“And we’re always getting lost,” went on Johnny, as he started to cry a tear or two. “We’re always getting lost, and this time it was because we chased after your hat.”
“That is too bad,” said the old man. “And, as you have been so kind to me I will be kind to you. Come along, I will take you back home. I know where it is, because my hat blew off right in front of there. Come along, Trippertrots.”
So he brushed the dust off his hat, and put it on his head—put on his hat, I mean, not the dust—and then he took hold of Mary’s hand and Johnny’s, and Johnny took hold of Tommy’s hand, and away they started for the Trippertrot home.
ADVENTURE NUMBER FOURTEEN
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE
For a while they walked on silently.
“Do you think you can find our house for us?” asked Mary, of the kind old man, as she took a closer hold of his hand.
“Oh, I am sure I can,” he said. “It was right in front of your house that the wind blew off my hat, so I won’t easily forget it.”
“Lots of people think they can take us home after we are lost,” said Johnny, “but, somehow or other, they don’t do it.”
“Yes,” added Tommy Trippertrot. “There was Jiggily Jig, the funny boy, who is always dancing, or turning somersaults, and there was the nice, little old lady, and the man who had the pink cow, and the other man who had the dancing bears, and the milkman, and the grocery boy, and the fireman, and the old fisherman——”
“My, my!” exclaimed the old man whose hat had been blown off by the wind. “Do you know as many people as all that?”