THE EXPLORERS SET OUT
And that was what Sunny Boy said to every one who asked him why he had
gone into the burning school.
"I had to get Jessie's coat and rubbers," he repeated, when the
"George" policeman asked him.
And the big firemen, who soon crowded around him, and Miss May and Miss
Davis, who came hurrying home, breathless, for they had seen the crowd
around the school the moment they stepped off the trolley car at the
corner, were given the same reason.
"Well, next time, you remember that no coat and no rubbers are worth
going after when a place is on fire," said one of the firemen, fanning
himself with his helmet, for fighting a fire is warm work, you know.
"There is just one thing to risk your life for at a fire," he went on
to explain to Sunny Boy and to the other children who crowded around to
hear. "Just one thing, and that's another life. Think you youngsters
can remember that?"
Sunny Boy was sure he could, and the firemen began to roll up their
chemical hose. They had not even unwound the big hose for, you see,
Miss May's school had not been on fire.
"Not on fire!" cried Maria, when the tall policeman told her this.
"Why, I saw the smoke, and Sunny Boy was almost choked with it. Of
course it was on fire!"
"No fire, Miss," said one of the firemen, grinning. "Snow's been
accumulating on the edge of the chimney for some time, I take it, and
this afternoon a chunk fell in and choked the flue. Of course the
smoke poured out into the house. And the little fellow thought he was
going straight into a blaze. He's a spunky little chap, and it was a
good chance to tell him, and the other kids, what not to do at a fire.
Next time it might be a serious matter."
The firemen went away, their engines and apparatus making as much noise
as when they had been coming to the fire, and by and by the curious
crowd that had gathered in the street went away, too. The tall
policeman and his friend George helped Miss May and Miss Davis and
Maria to put down the windows which had been left up by the firemen to
let the smoke out, and then they went away.
"Sunny Boy, are you quite positive you feel all right?" asked Miss May
anxiously. "Do your eyes hurt you now? Don't you want me to walk home
with you?"
Sunny Boy said no, thank you, he felt all right and he didn't need her
to walk home with him.
Daddy Horton was home when Sunny Boy came in, for he had left his
office early. So he and Mother heard all about the fire before dinner,
and though Mother hugged him tightly and declared that he smelled of
smoke, she said she was glad her little boy had not been afraid.
"But the fireman was right," said Daddy Horton gravely. "Coats and
rubbers are not important enough, Sunny Boy, even if they were trimmed
with gold fur, to risk one's life for. I hope there'll be no more
fires till you are grown up and able to judge for yourself. But if
there should be, remember what the fireman said. That will keep you
from dashing into a blaze after foolish trifles."
Sunny Boy knew he would not forget, and then he went out into the
kitchen and told Harriet about the afternoon's excitement.
"And we never had the snowball fight at all," he said. "All the
bullets were made, too. Perhaps we can have it to-morrow."
But the next morning was rainy, and though there was plenty of cold
weather through February which followed, not once did it snow again.
There was not even much good skating, though Sunny Boy did enjoy one
afternoon with Bob Parkney, who declared that he would soon be a
champion skater with his new skates to help him. After that, though,
it thawed and froze and thawed and froze and the Centronia Park
Commission refused to allow any one on the ice. The children were
disappointed in the weather, but Miss May said she was glad to see it
rain. She had had enough snow, she said, till another year.
Bob stopped in once a week after school at the Hortons, to get the egg
container. He brought Mrs. Horton two dozen fresh eggs every Monday
morning from his mother's poultry yard, and Friday afternoon he came
for the box. Mrs. Parkney was so busy and happy now that she had
almost forgotten she had ever been discouraged. Judge Layton had put
the farmhouse in good order for her family, and he had stocked the
poultry yard with fine chickens. He said that if Mrs. Parkney would
feed the chickens and look after them till he came out in the summer,
she might have the eggs to do with as she pleased. The Parkney
children had all the fresh eggs to eat they wanted and there were
several dozen to sell every week, and Mrs. Parkney said she felt rich
with the egg money for her own.
Mr. Parkney's arm gradually grew stronger, and he was proving such a
handy man on the little farm, so willing and so capable, that Judge
Layton told Mrs. Horton that he was thinking of building a new house
and asking Mr. Parkney to go on living in the farmhouse and to be his
farm manager.
"He's going to paint the house and the barns for me this spring and
whitewash all the fences," said the judge. "There isn't anything that
man can't do."
"Spring is on the way," announced Daddy Horton, one evening early in
March. "I see they are having freshets out in Yardley county."
"What is a freshet?" asked Sunny Boy.
"A freshet, Son, is when a stream rises suddenly and overflows its
natural course," explained his daddy. "In spring, freshets are often
caused by the ice and snow melting too rapidly and draining down into
the brooks and rivers. Then the stream rises, and if the banks are
narrow, it overflowers [Transcriber's note: overflows?] them and
sometimes great damage is done. A big river may sweep away houses and
cattle and send people scurrying about in boats and rafts. Centronia
is not near a river, though, so it isn't likely that you'll see a
freshet soon."
The news of the freshets was not the only sign of spring. At school,
Miss Davis had a large blue jar filled with beautiful pussy willows on
her desk, and the nature study lessons were all about the spring birds.
When Bob Parkney brought Mrs. Horton her fresh eggs, he also brought
her some budded twigs which he said would blossom if she put them in
water.
