“You left him behind,” replied the poor boy. “I heard him calling after us, but I thought he wanted to stop us from having a Christmas dinner, or for going too fast, so I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, the poor, jolly sailorman!” cried Mary. “I hope he is all right.”
“Oh, I guess he can take care of himself,” said the auto man, with a smile. “But now can you tell me where you live?” he asked of the poor boy and girl. “I do hope you aren’t lost.”
“No, indeed,” answered the poor girl. “We live away at the other end of the city, and it’s not in a very nice place. If you don’t want to take your auto there, you can stop at the corner, and we can walk the rest of the way.”
“I guess my auto isn’t afraid of poor streets, as long as there aren’t any tacks in them, to make holes in the tires,” spoke the man, with a laugh.
Then they went on for quite some distance farther, and, all of a sudden, the man cried out:
“Oh, look! What is that funny thing? It keeps jumping up and down, and then turning over. What can it be?”
“Where?” asked all the children, as they looked around, and the man pointed right ahead of his auto.
“Why, it’s Jiggily Jig!” exclaimed Mary, in surprise, as she saw the funny boy doing his funny dance in the street and turning his funny somersaults. “How in the world did he ever get here?”
“I danced all the way,” answered Jiggily Jig, as he heard Mary speak. “I was paying a visit to Simple Simon, and the pieman, but they had to go to the fair, to sell the pieman’s pieware, and so I went off dancing by myself. But I’m very glad to meet you all again,” and he made such funny little bows, and sang such a queer little song, and was altogether so happy and jolly, that he was almost as good as the sailor with the wooden leg, and the poor boy cried out: