Three little Trippertrots

When Mrs. Trippertrot looked out of her window and saw her three children, and Mr. Johnson, the man who owned the automobile, and Fido the dog, and Ivy Vine the cat, and Fuzzo the monkey—to say nothing of the hand-organ man—when she saw all of them in front of her house she didn’t know what to think.

“Oh, my dear children!” she cried. “I have been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?”

“We have been lost, mamma,” said Mary.

“And we had a most lovely time!” exclaimed Johnny, laughing.

“And we’ve got a dog and a cat, and a monkey!” added Tommy.

“Oh, dear!” cried their mamma. “I’ve been telephoning all over for you. I didn’t know what to do, and I have just sent for your papa.”

“That’s too bad,” said Tommy. “Really, we didn’t want to worry you, mamma. But if papa hurries home, he can have supper with the hand-organ man.”

“Have supper with the hand-organ man!” cried Mrs. Trippertrot. “What in the world do you mean?”

“This is the hand-organ man,” said Mary, and she pointed to the man who owned Fuzzo the monkey. “He’s very hungry, and we helped him get some pennies. Mr. Johnson found us, didn’t you, Mr. Johnson?”

“I certainly did,” he said, and then he looked to see if he had to pump any more wind into his big automobile tires.

“But a policeman found us first,” said Johnny.

“Only we jumped out of the wagon to go after Fido, for he was chasing a cat,” explained Tommy. “Here is the cat, mamma. Her name is Ivy Vine, because she can climb a tree so good.”

“Bless us!” said Mrs. Trippertrot. “I shall never understand all this. Oh, I hope you children never run away again. I am ever so much obliged to you, Mr. Johnson, for bringing them home. But what shall I do with a monkey and a dog and a cat and a hand-organ man?”

“Well,” said Mr. Johnson, “I think I would give the hand-organ man and his monkey something to eat, and send them away. Then I’d let the children keep the dog and cat for a while.”

“Oh, we’re going to keep them forever,” said Mary, “and the monkey, too; can’t we, mother?”

“Oh, please don’t ask me!” cried Mrs. Trippertrot. “Yes, you may keep anything, as long as you don’t run away again. Oh! I have been so worried about you!”

“I am very sorry, but I can’t stay here,” said the hand-organ man. “I must go home, for I am going to teach Fuzzo, my monkey, a new trick of standing on his head, and then perhaps we may get many more pennies. I thank your children very much for what they did for me.” And then, making a low bow to Mrs. Trippertrot, and to Mr. Johnson, he climbed down out of the auto and took his hand-organ and monkey and started away with them.

“Don’t you want some supper?” asked Tommy quickly.

“No, I thank you,” said the man. “Since you were so kind as to help me get some pennies, I can buy enough for Fuzzo and myself to eat. So I’ll say good-by.” And then the hand-organ man hurried away.

Soon Tommy and Mary and Johnny got out of the auto, and kissed their mamma, and they went into the house, after thanking Mr. Johnson for bringing them home, and Fido and Ivy Vine went in with them.

“I don’t know what your papa will say about keeping those animals,” said Mrs. Trippertrot, “but he will soon be home, and we can ask him.”

“Oh, he’ll let us keep them,” said Mary.

“Sure, for he loves dogs,” spoke Johnny.

“And cats, too!” cried Tommy, for just then Ivy Vine was purring away like a sewing machine, and washing her fur, in front of the open fire in the library.

Pretty soon Mr. Trippertrot came home, and when he heard about what his children had done, and how they had been lost, and how they had brought home a cat and a dog and a monkey, to say nothing of a hand-organ man, he didn’t know what to say.

“But I suppose they may keep the dog and cat,” he said. “They will be good pets for them. But I hope you never run away again, children.”

Of course Mary and Tommy and Johnny promised, but you just wait and see what happened. It was quite an adventure.

One afternoon, about three days later, the three Trippertrot children were up in the playroom, having a soldier game. Tommy was the general, and he had a sword; and Johnny was a soldier, with a make-believe wooden gun; and Mary was a nurse, to take care of the soldiers when they were ill.

“Oh, I just wish we had horses!” cried Johnny suddenly. “Then we could take a long ride.”

“That would be fun,” said Tommy.

“Could I ride, too?” asked Mary.

