FIRE
The deacon, Mr. Ander, and the sexton looked carefully around on the
floor of the balcony near the broken window. They even found some
little slivers of colored glass, for only the larger pieces had been
swept up.
“Danny’s ring certainly came in here, stuck to the snowball he threw
against the window,” decided the deacon. “It’s as plain as if we saw it
happen. And I think, Bert, when I hand this ring to Danny’s father and
tell how it was found--I think Danny will confess just how it happened.
I want you with me when he does, so your name will be cleared.”
“Yes, I’d like to go with you,” Bert said. “But I ought to go home
now. I’ve been away a good while, and maybe Nan might want some of the
groceries I have in the basket downstairs. Nan is home alone with
Flossie and Freddie. Mrs. Pry is sick in bed.”
“Then you’d better go home now,” agreed the deacon when Bert had
further explained how it was the Bobbsey twins were keeping house by
themselves. “This evening after supper I’ll call for you and we’ll take
this ring back to Danny.”
“Do you want me to come along?” asked the sexton. “I’m going to be
pretty busy, keeping up the fires, for it’s going to be a cold night.”
“Yes, it is,” agreed Mr. Ander “No, I don’t believe we need you,
Robert. Two witnesses are enough to prove where the lost ring was
found.”
“All right,” agreed Bert. “I’ll be ready for you after supper.”
It was with a very much lighter heart than he had had on entering the
church that Bert left the edifice. Picking up his basket of groceries
he started for home.
“Say, it is mighty cold!” he murmured as he felt the tingling air nip
his ears and nose. “I’ll have to keep up a good fire in our furnace.
Mrs. Pry has got to be kept warm with her lumbago.”
On leaving the church, Bert looked around for a sight of Danny Rugg,
but that small bully and cheat was not in view, and Bert was glad of it.
“For if he saw me coming out of the church,” reasoned Bert, “he
would guess that I made the noise that scared him away. Now he’ll be
surprised when we hand him his ring.”
Mr. Ander put the gold finger ornament in his pocket and went back
home, planning to go to Bert’s house in the evening. Danny lived not
far from the Bobbsey house.
“I’m glad it can be proved that Bert didn’t break the window,” said the
sexton.
“So am I,” agreed the deacon. “Bert’s a good boy. I never liked to
think that he broke the window. Yet the other boys said he did.”
“Well, Danny never actually said so,” remarked Mr. Shull. “But he kept
quiet about it when he knew that he, himself, had thrown the snowball
that did the damage. It was just as bad as if Danny had said Bert did
it.”
“Just the same,” agreed the deacon.
Bert found Nan and the small twins waiting rather anxiously for him
when he got back.
“Did you get a letter from mother?” asked Nan as soon as the door was
opened.
“No, not yet.”
“Oh, dear! I wonder what’s the matter,” and tears were in Nan’s eyes.
“They’re all right,” declared Bert. “It’s just that the mails are late
on account of the storm. I guess we’ll hear from them by to-morrow.
But, Nan, I’ve got good news!”
“What is it?” she asked. “Did you see Sam and Dinah coming back?”
“No. But maybe they’ll be along soon. But I found Danny’s ring in the
church under the broken window, and that proves he did it,” and the boy
quickly told his sister what had happened.
“Oh, I’m glad of that!” cried Nan. “Danny was mean to keep still and
let it be thought you did it.”
“Yes, he’s a sort of a sneak,” agreed Bert. “But wait until he sees
the deacon and me with his ring! He’ll feel queer then!”
Flossie and Freddie were playing about the house when Bert came back,
and they were delighted when he gave them some sticks of candy he had
bought at the store.
“Aunt Sallie says she feels cold,” reported Nan, when she had taken
a cup of tea and one of the lamb chops Bert had brought up to the
invalid. “Can you make the house any warmer, Bert? You know Doctor
Martin said we must keep her lumbago warm.”
“I’ll turn on the furnace more, shake it down and put a lot of coal
on,” decided the boy. “I’m glad we have plenty of coal in the bin.”
“So am I!” agreed Nan.
Soon the pipes were cracking with the additional heat that Bert turned
on. And though the wind still blew cold outside and though more flakes
of snow began to fall as evening settled down, the Bobbsey twins were
warm and snug.
Of course they were lonesome without their parents, and they surely
wished Dinah and Sam would return. But Bert and Nan, putting aside
their own feelings, amused Flossie and Freddie, so that the small twins
laughed merrily.
“Will you be afraid to stay here while I go out with Mr. Ander a little
while?” asked Bert of his sister, when supper was over.
