Billy Long (called "Short and Long" because of his diminutive stature)
galloped on to the street corner, shouting "Fire! Fire!" in an
astonishingly weak voice. Billy was so excited that it choked him!
On the corner was one of the city fire-alarm boxes. There was no place
of deposit of the key indicated upon the box; but it had a glass front.
Billy looked wildly about for a stick, or stone, with which to break the
glass. There appeared to be nothing of the kind at hand.
Down the side street, not half a block away, was the fire station; but
that fact never crossed Master Billy's mind. Besides, the importance of
having a legitimate reason for sending in an alarm was the prominent
idea in Short and Long's mind at that moment.
He glanced back once and saw the spiral of smoke rising behind the broad
plate glass window of the grocery store. Laura Belding stood before it
unable, as he had been for the moment when he first sighted it, to do a
thing. Indeed, what was there to do but turn in the alarm for the
department?
The loaf of bread nestling in its bed of tissue paper was already burned
to a cinder; the paper would soon be in flames.
Billy hesitated only a moment when he reached the box and found no
weapon with which to break the glass. He pulled out his handkerchief,
wrapped it about his knuckles, and splintered the glass with one blow.
At that he cut his hand a little; but he scarcely noticed this in his
eagerness.
Standing on his tiptoes he was just able to pull down the hook inside.
He could hear the alarm bell sound in the station half a block away at
almost the instant he set the telegraph to working.
By this time several citizens had run to the store front. They were all
quite as excited as Billy Long, the short boy.
"Tom's locked up and gone!" cried one, shaking the latch of the store
door.
"Of course he has--gone to the ball game!" said another.
"This door'll have to be smashed in."
"No! break the window pane!"
"Lock will cost less than the glass," cried another man.
"That burning glass is what did it," said one more reflective man. "Fool
trick--that was."
"That young one of his did it," declared the first speaker. "Always up
to some trick or other."
"Say! where's the fire department? They must have all gone to the ball
game, too."
"I'm going to break the glass in this door!" shouted the first man to
arrive.
"What good will that do?" cried his friend, mopping his brow. "There's
the wire screen behind it. You can't bust _that_ with your fist."
"Break the big window, then!"
"No! Smash the lock of the door."
But they had no tools with which to do this. Had there been a loose
paving block in the street the urgent man would surely have burst in the
big plate glass. Just then a man with a helmet on his head and an axe in
his hand rushed around the corner--the first fireman on the scene.
"Where is it, boy?" he demanded of Billy Long. "You rang in the alarm,
didn't you?"
"Here it is, Ned!" yelled one of the men in front of the grocery store.
"You've got to break down this door to git to it."
"You got to break the window--that's quickest!" declared the insistent
man.
The fireman ran to the door. He poised his axe for a blow as the others
stood back. But suddenly Laura Belding halted the whole proceedings.
"Wait! wait a moment!" she cried, darting to the side of the window.
The fireman looked over his shoulder at her. The girl, with nimble
fingers, released the awning ropes. In half a minute the heavy awning
dropped over the walk and shut out the hot rays of the sun. The cinder
of bread stopped smoking. _The fire was out!_
"Well! don't that beat all?" cackled one of the men.
The fireman grinned sheepishly and walked to the middle of the
show-window to make sure that the danger was really over.
"You've got a head on you--that's what you've got!" he said to Laura.
"She's Belding's daughter--a smart little girl," declared another of the
men.
The engine and hose carriage came tearing around the corner just then.
From up the street thundered the ladder-truck, three huge horses
abreast. A crowd came running to the scene.
Laura slipped away, and found Short and Long at her side.
"Huh!" he said, with a grimace. "I thought I was going to be a hero.
You've got me beat, Laura. You stole my laurel wreath right off my
head!"
"You ought to have used what's in your head a little better, Billy,"
returned the girl, laughing. "What is your gray matter for?--as Professor
Dimple would say."
"Huh! Old Dimple! That's exactly what he would say. He certainly does
stick the gaff into us," grumbled the short boy. "I've got a page of
Virgil extra to translate between now and Monday morning. He's a mean
old hunks."
"Such language!" sighed Laura. "I should think you needed extra work in
English, not Latin, Billy."
"I don't need extra work at all," proclaimed Master Billy, with scorn.
"I've got too much work as it is. And he and Mr. Sharp between them
threaten to cut me out of the ball team altogether this season if I
don't catch up. And what's the team going to do for a short stop?"
"Well, Miss Carrington tells us girls that if we are going in for
athletics we have all got to have good marks, too. Only the girls who
stand high can join the new athletic association. Some of the lazy girls
will be disappointed, I fear."
"Are you girls really going in for athletics?" demanded Billy.