“If we could find you a horse,” spoke Johnny.

“Well, we have your old hobby-horse,” said Mary to Tommy, “and down in the laundry is a clothes-horse. I could have that.”

“But what could I have?” asked Johnny.

“Oh, I know!” cried Mary. “A sawhorse! The very thing!”

“Do you mean a horse that is all sawed up into sawdust?” asked Johnny, trying to stand on his head.

“No, indeed,” replied his sister. “A sawhorse is something a carpenter uses on which to saw out boards. It has a back and four legs, just like a real horse. Oh, I know what we’ll do! We’ll get the sawhorse and the clothes-horse and the rocking-horse all out on the lawn, and we’ll put empty thread spools under them for wheels, and we can really make-believe truly ride.”

“Great!” cried Tommy.

“Wonderful!” said Johnny.

“They are funny horses,” said Mary, “but we can have some fun, and, who knows? perhaps we may ride to fairyland on them. Come on, boys, we’ll get them ready.”

So they took the rocking-horse out of the playroom and carried it out on the lawn. Then they brought the clothes-horse up from the laundry.

The clothes-horse, you know, is the horse on which the washlady hangs the clothes to dry in front of the fire. And then those funny Trippertrot children went next door, where a man was building a new house, and one of the carpenters let them take a sawhorse. So they had three horses, you see.

Mary took a board and put it across the clothes-horse, so she could sit on it to ride. But Tommy and Johnny didn’t need any boards for their horses. Tommy had the sawhorse, and Johnny the rocking-horse. Then they fastened some big, empty thread spools on the bottom of the legs of their horses, and they were all ready to ride off after some new adventures.

They took their funny horses to the top of a little hill on the smooth grassy lawn, so they would start to roll down easily. Then they all got up on the horses’ backs.

“Giddap!” cried Tommy.

“Gee-up!” cried Johnny.

“Trot along, clothes-horse!” cried Mary.

And then, would you believe it? those funny horses began to roll down the long, grassy hill. Faster and faster they went on the spools, rolling along, bumpity-bump.

“Oh!” exclaimed Mary. “Why, my horse is going!”

“And so is mine!” said Johnny.

“Of course!” cried Tommy. “Horses always go.”

Faster and faster went the funny horses. The children were hanging to them tightly, so as not to fall off.

“Oh, isn’t this great!” said Mary. “I wonder where they will take us?”

“To fairyland, of course,” said Johnny.

By this time the funny horses, carrying the Trippertrot children, were at the bottom of the lawn. They were galloping along quite fast, when, all of a sudden, Mary cried:

“Oh, look! The brook! The brook!”

Right ahead of them was a little stream of water, and it was quite wet water, too, let me tell you.

“Oh! If we fall in that, we’ll be drowned!” said Johnny, shivering.

“Stop the horses! Stop them!” cried Tommy.

So they all pulled on the pieces of string which they had tied on the rocking-horse, and on the sawhorse, and on the clothes-horse, for driving reins. But, would you believe it? those funny horses never stopped at all.

Along they went on the empty spool-wheels, until they were right at the edge of the brook; and then, instead of stopping to get a drink, the way real horses would have done, those strange horses just tumbled into the water. Right in they tumbled, Trippertrot children and all.

“Oh!” screamed Mary, as she felt the water coming up over her toes.

“Oh, me!” cried Johnny, as he felt the water on his nose.

“Oh, my!” exclaimed Tommy, as some water splashed up on his knees. “We’ll be drowned!”

But I’m not going to let anything like that happen to our Trippertrots. No, indeed. I’m going to save them. Just listen.

All of a sudden, when the three children were in the water—all of a sudden, I say—the clothes-horse and the sawhorse and the rocking-horse sort of floated close to each other, and all at once they made themselves into a nice raft, that was just as good as a sailboat.

“Climb up, and we’ll have a ride in the brook!” cried Johnny, when he saw that the funny wooden horses would hold them all, and not let them sink.

So the three children climbed up on the funny boat, that was made from the funny horses, and they sat there a little while until they were nice and warm and dry again, and then the sawhorse and the clothes-horse and the rocking-horse just swam toward shore as fast as they could, and so the children were saved, just as I told you they would be.

And then—well, if you want to know what happened after that, will you please turn to the next page, and then you can read all about it.