see them! And they said they would never trot away again. But you just wait and see what happens.