ADVENTURE NUMBER EIGHTEEN
THE TRIPPERTROTS AND THE HUNGRY FAMILY
“Well, well!” exclaimed the sailor, as he stumped on along behind the automobile, trying to catch it, but he couldn’t, of course. “Well, well,” he said. “This is certainly very strange. I never saw such odd children, always tripping and trotting off some place or other. I wonder where they’ll land now? I must keep on after them, for it’s partly my fault that they went to give a Christmas dinner to the poor boy and girl, so I must bring them safely back home.”
Well, the automobile kept going faster and faster, for the kind man in it had promised to take the children to where the poor boy and girl lived, and he was doing it. And now I will start and tell you what happened to the children, and then, later, I will tell you what happened to the jolly old sailor.
“Do you live very far from here?” asked Tommy Trippertrot, of the poor boy, as he helped him hold the big basket of turkey, and other good things to eat.
“Oh, not very far,” replied the poor boy. “And we will soon be there, if this auto keeps on going as fast as this.”
“Oh, I will surely do that,” said the man who owned it.
“And didn’t you really have any Christmas dinner?” asked Mary, of the poor girl.
“Oh, my, no!” exclaimed the poor girl. “We haven’t had a Christmas dinner in so long that I’ve forgotten how one tastes. Papa hasn’t any work, you know, and mamma isn’t very well, and—and——”
“And we don’t have even ordinary every-day dinners very often!” exclaimed the poor boy.
“Hush!” said his sister, softly; “you mustn’t tell all your troubles.”