Three little Trippertrots

A few days after the Trippertrot children got home, following their adventure with the little old man, their mamma said to them:

“Now, children, I am going over to see your Aunt Mary Jane, and I want you to stay in the house until I get back. It is rather chilly out of doors, and it looks as if it might rain. So stay in, play with your toys, or look at your picture books, but don’t go out.”

“Can’t we go out at all, mamma?” asked Mary Trippertrot, as she looked in a glass to see if her hair ribbon was on straight.

“No,” said her mother, as she looked in the glass to see if her hat was on straight.

“Not even if the house should tumble down on us?” asked Tommy Trippertrot.

“Well, if something most extraordinary like that happens, you may run out,” said Mrs. Trippertrot, trying not to laugh.

“Of course,” spoke Johnny, “we wouldn’t want to be all squashed up, like pancakes.”

“Oh, I just love pancakes—the kind you eat, I mean!” exclaimed Mary. “May we have some, mamma?”

“Perhaps. I’ll see about it when I get back. Now good-by,” she said to them, “and be good children, and don’t go out unless you really have to.”

So they promised, and they all crowded to the window of the big front room to wave their hands to their mamma as she went down the steps.

Then they began to play with their toys, and to look at picture books, until pretty soon Mary said:

“Oh, dear! This isn’t any fun!”

“No, indeed,” agreed Tommy.

“I—I almost wish we could run away again, and get lost,” said Johnny boldly.

“Oh-o-o-o-o-o!” exclaimed Mary. “You wouldn’t really go tripping and trotting off again, would you?”

“I would, if something happened,” said Johnny, and he tried to make all of his toy soldiers stand up in a line, but they fell over and bumped their noses on the carpet, and one soldier lost his sword. Then the children played circus for a while, and Tommy was a make-believe elephant, who lived in a cave under the big chair, until all at once Mary said:

“I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask Suzette to build a nice fire in the open grate. Then we can sit and watch the flames go up the chimney, and we can make-believe we see pictures in them.”

“Oh, that will be fine!” cried Tommy and Johnny.

So Suzette came in, and built a fine, big fire on the large open brick hearth. And dear me! how the flames did roar up the chimney! for Suzette put on a great deal of wood. It burned and it blazed, and then, all of a sudden, the front doorbell rang.

“There’s mamma come back!” cried Mary, as she ran to open the door. Tommy and Johnny followed her, but instead of Mrs. Trippertrot being there, it was a fireman, in his nice blue uniform, with silver buttons on the coat, and he was wiping his feet on the mat.

“Quick!” he cried, for firemen always have to be quick, you know. “Quick! Let me in! The chimney is on fire, and I must put it out!”

“Put out which, the fire or the chimney?” asked Tommy, who was often a funny sort of a little fellow.

“Put the fire out, of course,” cried the fireman. “Ha! I thought so!” he exclaimed, when he had rushed into the front room and had seen the big blaze in the fireplace. “There is too much wood on there. Quick, get me a lot of salt!”

So Mary ran to the kitchen to get the salt, for Suzette had gone upstairs, to make the beds, I guess, and the nursemaid didn’t even know the fireman was in the house. Back Mary came running with a whole bowlful of salt.

“Oh, please, Mr. Fireman,” said Tommy, “before you put out the fire, mayn’t we just run out on the sidewalk and see it spouting up out of the chimney top? Mayn’t we, please? We’ve never seen a chimney on fire.”

“Mamma said we weren’t to go out,” spoke Mary.

“But this is a most extra-extra-extraordinary occasion,” said Tommy. “It isn’t exactly like the house falling down, but if the fire in the chimney burns long enough it may fall down, mightn’t it, Mr. Fireman?”

“Oh, yes,” he answered, and he got ready to throw salt on the fire, for that puts out a blaze in the chimney, you know. Yes, really it does. I’m not fooling a bit, honestly.

“Oh, may we go out?” asked Mary this time, and the fireman said they might, and that he’d wait a minute before he threw the salt on the flames. So out the Trippertrots ran, and sure enough, there was a lot of fire coming out of the top of their chimney. You see, the soot—that is, the black stuff inside—had caught fire from the big blaze Suzette had made on the hearth.