"My, it's nice out in the country now," said Bob. "Why can't Sunny Boy
come out and see us, Mrs. Horton? Ma was saying yesterday she'd like
to have him come any time. He's never really seen the place, and Judge
Layton is fixing it up fine. Can't he come next Saturday? I'd meet
him at the trolley station."
"I'll tell you, Bob, what Sunny Boy has been teasing to be allowed to
do," replied Mrs. Horton. "He and half a dozen of the boys he plays
with want to take their lunches and spend a day exploring. Mr. Horton
and I have suggested that they wait till it is warmer, but I am afraid
they can't wait contentedly much longer, and your suggestion has really
solved the problem for me."
"Oh, Mother!" cried Sunny Boy, who had been listening eagerly. "Next
Saturday, Mother? Please!"
Mrs. Horton laughed as she put her twigs in a vase of water.
"You see how it is, don't you, Bob?" she said. "Well, Mr. Horton and I
are not willing to have Sunny Boy go to a strange place. But if your
mother is willing to let them come out where you are, they can play
around and have a beautiful time. They'll bring their own lunches, and
she musn't let them track mud on her clean kitchen floor. Indeed,
they'll be too busy with all outdoors, to think much about coming in
the house, I suppose. But you and your father will be there, to keep
an eye on them, and I shall feel so much easier. Some one will put
them on the trolley car here in the morning, and if you will meet them
at the corner of your lane and see that they are put on the half past
four car in the afternoon, every mother will be much obliged to you."
Bob grinned and said he would "tell Ma," and the next morning he
stopped on his way to school to say that the Parkneys would be
expecting Sunny Boy and his friends the next Saturday morning.
"And tell them to wear their rubber boots, Mrs. Horton," he said
earnestly. "Such mud you never saw! Ma keeps a broom at the back
door, and she won't let us come in till we change our shoes. She hands
us out clean ones. But of course it is always soft when the frost is
coming out of the ground."
Sunny Boy could hardly wait till Saturday. He and Oliver Dunlap were
the ones who had teased to be allowed to go on an "exploring" trip in
the country. At first they had planned to go together, without any one
else, but as soon as the other boys heard of the scheme, they wanted to
go, too. Nelson Baker heard about the plan, and he asked if he could
go. Nelson did not see much of Sunny Boy on school days because, of
course, he went to the public school and did not get home till three
o'clock in the afternoon. But he and Sunny Boy were good friends, and
Sunny was glad to have him go exploring with the rest.
"Bring me some pussy willows, if you find them," said Miss Davis, when
she heard what they were planning to do. "Miss May wants some pussy
willows to root in water and then she will plant them in the yard and
perhaps they will grow." Sunny Boy promised to bring back pussy
willows, if they found any.
Friday came at last, and that meant he could leave his rubber boots
beside his bed where he could see them the first thing in the morning.
Somehow, Sunny Boy never felt that he was going on a long trip till he
saw the big trunk standing in the hall, waiting to be packed, and he
never felt that he was going on a little trip till he could put the
things he was to wear in neat piles ready to hop into.
"So you're going exploring to-day, are you?" said Daddy Horton, when he
kissed him good-bye the next morning. "Well, good luck to you, old
man. I hope you have an exciting adventure. And don't lose either of
your handsome boots!"
Sunny Boy laughed and went out on the front steps to wave to Daddy.
"It feels so nice," he said to his mother, when she came to tell him
that Mrs. Dunlap had telephoned that Oliver was going to call for Sunny
Boy. "I like spring, don't you, Mother?"
"I love the spring, precious," she answered, smiling. "Now come and
get your cap and the lunch Harriet has packed for you. I believe Mr.
Nelson is going to walk out to the car with you. Where are you going
to meet the other boys?"
"At the corner," replied Sunny Boy, snatching up his cap and struggling
into his sweater as he heard Oliver's whistle. "Thank you for making
me the lunch, Harriet," he cried, running toward the door. "Good-bye,
Mother," he said, running back to kiss her.
Oliver and Nelson and Mr. Baker were waiting for him on the sidewalk,
and when they reached the corner where the interurban trolley car
stopped to take on passengers, they found Perry Phelps and Jimmie
Butterworth and Leslie Bradin and Carleton Marsh, each with a box of
lunch under his arm.
"Going to Europe?" said the conductor, as he watched them climb into
his car. "Let them off at Lane's Corners," he repeated, as Mr. Baker
told him how far the boys were going. "All right, sir. Lane's Corners
it is. All aboard."
He pulled the bell and the car started. The seven little boys found
seats together at one end of the car, and the conductor made them laugh
all the way to Lane's Corners. There were only two other people in the
car, an elderly man and a man who read his newspapers and did not look
up. The conductor pretended half the time that the trolley was a boat
and that the boys were sailors. And then he would pretend that he was
the conductor on a train and that the motorman was the engineer. It
was not a long ride to Lane's Corners and the merry conductor made it
seem only a few minutes.
"Who wanted to get off at Lane's Corners?" he called, when he had
stopped the car at the big white sign post. "Why, goodness, all my
passengers are leaving me! Here, lad, catch this," he shouted to Bob,
picking up Sunny Boy and pretending to toss him to Bob, who was waiting
for them.
"It's a good thing you wore boots and rubbers," said Bob, as the
trolley car went on, leaving the boys, who waved to the conductor as
long as they could see him on the platform. "The mud is up to the hub
of the wagon wheels."