her mother from upstairs. "Come set the table for
dinner."

Cathy, with one of her movie-queen looks, sailed past Jerry and went
upstairs.

"Girls are nuts," Jerry said.

"Ha, ha!" laughed Pedro.

"You _are_ a smart bird," said Jerry and tried in vain to teach the
parrot to say "Jerry." Pedro said "_Caramba_" again and a few Spanish
words Jerry did not understand, but that was all.

He certainly was a handsome bird. Jerry looked at him with affection.
"Give you time and you'll learn to speak English," said Jerry. And,
"Gosh, I wish you really belonged to me." Then, having been called
twice, Jerry went up to dinner.

Jerry went to the neighborhood movie that night with his mother and
Cathy, so he was later getting to bed than usual. He was dropping off
to sleep when he heard what he thought was a car backfiring outside.
Then, at the very edge of sleep again, Jerry smelled smoke. He rushed
to the window. By moonlight he could see the Bullfinch house almost as
plain as day. There was smoke coming out of the chimney. There was
also smoke rising from the roof.

"Fire!" bawled Jerry. "Fire!" he shouted all the way down the stairs.

[Illustration]

"The Bullfinch house is on fire!" he yelled at the door of the living
room where his father and mother were sitting.

"What?" cried his father.

"Is this one of your ideas of a joke?" asked his mother.

Jerry did not stop. The front door slammed behind him. "Fire!" he kept
shouting all the way to the Bullfinch house, as if a phonograph needle
had been stuck at that word in a record.

"I've got to get that grocery money out of there. I've got to," Jerry
thought, so excited and driven that he did not know he was shivering
with cold.

Jerry rang the Bullfinch doorbell hard with one hand while he pounded
on the door with the other.

Mr. Bullfinch came to the door. He looked only a little excited.

"Your house is on fire!" cried Jerry.

"I know. I know. I've called the fire department," said Mr. Bullfinch.
"Won't you come in?" he asked politely, as if it were not strange to
invite a person to come in a burning house.

Jerry was glad to get Mr. Bartlett's money safe in two pockets of his
pajamas. There was too much of it for one.

"Want me to help carry out things?" he asked Mr. Bullfinch.

Mrs. Bullfinch was fluttering about, wondering what should be saved
first, when sirens screeched and fire engines arrived on the scene.

By this time a small crowd had gathe