“Oh, no,” Nan answered. “That is, if you don’t stay too late.”
“I won’t,” he promised. “Only long enough to give Danny back his ring
and see what he has to say.”
A little later the deacon arrived at the Bobbsey house. He went to the
side door and brushed the snow off his boots with a broom that was kept
there for the purpose.
“Is it snowing much?” asked Bert, as he let Mr. Ander in.
“Yes, snowing hard,” was the answer. “I don’t know when we’ve had so
much snow this early in the winter. It keeps up as if it would never
stop. How are you, Nan?” he asked kindly. “And how is the fat fairy and
the big fireman?” he asked, patting Flossie and Freddie.
Fairy and fireman were the pet names Mr. Bobbsey often called his small
twins, and the deacon, being a friend of the family, remembered this.
“I’m all right,” Freddie answered. “Do you think there’ll be a fire
to-night, Mr. Deacon?”
“Mr. Ander--not Mr. Deacon!” corrected Nan.
“Oh, it’s all the same,” laughed the kindly man. “Names don’t mean
anything. But I surely hope there won’t be any fires, little man. The
engines would have hard work getting through the drifts.”
“We got a little kittie out of a snowdrift,” said Flossie. “Bert found
her and she’s named Snowflake. Here she is,” and she picked up the
little cat and put her in the deacon’s lap.
“Say, she’s real cute!” laughed Mr. Ander, who was fond of animals. He
gently rubbed the pussy’s ears and scratched her under her chin, which
she seemed to like very much.
By this time Bert was dressed to go out and he and the deacon started
through the storm to the Rugg home, not far away. Mr. Rugg, who opened
the door, seemed surprised to meet Bert and Mr. Ander.
“Good evening,” greeted the deacon. “Is Danny in?”
“Danny? Yes, I guess so,” answered Mr. Rugg slowly. “Did you want to
see him? Has he been doing anything?”
“Oh, nothing new. And it isn’t such a terrible thing, after all, I
suppose,” replied the deacon. “The worst part of it was keeping quiet
and letting some one else be blamed. Oh, there you are, Danny,” he went
on, as the boy himself came into the room.
No sooner did Danny catch sight of Bert and the deacon than he seemed
to know what was “in the wind,” as the saying is.
Mr. Ander lost no time.
“Is this your ring, Danny?” asked the deacon, holding out on the palm
of his hand the gold circlet.
Before Danny could answer Mr. Rugg stepped forward and took the ring
from the deacon.
“Why, yes, that’s Danny’s ring!” exclaimed the boy’s father. “I bought
it for his birthday. He told me he lost it at school. I guess he did,
for only yesterday I met the principal and he said the ring hadn’t been
found.”
“Well, it’s found now,” said Mr. Ander, with a little smile at Bert.
“And though Danny didn’t exactly lose it at school, it was near there.
That’s your ring, isn’t it, Danny?” he asked.
“Yes--yes, sir,” faltered the boy. “It’s my birthday ring.”
“Don’t you want to know where we found it--where Bert and I found it?”
went on the deacon.
“Yes--yes, sir, I--I guess I do.” Danny’s voice was low.
“Maybe you can guess where we found it,” went on the deacon, while Mr.
Rugg looked curiously at his son and then at the visitors. “I think you
can guess, Danny, but I’m going to tell you.
“Bert and I and Mr. Shull, the sexton, found your ring in the church
balcony, right under the broken stained-glass window. The window was
broken by a snowball thrown through it, Danny. The ring must have been
in the snowball, and when the snow melted the ring fell out on the
floor and into a crack. It has been there ever since. Danny Rugg, were
you in the church this afternoon looking for this lost ring?”
The deacon’s voice was now stern.
Danny hung his head.
“Answer, Danny,” ordered his father. “Is this true?”
“Yes--yes, sir,” mumbled Danny. “I went there to look for my ring. I--I
thought it might have been in the snowball.”
“Did you throw the snowball that broke the church window?” asked Mr.
Rugg in stern tones.
Danny hung his head and was silent.
“Better own up and tell the truth,” said the deacon more gently.
“Oh, I did it! Yes, I did it!” and Danny burst out crying. “I didn’t
mean to, but I broke the window. I was trying to throw over the
church, but my hand slipped and the ball went through the window.
“Then, right after that, I missed my ring. First I thought it had
dropped off. But when it wasn’t found I thought maybe it had stuck to
the snowball and gone inside the church. So I went in to look.
“I went in once before, but I heard a noise and I ran out. That was
when Bert fell down the trapdoor.”
“Is that so, Bert?” asked the deacon.
