Read "The Trippertrots and the Poor Family" by Howard R. Garis online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Where do you suppose this horse is going? " asked Mary, of her brothers, after a while.
"Home, I guess," said Tommy.
"Do you mean to his home, or our home? " asked Johnny. "Because, if he goes to our home, it's all right, but if the horse goes to his own home, why -- why -- -- "
"We'll be lost again, that's all," said Tommy, simply.
"Oh, we're lost now," cried Mary, as she looked out of the front of the wagon. "We're on a strange street, that I never saw before, and I don't know how far from home."
"Well, we'll get back some time," said Johnny, "so we don't need to worry about it. We always do get home, somehow or other, and perhaps we'll have another funny adventure, like being carried up into the air by the balloons."
"Oh, I wish we would! " exclaimed Tommy. "Anyhow, I'm hungry, and if an adventure is going to happen I wish it would be one with something to eat in it."
"What! You don't mean to say you are hungry so soon after our big Thanksgiving-turkey-dinner, do you? " asked Mary Trippertrot.
"Yes, I -- I guess I am," said Tommy.
"And so am I! " exclaimed Johnny. "But I know where I can get something to eat."
"Where? Oh, tell me where! " cried Tommy, eagerly.
"Right in this wagon," said Johnny. "It's full of groceries, and we can eat some of them. There are oranges, and I saw some nuts, and some candy, and some crackers, and cheese and -- and -- oh, there is plenty to eat."
"But it isn't ours," objected Mary, quickly, "and we mustn't take what isn't ours."
"No, that's so," said Johnny, sadly.
"Oh, I know how we can fix it," spoke Tommy. "We can take what we want -- not too much, of course -- and we can keep account of it, and when we find the man who owns the grocery wagon we can ask papa to pay him for what we took. I'm sure he will."
"Yes, I guess he will," agreed Johnny.
"Besides," added Mary, "the grocery man might give us some pennies for stopping his horse from running away, and we could pay him back with those."
"Yes, only but we're _not_ stopping his horse from running away," said Tommy, "for he _is_ running as fast as he can."
And the horse was, but he was on a smooth asphalt street, and the wagon went so easily that the children didn't notice how very fast they were going.
"I wonder if he wouldn't stop if I asked him please to? " spoke Mary, as she leaned over the seat.