red to watch the fire. Jerry's
mother brought out a jacket for him to put on over his pajamas. He was
glad of its warmth and also because he could transfer Mr. Bartlett's
money into larger pockets where bulges would not be so conspicuous.

It was not much of a fire. It was soon out. All that had burned was
part of the eaves near the chimney. Jerry heard his father ask Mr.
Bullfinch if he knew how the fire had started. And Mr. Bullfinch
seemed slightly embarrassed as he explained what he thought must have
happened.

"I have only my own carelessness to blame," said Mr. Bullfinch. "You
see, I burn charcoal in the fireplace in my den. I keep a big sack of
charcoal briquets out in the garage. Well, soon after I put fresh
charcoal on the fire--I often read late you know--there was a sharp
series of bangs and I realized what had happened."

Then all that banging hadn't been a car backfiring, thought Jerry.

"There is a shelf in the garage over the sack of charcoal," Mr.
Bullfinch continued, "and there was a box of cartridges on the shelf.
It must be that a few cartridges spilled into the charcoal and they
went off when I put them on the fire. Lucky they fired up the chimney
instead of in the room. Loosened a few bricks in the chimney and
burned a bit of the eaves. No great damage, I'm thankful to say."

"That's the most unusual cause of a fire I ever heard of," said Mr.
Martin.

"I don't want the fire to be out so soon," mourned Andy, who had been
waked up to come to the fire.

"I'd better get that child to bed," said Mr. Martin.

Jerry would have followed his father but Mr. Bullfinch wanted to thank
him for coming over to rescue them, even though they had not needed to
be rescued. "But if I hadn't still been up you might have saved our
lives," he told Jerry. Then he told Jerry something else that filled
Jerry's heart with joy. Jerry was so grateful he could hardly speak.

Jerry kept his cause of gratitude to himself until the family were in
the kitchen having a bite to eat.

"Mr. Bullfinch has given Pedro to me," he said, putting a thick layer
of grape marmalade and peanut butter on a slice of bread. "A
five-dollar parrot and he's worth much more than that and Mr.
Bullfinch gave him to me for almost saving his life."

"Oh, no!" said Mrs. Martin.

"Fire!" bawled a loud hoarse voice from the cellar.

"It's Pedro. He's said his first English word." Jerry was beaming with
pride. "He'll be as good as a watchdog. Do