glare of it almost blinded them. The thunder shook the air. Jessie
screamed.

"See! See! Look at the parsonage!" she cried in Amy's ear.

"Why, the boys must have already strung their wires and got a radio
set established," said Amy.

"Look at the window--that attic window!" Jessie exclaimed. "Don't you
see what I see, Amy Drew?"

"It's smoke!" said the other girl, amazed.

"The house is afire! In the attic! That lightning must have struck
there. It must have been led in by the wires, just as Momsy feared."

"Then the boys never closed their switch!" cried Amy. "Oh! I wonder if
Doctor Stanley or Nell knows that the house is on fire?"

A GREAT TO-DO

SILK

DARRY'S BIG IDEA

CHAPTER XXI

A GREAT TO-DO

"Chapman! Stop!" shouted Jessie. "We must tell them!"

The chauffeur wheeled the car in toward the curb and stopped as
quickly as he could. But it was some distance past the church and the
parsonage.

The girls jumped out and ran back. They saw Dr. Stanley come out on
the porch from his study. He was in his house gown and wore a little
black cap to cover his bald spot. It was a little on one side and gave
the good clergyman a decidedly rakish appearance.

"Come in here, children! Hurry! It is going to rain," he called in his
full and mellow voice.

"Oh, Doctor! Doctor!" Jessie gasped. "The fire! The fire!"

"Why, you are not wet. Here come the first drops. You don't need a
fire."

"Nor you don't need one, Doctor," and Amy began to laugh. "But you've
got one just the same."

"In the kitchen stove. Is it a joke or a conundrum?" asked the
smiling minister, as the two chums came up under the porch roof just
as the first big drops came thudding down.

"Upstairs! The radio!" declared the earnest Jessie. "Don't you know
it's afire?"

"The radio afire?"

"The lightning struck it. Didn't you feel and hear it? The boys must
have left the switch to the receiver open, and the lightning came
right in----"

"Come on!" broke in Amy, who knew the way about the parsonage as well
as she did about her own house. "We saw the smoke pouring out of the
window," and she darted in and started up the front stairway.

"Why, why!" gasped the good doctor. "I can hardly believe Nell would
be so careless."

"Oh, it isn't Nell," Jessie said, following her chum. "It is the
boys."

"But she always knows what the boys are up to, and Sally, too,"
declared the minister, confident of his capable daughter's o