“She thinks she’s home,” whispered Tommy.
“Yes, we mustn’t wake her up,” said Johnny, also in a whisper. So, very gently, they lifted off the sheet that was over the top of the clean, ironed clothes, and they laid Mary down in among them. But first they put some newspapers around her shoes so they wouldn’t dirty the towels and pillow-cases, you know.
“Now let us get in ourselves,” said Johnny, and he and his brother wrapped some newspapers around their shoes, and then they crawled in the big basket of clothes beside their sister Mary. Then they pulled the sheet up over them, and then—and then—and then—they were both fast asleep almost as quickly as the pussy cat can wiggle its tail. Fast asleep in the basket of clothes were the Trippertrots.
Then the boy, who had been pulling the basket on his wagon, came back from across the street. He didn’t buy anything in the toy shop.
“Now I must take these clothes home,” he said to himself, as he began to wheel them. And then, all of a sudden, he exclaimed: “My! How heavy they are! I wonder what makes that? I guess it must be because I’m going up hill. Never mind, I’ll soon have them where they belong, and then I’ll get the money and take it home to mamma, and she’ll be happy.”
And, mind you, that boy never even dreamed that the three Trippertrot children were in his basket of clothes. He kept on wheeling them along the street, and once he slipped on a banana-skin, and almost fell down. Almost, I say, but not quite. And once a dog barked at him, not in earnest, only in fun, you know. And, all the while, the Trippertrots were fast asleep.
They even dreamed, too, as they were being wheeled along in the basket. Mary dreamed she was in a balloon, taking a trip through the air, and Tommy dreamed he was on the tail of a kite, and Johnny dreamed that he was bouncing up and down on a rocking-horse.
And, after a while, the boy who was pulling the basket of clothes on his wagon came to a house. He stopped in front of it. The house was painted green, and it had a red roof, only you couldn’t see that part of it, unless you went up in a balloon.
“Well, I’m glad I’m here with the clothes,” said the boy. “Now I’ll take them in and get my money.”
So he carried the basket of clothes up into the house. And there he found great excitement going on. The telephone bell was ringing, and there was a policeman there, and the nursemaid was running around through all the rooms, and the lady and man were almost crying.