Three little Trippertrots

Bridget led Tommy and Mary and Johnny Trippertrot down the steps of the house and started off up the street with them.

“Are you sure, if you please, that you know where we live, Bridget?” asked Mary.

“Ah, sure I do!” exclaimed Bridget, with a laugh. “I know Suzette, your mamma’s nursemaid, and if I know what house she lives in, sure I can take you to that same house, can’t I?”

“Oh, I’m sure you can!” exclaimed Mary, “and if we had any of our candy left we’d give you some; wouldn’t we, boys?”

“Yes, indeed!” exclaimed Tommy and Johnny together, like twins, you know.

“Oh, bless your dear little hearts!” exclaimed Bridget. “I don’t want any candy. But come along now, and you’ll soon be home.”

So she led them up one street, and down another, and pretty soon they came to a window of a store that was filled with pretty toys. Oh, there were trains of cars, and toy soldiers, and dolls, and doll carriages, and steam engines, and elephants that waggled their heads, and all things like that.

“Oh, don’t you remember this place?” cried Mary to her brothers.

“Yes,” said Johnny, “this is the toy shop where we came the first time we were lost, and we choosed things from the window.”

“That’s what it is,” agreed Tommy.

“Have you children been lost before?” asked Bridget.

“Oh, we’re always getting lost!” exclaimed Mary. “Aren’t we, boys?”

“Of course,” answered Tommy and Johnny together, once more like twins, you know.

“But it isn’t our fault,” said Mary. “It’s just like to-day; something always leads us off, like a lame birdie or a pink cow, or the dancing bears.”

“Bless and save us!” cried Bridget. “What funny children you are, to be sure! But come along, and we’ll soon be home.”

Well, she was hurrying them along as fast as she could, for it was getting on toward evening, you know, when all at once Johnny fell down and he bumped his nose on the sidewalk.

“Oh, my!” he exclaimed.

“There now, don’t cry!” said Mary.

“I’m not going to!” said Johnny bravely. “But—but I want to very much, and it hurts awful, that’s what it does,” and he couldn’t help two tears coming into his eyes, but he didn’t let them fall down on the sidewalk; no, indeed. Oh, I tell you he was a brave little boy!

“Never mind,” said Bridget, “I’ll rub my gold ring on the sore spot, and maybe that will make it better.”

So she rubbed her cold gold ring on Johnny’s sore nose, and it was soon better—I mean his nose was better, not the ring, you know.

Well, all of a sudden, as Bridget was leading the children along the street, and they were thinking they would soon be at home, Bridget cried out:

“Oh, dear! I quite forgot that I left the meat cooking on the stove for the doctor’s supper! It will be all burned up! I must hurry back to the house. Oh, dear! Poor man, he can’t eat burned meat! I must go back at once.”

“Are you going to take us back with you?” asked Mary, and she didn’t feel like going, as her feet were very tired, and she wanted to get home.

“Take you back with me?” cried Bridget. “No, I don’t believe I’ll do that, or you’ll never get home. See, darlings, it’s but a short step now to your house. Just down this street a little way, and then you turn the corner, and there you are. Don’t you think you can find it by yourselves? The little boy who didn’t cry when he bumped his nose ought to be able to find it.”

“I—I guess I can,” said Johnny.

“We’ll try, anyhow,” spoke Tommy.

“Well, if we get lost again we can’t help it,” said Mary.

“Oh, you won’t get lost,” declared Bridget, and then, giving them each a kiss, she hurried back to the doctor’s house so that the supper meat wouldn’t burn.

Well, the children stood still in the street for a minute, and then they started in the direction Bridget had shown them. They thought surely, this time, they could find their house. They were beginning to be hungry.

“Come on, let’s hurry,” said Mary, so she took hold of Johnny’s hand on one side, and Tommy’s hand on the other, and away they went.

They hadn’t gone very far before, all at once, and when they hadn’t yet had time to turn the corner, a nice, big, black and white dog came running toward them.

“Oh, look, there’s Fido, our dog!” cried Tommy.

“No, Fido isn’t as big as that,” said Johnny quickly. “That is another dog.”

“But he’s as nice as our Fido,” said Mary, and the boys were sure this was so.

“And oh, look!” exclaimed Tommy, when the big black and white dog came closer to them, “this dog must have run away, for there’s a broken string fast to his collar. Maybe he broke it, and pulled away from the little house in the yard where he lives.”

