Three little Trippertrots

“Are you going to take us home right away, Mr. Policeman?” asked Mary, as she and her brothers walked along beside the big man.

“Of course I am,” he answered kindly. “But you must first tell me where your home is, and then I can go there by the shortest way. Where is your home?”

“Why, don’t you know?” asked Johnny, and he stopped there in the street and looked at a big automobile which was whizzing along close behind a little fuzzy dog that was trying to get out of the way of the big rubber wheels. “Don’t you know where our house is, Mr. Policeman?” asked Johnny again.

“Well,” spoke the big officer with the blue clothes, and the brass buttons down the front, like a whole lot of shiny eyes, “if you will tell me which street your house is on, I think I can easily take you to it.”

“Don’t—don’t you even know the street?” asked Johnny, and two tears came into his eyes, one in each, and splashed down on the sidewalk.

“Why, can’t you tell me the street?” the policeman wanted to know.

Mary shook her little head. Johnny shook his little head. Tommy shook his little head. Then they all shook their heads together, and they said, all at once:

“We—don’t—know!”

“My! My!” exclaimed the policeman. “What am I going to do with three lost children who don’t know where they live?”

“I thought policemans knew everything,” said Mary Trippertrot. “You ought to know about our house.”

“I only wish I did,” replied the officer. “But I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll give you a nice ride in a wagon, and I’ll take you to a place where there are a whole lot of policemen, and perhaps some of them may know where you live.”

“Oh, goody!” cried Johnny. “Now we’ll be all right.”

“Yes, and I know where he’s going to take us,” said Tommy. “It’s to a fire-engine house, ’cause I once saw a little lost boy in a fire-engine house.”

“Oh, no, it isn’t,” said Mary. “He must be going to take us to a police station. But I don’t care, for it’s nice there. Once, Sallie Jones was lost, and she was taken to a police station, and the men there gave her candy until her mamma came for her. I know, ’cause she told me.”

“Then I’m glad we’re lost,” said Tommy, “’cause the candy the toy-shop lady gave us is all gone.” And that’s as true as I’m telling you, the Trippertrots had eaten up all their candy.

“Come along, now, little ones,” said the kind policeman, “and I’ll telephone for a wagon so that I can give you a ride.”

“Oh, if you’re going to telephone,” cried Mary, “you can telephone to our house and tell mamma we’re coming home. I know where our house is now! It’s where the telephone is. We have one, and to-day, when Suzette went to answer it, we ran out. That’s how we got lost. All you have to do, Mr. Policeman, is to go to the house where our telephone is, and we’ll be home.”

Mary looked up at the big officer, but he only shook his head.

“There are so many houses which have telephones in,” he said, “that I could never find yours that way. But come on.”

So he led them down the street until pretty soon he came to a big fat telephone pole that looked like an elephant’s leg in the circus. And on the pole was a blue box, which opened just like the door of the cupboard where mother keeps the bread and jam.

And inside the box were a whole lot of shiny things, and a bell rang, like a telephone bell, and pretty soon the policeman was talking into that box and telling some one away far off at the police station to send a wagon for three little lost children.

So there they stood, the three Trippertrots and the kind policeman, waiting for the wagon to come. And a whole lot of people gathered around and looked at the children, and felt very sorry for them because they were lost. But Mary and Johnny and Tommy weren’t a bit sorry. They knew it would be all right, and that the policeman would take care of them.

And then, all of a sudden, a dog came running up the street. He was a nice, fuzzy, yellow dog, and he had a tail that he could wag. And what do you think he did? Why, he crawled right in between the legs of a fat man who was looking at the lost children, and then that dog went right up close to Mary, and barked softly, just as if he was saying:

“Don’t you be worried now. I’m here, and I’ll take care of you.”

“Oh, look! See the dog!” exclaimed Tommy.

“Is he your dog?” asked the policeman.

“No,” answered Johnny, “but I guess we can have him if we wish. Maybe he’s lost, too.”

