“Yes, it is nice,” replied Johnny. “I guess we won’t go away any more.”
“But we had good times, didn’t we?” asked Tommy, as he looked over at the old fisherman, who was gazing at the fire as if wondering whether or not he could catch anything in the flames. “We had lots of good times.”
“Yes, you certainly did have lots of good times,” agreed the old fisherman.
“There was the time we met Simple Simon, and the pieman, and Jiggily Jig, the funny boy, who was always turning somersaults,” cried Mary.
“Yes, and there was the time we rode on the funny horses—the sawhorse, the clothes-horse and the rocking-horse,” went on Tommy. “And when we met the man with the dancing bears, and the man with the pink cow, and the little lost girl, who wanted to be a boy, and whose name was Jack. Remember that?”
“I guess I do,” replied Johnny. “And then there was the time we rode in the train, and met the little old lady, and when the fireman put out the blaze in our chimney, and then the false-face man! Oh, he was jolly!”
“Wasn’t he!” exclaimed Mary. “But I’m glad we have you with us,” she said to the old fisherman. “You are the only friend who came home with us to stay.”
“I am glad I did,” returned the old fisherman.
And now I suppose I had better tell you, children, that the Trippertrots were always running away, and getting lost, though they didn’t mean to, and they came home again as soon as they could. On their trips they met many strange people and animals, and I have told the stories of them in the book before this, called, “Three Little Trippertrots; How They Ran Away, and How They Got Back Again.” The people whom the children spoke about, as they sat around the fire, are all mentioned in that book. The Trippertrots, you know, lived with their papa and mamma in a house in a big city, and there was a nursemaid, named Suzette, who was supposed to look after them, although she didn’t always do it, being so busy.
“It was very good of you to bring the children home,” said Mrs. Trippertrot to the old fisherman. “Very kind of you, indeed.”