“Maybe he did,” agreed Mary. “Doggie, did you run away, and are you lost?” she asked him.

The doggie wagged his tail up and down.

“Look! Look!” cried Tommy. “He’s saying ‘yes.’ He must be lost, the same as we were.”

“Do you want us to take you home?” asked Johnny, and once more the nice, big dog wagged his tail up and down, just as if he was saying “yes,” that he did.

“Then we’ll take you home,” said Johnny kindly. “Wait a minute, doggie, until I get hold of that string around your neck.”

So the dog waited, and Johnny took hold of the cord, and so did Tommy; and then Mary said:

“Oh, boys, I am so tired I don’t believe I can walk another step to take that lost doggie home. Besides, you don’t know where he lives, and it may take a long time.”

“Doggies always know their own selves where they live,” said Tommy; “don’t you, doggie?”

And once more the doggie said “yes” with his tail, that he waggled up and down.

“Very well, then,” said Mary. “I’ll wait here until you come back, after you take the doggie home.”

“Oh, I know something better than that!” cried Tommy.

“What?” asked Mary, looking about for a place where she could sit down.

“Why, you can ride on the doggie’s back,” exclaimed Tommy. “He is big and strong, and he won’t mind carrying you the least bit; will you, doggie? You’ll carry Mary on your back, won’t you?”

“Bow-wow!” barked the doggie, which means “yes,” of course, and besides that he waggled his tail again.

So Mary’s two brothers lifted her up on the doggie’s back, and he stood still, just like a pony-horse. Then Tommy and Johnny took hold of the string on the dog’s collar and they called:

“Go ahead now, doggie. Go where you live.”

Then the dog looked around, to make sure that Mary was safely on his back, and off he trotted. He went so fast that he nearly pulled Tommy and Johnny off their feet.

“Oh, wait! Please wait!” cried Tommy.

“Yes, don’t go so fast!” begged Johnny.

“For you’re jouncing me all to pieces,” said Mary, who was holding on as tightly as she could by winding her fingers in the dog’s shaggy hair on his back.

Then the dog said: “Bow-wow! bow-wow!” which meant that he was sorry, and he went slower.

Along the street went the three little Trippertrots, and the nice big dog, and Tommy and Johnny and Mary were watching all the while for the place where the dog lived.

But that dog kept straight on, and didn’t seem to want to turn in anywhere.

“Oh!” exclaimed Mary, “s’posin’ he hasn’t any home!”

“He’s got to have a home,” said Tommy. “All dogs have homes, and we’ll come to this one’s pretty soon.”

“But we’re going right away from our home,” said Mary, “and maybe we can’t ever find it. I’m afraid we’ll be lost again.”

“Oh, I guess not,” spoke Johnny. “Is your home near here?” he asked, in the doggie’s ear.

“Bow-wow! Bow-wow!” barked the doggie.

“Now what do you s’pose he means?” asked Mary.

“I don’t know,” said Tommy.

“Neither do I,” spoke Johnny, “but we’ll keep right on, and we’ll get there some time.”

Pretty soon they met a nice man, and he said to the children:

“Well, where is that big dog taking you?”

“If you please, he isn’t taking us anywhere,” said Mary. “We’re taking him home. He’s lost.”

“Oh, I see,” said the man, with a laugh. “Well, be sure you don’t get lost yourselves.”

Then Mary and Tommy and Johnny went on a little farther with the dog, until all at once, when they got in front of a nice, big, brown-stone house, they heard a little boy cry out:

“Oh, papa, there’s Nero come back! Some children are bringing him back! Oh, how glad I am! I thought he was lost.”

“Is this your dog?” asked Tommy, when the little boy and a man came down the steps.

“Yes,” said the man, “that is my little boy’s dog.”

“And his name is Nero, and he was lost,” spoke the boy.

“Where did you find him?” asked the boy’s papa, while Nero danced around and barked as loudly as he could, because he was so happy to be home again.

“He was lost, and we found him,” answered Mary, who had slid down off Nero’s back, “but now we are lost.”

“Never mind,” said the man, “since you were so kind as to bring my little boy’s dog home, I will send you home in my carriage. James,” he called to the coachman, “hitch up the horses, and take these children home. And, Nero, you must never run away again.”

So Nero barked, which, I suppose, was his way of saying that he never would, and then he went in the house with the little boy. And pretty soon the horses were hitched to the carriage.

“Oh, goody! We’re going to have a ride home!” exclaimed Mary.