"We are. Why shouldn't we? It isn't fair for you boys to have all the
fun."
"And they say they are going to start girls' branches in East and West
High, too?"
"Yes. We want to have inter-school matches. Inter-class matches are
forbidden right at the start. The doctor says there must be no rivalry
among classes."
"Yah! but there will be," said Billy. "There always is. Purt Sweet
pretty near broke up the ball team this season because he couldn't
play."
"Now we girls will show you how much nicer we can conduct affairs,"
laughed Laura. "We sha'n't squabble."
"Oh, no!" scoffed Billy. "What do you s'pose Hessie Grimes will do if
she isn't allowed to boss everything? Didn't she and that chum of hers,
Lil Pendleton, break up the class supper last year--when we were
freshmen? Oh, no!"
"Well, that won't happen again," said Laura, firmly.
"Why not?"
"Because the rest of us girls will not agree to follow her," declared
Laura, confidently.
"You know she won't play if she can't be 'it,'" grinned Billy.
"Now you see," returned Laura, good naturedly, and a moment later she
parted from the short boy.
She had not walked another block toward the schoolhouse when she heard a
voice calling her name:
"Laura! Laura Belding!"
"Why, Jess!" exclaimed Laura, eagerly. "I was afraid you wouldn't come."
Josephine, or "Jess," Morse was a taller girl than her friend, with
bright gray eyes, and hair of that "fly-away" variety that never _will_
look smooth. Despite Miss Morse's bright eyes she often did the most
ridiculous things quite thoughtlessly. Her mind was of the "wandering"
variety. And almost always one could find an ink stain on her finger.
This marked her among her girl friends, at least, as being "literary."
And, as the old folk say, "she came by it naturally." Her mother, Mrs.
Mary Morse, had some little reputation as a writer for the magazines.
"Yes," said Miss Morse, putting her arm around her chum's waist as they
walked on together. "I just _had_ to come. If you are going in for
athletics, Laura, of course I've got to."
"Too bad," laughed her friend. "You're just whipped into it, I suppose?"
"I just am."
"Why, it will be fun, Jess!"
"Who says so? I'd lots rather go to the theater--or to a party--or even go
shopping. And you can't dress up and play those horrid games the gym.
teacher tells about."
"But you like to play tennis."
"Er--well---- Yes, I play tennis. I like it because there aren't many of
the girls--nor the boys, either--who can beat me at that. I've got such a
long reach, you see," said the tall girl, with satisfaction.
"Then you'd like any athletic game in which you could excel?"
"Why--I suppose so," admitted Miss Morse.
"That's a poor attitude in which to approach school athletics," said
Laura with a sigh.
"Why is it?"
"Because, as I understand it, we should play for the sport's sake, not
so much to win every time. That's the way to play the game. And that is
what Mrs. Case will tell us to-day, I know."
"She will be at the meeting, I suppose?"
"And Miss Carrington."
"Oh--Gee Gee! Of course. To keep us up in our deportment," said Jess,
making a face.
"You all find her so strict," observed Laura, seriously. "She treats me
nicely."
"Why, you know very well, Laura, that you never in your life did
anything to get a teacher mad."
"I don't know what you mean by that. We don't go to school to play
tricks on the teachers. I want them to respect me. And father and mother
would be disappointed if I brought home a bad report, especially in
deportment."
"Oh, I know!" said Jess. "For a girl who likes fun as you do, you do
manage to keep concealed all your superabundance of spirits--in school,
at least. But some of us have just _got_ to slop over."
"'Slop over!'"
"Yes, Miss Nancy. Don't be a prude in your English, too," laughed Jess.
"Say! did you hear how Bobby got Gee Gee going yesterday in chemistry
class?"
Laura shook her head, seeing that it would be useless to take her chum
to task further on the topic of slang.
"Why, Gee Gee had been expatiating at great length on the impossibility
of really creating, or annihilating, anything--the indestructibility of
matter, you know."
"I see," said Laura, nodding.
"Oh, she brought up the illustrations in ranks and platoons, and
regiments. I guess she thought she had got the fact hammered home at
last, for she said: 'You absolutely cannot make _anything_.' And then
Bobby speaks up, just as innocent, and says: 'But, Miss Carrington,
can't we make a noise that didn't exist before?'
"And what do you think?" cried Jess, giggling, "Poor Bobby got a black
mark for it. Gee Gee said she did it to make the class laugh."
"And Bobby did, didn't she?" said Laura, but laughing, too.
"Oh, we laughed all right. But the lesson was practically over. Gee Gee
ought to be glad if we can leave her class room in anything but a flood
of tears!" completed Jess, as they came to Central High School.