The Trippertrots and the Basket of Clothes

The Trippertrots and the Basket of Clothes

Three young siblings — Mary, Tommy, and Johnny Trippertrot — find themselves stranded on a stranger's front stoop after waiting a very long time for a grocery boy to return with his horse and wagon to take them home. The children had become lost, though they take care not to reveal this to the various passersby who stop to comment on them, including a policeman and a fireman, each of whom unknowingly advises the children not to wander off lest they get lost — much to the quiet amusement of the boys, who know they already are. As the evening draws on and the cold sets in, Mary grows too tired to stay awake and dozes off against Tommy's shoulder. The grocery boy still does not return. Just then, a boy arrives pulling a small but sturdy wagon carrying an enormous basket of clean, ironed laundry. He stops to rest at the curb, then dashes across the street to peer into a toy shop window, leaving the basket unattended. Seeing their opportunity, Tommy and Johnny decide to act. Rather than continue waiting for a rescuer who may never come, they carefully lift their sleeping sister and place her gently into the basket of clothes, thoughtfully wrapping newspapers around all three pairs of shoes to avoid soiling the linens. They crawl in beside her and pull the sheet back over themselves. Within moments, all three children are sound asleep nestled among towels and pillowcases. When the laundry boy returns, he notices the basket feels heavier than before but attributes it to pulling uphill. He wheels the basket through the streets, slipping once on a banana peel and being briefly barked at by a dog, all while three children sleep peacefully inside, each dreaming their own dream — Mary of floating in a balloon, Tommy of riding a kite's tail, and Johnny of bouncing on a rocking horse. The boy eventually arrives at a green house with a red roof and carries the basket inside, only to find the household in a state of uproar. A policeman is present, a nursemaid is rushing frantically from room to room, and the children's parents are beside themselves with worry, having been searching desperately for their missing children. When the laundry boy sets down the basket and the mother pulls back the sheet to receive her clean clothes, she discovers instead her three children sleeping peacefully within. She is overjoyed, embracing the boy and praising him for bringing her lost children home — though he had done so entirely without knowing it. The children wake to find themselves safe in their own home. The explanation is simple and satisfying: the boy's mother is the Trippertrot family's washerwoman. He routinely delivers their clean laundry, and on this occasion had collected it from his mother without any awareness that three tired, lost children had secretly climbed inside. The children, equally unaware of whose basket it was, had stumbled into the very thing that would carry them safely back to where they belonged.

By Howard R. Garis · First published 1912 · Genre: Children's Literature, Fantasy, Adventure · 2,371 words

First lines

"My, he is gone a terrible long time," said Mary Trippertrot, after she and her brothers had waited, and waited, and waited some more, for the grocery boy to come back.

"Yes, perhaps he is lost himself, looking for the stable where his horse is," suggested Johnny.

Genres

Tags

children's literature · juvenile fiction · short story · fantasy · adventure · family life · domestic life · clothing · basket · everyday objects · imagination · playful

What this Textopian page supports

The Trippertrots and the Basket of Clothes is listed on Textopian as a short story by Howard R. Garis, dated 1912 CE.

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