Then, all of a sudden, as the children stood on the sidewalk, the fire went out, for the fireman threw on the salt.

“Now we must run in,” said Mary. “It’s chilly here, and the fire’s out, anyhow, so there’s nothing more to see. Come on, boys.”

In the children ran, and the fireman was getting ready to go out, for he had finished his work. He said he happened to be passing along the street, when he saw the chimney on fire, and then he hurried in.

“But now the fire is out, and so I am going out, too,” said the fireman; and out he went, as quickly as you can stub your toe on a stone in the road.

“Now there isn’t any nice warm blaze on the hearth,” said Mary, after a while. “What shall we play now? We can’t look at pictures in the fire.”

“Oh, I just thought of something!” cried Tommy.

“What?” asked Johnny.

“We forgot to thank that fireman,” went on Tommy, “and that’s very impolite. He did us a great favor in putting out the chimney fire, and now I’m going to run after him and thank him.”

“So am I,” said Johnny.

“Oh, but mamma wouldn’t like us to go out; you know she wouldn’t,” said Mary quickly.

“She wouldn’t like us not to thank the fireman, either,” spoke Johnny. “I guess this is one of those most extra-extra-extraordinary occasions she spoke of, like the house falling down, so I’m going.”

Then he put on his hat and coat, and Tommy did the same.

“Well, if you two are going, I’m not going to stay here alone,” said Mary. “I’ll come also.”

Well, Suzette wasn’t there to stop them, and in another minute away the Trippertrot children were tripping and trotting again. They just couldn’t seem to stay home, could they?

They looked up the street, but they couldn’t see the kind fireman. Then they looked down the street, but they couldn’t see him there, either.

“I know what we’ll do,” said Tommy. “We’ll walk along until we come to the fire-house where he lives, and then we’ll thank him.”

So, hand in hand, they went down the street, looking for the fire-house. Pretty soon they met a man.

“Can you please tell us where to find the fireman?” asked Tommy politely.

“Why, is your house on fire?” asked the man quickly.

“No, but the chimney was, and the kind fireman put it out, but we forgot to thank him, and now we’re looking for him,” said Mary.

“Oh, well, the fire-house is just around the corner, and down the street a little way,” said the man. “But don’t get lost,” and he smiled at them.

“I guess he knows we’re the Trippertrots,” spoke Johnny. “But we won’t get lost this time.”

Pretty soon they were at the fire-house where the firemen live, and where they keep the fire-engine and the horses. There were some firemen in front of the place, so Tommy went up to them and said:

“If you please, we want to thank the kind fireman who put out the blaze in our chimney, because we forgot it when he was at our house. But I don’t see him here,” the little Trippertrot boy went on, as he looked among all the firemen, and couldn’t pick out the special one he wanted.

“Oh, yes,” said the captain of the firemen, “that was George. He telephoned to me that he had put out a chimney fire on his way home to dinner. You see, he hasn’t yet come back,” the captain said to the children, “but if you would like to stay here a while he will soon come, and you can thank him.”

“Shall we stay?” asked Mary of her brothers.

“Yes,” said Johnny and Tommy quickly, but they didn’t look at Mary, for they were looking through the doorway at the shining fire-engine and the big brass bell on the wall.

“But maybe we’ll get lost, and mamma wouldn’t like us to stay here,” went on Mary.

“Oh, we can’t get lost in a fire-house,” said Tommy, and he wished the horses would run out, so he could see them.

“Besides, I guess the firemen know where our house is,” said Johnny. “You do, don’t you?” he asked of the captain. “It’s a house with a red chimney on it.”

“I guess I can find it,” answered the captain, with a laugh, and all the men laughed, too. Then the children went inside the fire-house, and all of a sudden a big bell began to ring.

Ding! Dong! Cling! Clang!

Those firemen rushed about like anything, and the captain grabbed up the children and set them on a table, and the horses ran out and hitched themselves to the shining engine. Then men and horses ran out with the engine, and there the Trippertrots were—left all alone in the fire-house.