They wanted Jiggily Jig to stay, too, but he said he had to eat his Christmas dinner with Simple Simon and the pieman, and as for the dancing-bear man, he said he would eat his meal with his pet bears, so the sailorman was the only one who stayed with the Trippertrots.
And now you may read the story that starts on the next page, if you like.
ADVENTURE NUMBER SEVENTEEN
THE TRIPPERTROTS’ CHRISTMAS
“Merry Christmas!” cried Mary Trippertrot, as she jumped out of bed on Christmas morning.
“Merry, merry Christmas!” shouted Tommy.
“Very merry Christmas!” called Johnny.
“And ten thousand of the finest kinds of Christmas joy to everybody in all the world!” cried the jolly old sailor with the wooden leg, as he stumped down the stairs after the Trippertrot children, to see what was on their tree, and what they had in their stockings. “Ten thousand million of the merriest Christmas joys!” went on the jolly sailorman, as he stumped along, for he couldn’t go quite as fast as could the three children, you know.
But do you suppose that worried him? Not a bit of it! He was just as jolly and happy and contented with his one regular leg, and his other wooden leg, as if he had forty-’leven wooden legs, set with gold and diamonds. So he stumped along.
Pretty soon, from the parlor where the children had gone, he heard shouts and laughter, and the singing of songs, and the blowing on horns and mouth-organs, and the banging on drums, and the playing of a music-box, and then the children called again:
“Merry Christmas to everybody, and to papa and mamma especially, and to Suzette, the nursemaid, and to the jolly sailorman, who brought us home when we were lost!”