“Yes, sir,” was the answer. “I didn’t want to say why I went in the
church, though, until I could be sure what Danny wanted in there.”
“And you went into the church the second time, to-day, Danny, did you?”
asked the deacon.
“Yes, sir. I went to see if I could find my ring. And if I found it I
was going to tell that I broke the window--and that it wasn’t Bert.”
“Better late than never,” the deacon said. “Well, I guess Bert is
cleared now.”
“Yes, I’ll tell everything,” sobbed Danny. “I wouldn’t have let it be
thought Bert did it, only Sam said he saw Bert throw the same time I
did, and I thought, maybe, after all, Bert’s ball broke the glass.”
“It didn’t!” exclaimed Bert. “For I only threw my snowball on the
ground.”
Mr. Rugg placed the ring on the table. Danny was still sobbing brokenly
in one corner of the room.
“I am very sorry this has happened,” said Mr. Rugg. “I will punish
Danny for his part in it, and I will pay for the broken window, Mr.
Ander. I will also make Danny get up in front of the whole school and
confess so Bert’s name will be cleared.”
“If you do that and the window is paid for, I think Danny will have
been punished enough,” suggested the deacon. “I don’t believe he will
ever do a thing like this again. Will you, Danny?”
“Oh, no, never! Never! Not as long as I live!” sobbed the boy, and Bert
felt sorry for him.
“Well, this is what we came for, and I’m glad it’s over with,”
announced Mr. Ander. “I’ll trust you to pay for the stained-glass
window, Mr. Rugg, and also see to it that Danny tells the truth as soon
as school opens again.”
“I’ll take care of it,” promised Danny’s father.
Bert waited a moment and then walked over to where his former chum was
standing, sobbing.
“It’s all right, Danny,” said Bert in a low voice. “I don’t mind, now
that it’s known I didn’t do it. I’ll be friends with you again.”
“Tha-thanks,” faltered Danny, and then the hands of the two boys met in
a firm clasp.
“They’ll be better friends than ever,” whispered the deacon to Mr. Rugg.
“I hope so,” said the father. “Danny needs a lesson. I hope he will
profit by this one.”
Nan rejoiced with Bert when he got home and told all that had happened.
The smaller twins had gone to bed, the “sandman” having paid them an
early visit.
Nan went up to see if Mrs. Pry wanted anything, and gave her some of
the medicine the doctor had left for her.
“It’s snowing yet,” Nan said to the old lady.
“What’s that? You say the kitten’s got a fit?” cried Mrs. Pry. “Land
sakes! Well, put it down the cellar!”
“No, no! The kitten hasn’t a fit! I said it was snowing _yet_!” said
Nan loudly.
“Oh! More snow! Seems like it was never going to stop! I do hope the
house keeps warm, for my pains seem to be getting worse.”
Nan was more lonesome than ever that night, wished more for her father
and mother, but she said nothing to Bert about it. She was the first
up the next morning, and she felt a sense of chill as she moved about
dressing.
“Bert! Bert!” she softly called to her brother, so as not to awaken
Flossie and Freddie. “I’m afraid the fire has gone out, Bert, or else
it’s very low. You’d better look after it.”
“I will,” said Bert sleepily as he got out of bed and hastily dressed
to go down cellar. As Nan put the coffee on to boil, so Mrs. Pry could
have an early, hot cup, the girl heard her brother rattling away at the
furnace.
“Fire’s out,” he called up. “But I’ll soon have it going again.”
He piled in wood and lighted the paper, and then, after putting on some
coal, came upstairs.
“It will soon be warm,” he said.
“I hope so!” exclaimed Nan, shivering as she set the table for
breakfast.
Flossie and Freddie were just awakening when Nan carried up Mrs. Pry
some toast and coffee and an egg. The old lady sat up in bed and
suddenly exclaimed:
“Nan, I smell smoke!”
“I guess it’s the toast,” Nan answered. “One slice burned a little.”
“No, it isn’t toast!” insisted Aunt Sallie. “I know the smell of burned
toast! This is burning wood! I hope the chimney isn’t on fire.”
“Oh, no, I guess it isn’t,” replied Nan. “Bert just made up a new fire
in the furnace.”
Just then Freddie cried:
“Oh, look at the smoke! There’s a lot of smoke out in the hall!”
Nan looked out of Mrs. Pry’s room. Truly the hall was filling with a
blue, choking haze.
“It’s a fire!” screamed Flossie. “Bert! Nan! The house is on fire!”
More smoke welled up until Nan and the small twins were choking and
gasping.
“Bert! Bert!” shouted Nan, running down the stairs. “What is the
matter? Is the house on fire?”