“Why, how else would we get it, if we didn’t ask papa?” Tommy wanted to know.
“Why, earn it, of course,” said the jolly sailorman. “Money that you earn is the best kind of money in the world, and it buys the nicest kinds of presents, except those you make for yourself. I would rather have a Christmas present that some one made for me, than any other kind, except a kind that some one bought with the money they had earned.”
“But how can we earn money?” asked Tommy.
“Oh, there are lots of ways,” answered the jolly sailorman, just as Jiggily Jig fell down from trying to stand on his ear. “But, of course, your papa might not like you to do them, and that wouldn’t be right. But I think I know of a way that he wouldn’t mind. You can take Johnny’s music-box, and go out and play jolly tunes, and maybe the people will give you pennies, and then you can buy some Christmas presents; that will be better than if you got the money from your papa.”
“But will the people give money just to hear tunes on my music-box?” asked Johnny.
“I think they will, especially if Jiggily Jig and I go along, to sing and dance,” said the jolly sailorman.
“Oh, will you really do that?” asked Mary, clapping her hands.
“I will, really,” answered the sailor, as he stumped about on his wooden leg, and helped Jiggily Jig get up, for the funny boy was all tangled up in a sofa cushion, that he had stood on to try and turn a new kind of somersault.
“Oh, then I’ll ask mamma if we can go,” said Johnny.
His mamma said they might, if the sailorman would take care that the Trippertrot children weren’t lost, and so it was all arranged that they were to start out the next day.