“Yes, let’s ask some of them to take us home, and not wait for the grocery boy,” suggested Johnny.
“Oh, no, don’t do that,” begged Mary. “It will be just as it always is. Folks will want to know where our house is, so they can take us to it, and, of course, we can’t tell them, and they’ll lead us off, and we’ll be lost more than ever. The best way will be to wait right here, until the grocery boy comes back with the horse, and then we’ll get home, for some horses know more than people, when it comes to taking lost children home to their papa and mamma.”
“All right, then we’ll wait,” agreed Tommy and Johnny.
They sat on the steps for some little time longer, and, pretty soon, along came a policeman swinging his club, and the brass buttons on his coat sparkled just like diamonds in the sunshine.
“Ah, ha, children!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t tell him we’re lost,” whispered Tommy to Mary. So the little Trippertrot girl said:
“Oh, we are waiting here for the horse and wagon.” She meant the grocery horse and wagon, you know.
“Very good,” said the policeman. “I hope it comes soon. But don’t go away or you might be lost.” Then he walked on, swinging his club, and Johnny laughed softly, and said:
“He doesn’t know we are lost already! But we will soon be at home.”
So they still sat there, and, by-and-by, a fireman came along. He had been home to dinner, and now he was going back to the engine house, to be ready to go to put out any fires that might happen to burn things. The fireman saw the children and he smiled at them.