“I believe he is!” cried Mary. “Look how tired he is! I think we shall call him Fido, and he’ll be our dog; won’t you, Fido?”

Well, I just wish you could have seen the dog wag his tail at that! He nearly wagged it off, he was so happy because Mary had called him Fido, for that was really his name; and he was lost, but he didn’t care, now that he had some children to love.

And then, while they were standing there, the three Trippertrots and the dog and the kind policeman, along came the wagon to take the children to the police station. And there was a fine, big brown horse pulling the wagon.

“Now get in, little ones,” said the policeman kindly.

“You go first, Mary,” said Tommy politely. “Ladies are always first.”

“No, let Fido get in first,” suggested Johnny. “He is so tired, and he can lie down in the wagon. Here, Fido, jump in!”

“But you can’t take that dog in the wagon,” said the policeman, his face turning red.

“Why not?” asked Mary, and she patted Fido on the head, so that he wagged his tail harder than ever.

“Because,” said the policeman, “we don’t like dogs in our wagons; and besides, he isn’t your dog.”

“Of course he’s our dog!” cried Johnny. “He came to us, and he’s ours. We’re going to keep him.”

“Of course,” added Tommy. “He’s lost, and we’re lost, so he belongs to us.”

“And if we can’t have him we don’t want to ride in your wagon, Mr. Policeman, though we like you very much,” said Mary. “Fido must come with us. You want to come, don’t you, Fido?” And she patted the dog’s head again.

Then what do you suppose that dog did? Why, he wagged his tail up and down, instead of sideways, right up and down he wagged it, like a pump handle.

“See!” cried Mary. “He’s saying ‘yes’ with his tail! He wants to come, Mr. Policeman.”

“Oh, my! Then I suppose he’ll have to go,” said the officer, with a laugh, and everybody in the crowd laughed also. “Get in, Fido; and you, too, children,” the policeman went on.

So they all got in the wagon, the Trippertrots and the dog and the policeman, and away they went. Tommy had hold of Fido’s left ear, and Johnny had hold of his right ear, and Mary had her hand on the dog’s head, and every once in a while Fido would put his cold nose in the policeman’s hand, to show that he liked him, and then the policeman would jump as if a mosquito had bitten him, for he wasn’t thinking about the dog. But Fido didn’t mind, and he thumped his tail down on the floor of the wagon until it sounded like a baby’s rattle-box.

Pretty soon they were almost at the police station, and the policeman was wondering how he could find out where the lost Trippertrots lived, when, all of a sudden, Fido saw a pussy cat running along the sidewalk. And then, before you could look at a picture in a story book, out Fido jumped from the wagon to chase after the cat.

Fido didn’t want to catch her, you understand. Oh, no; he just wanted to see if he could run as fast as the pussy was running. So that’s why he jumped out of the wagon.

“Oh, my! There goes our dog!” cried Tommy.

“Yes, Fido is running away!” exclaimed Johnny sorrowfully.

“Oh, we must get him, or he’ll be lost again!” cried Mary. “Stop the wagon, please, Mr. Policeman, and we’ll get Fido back again. Come here, Fido!” she called.

Well, the policeman wasn’t going to stop the wagon, but just then a trolley car got in the way of it, and the driver had to stop, whether he wanted to or not. And that was just the chance the Trippertrots wanted.

First, Mary jumped out of the wagon, and then Tommy jumped out, and then Johnny jumped out.

“Come back! Come back!” cried the policeman. “You’ll be lost again, and I’ll have to find you.”

“We’re—going—to—get—our—Fido!” panted Mary.

And then, before the big, kind policeman could get out of the wagon, those three children had hurried around a corner of the street and were racing after Fido, and Fido was racing after the pussy cat, and there was such a crowd of people that the policeman couldn’t see the children, even when he put on his glasses.

“My! My!” he exclaimed. “They will be lost again!”