he baby. But a moment later he made the
bell ring, and throwing the baby to her rushed off again with his
engine.

"That wasn't very nice," pouted Flossie. "Dorothy might have fallen in
the snow."

"Can't help it," answered Freddie. "A fireman can't stop for anything."

"But--but--he doesn't have to throw his baby away, does he?" questioned
Flossie, with wide open eyes.

"Yes, he does,--_ev'rything_."

"But--but supposing he is--is eating his dinner?"

"He has to throw it away, Flossie. Oh, it's awful hard to be a real
fireman."

"Would he have to throw his jam away, and his pie?"

"Yes."

"Then I wouldn't be a fireman, not for a--a house full of gold!" said
Flossie, and marched back into the house with her doll.

Flossie's dolls were five in number. Dorothy was her pride, and had
light hair and blue eyes, and three dresses, one of real lace. The next
was Gertrude, a short doll with black eyes and hair and a traveling
dress that was very cute. Then came Lucy, who had lost one arm, and
Polly, who had lost both an arm and a leg. The fifth doll was Jujube, a
colored boy, dressed in a fiery suit of red, with a blue cap and real
rubber boots. This doll had come from Sam and Dinah and had been much
admired at first, but was now taken out only when all the others went
too.

"He doesn't really belong to the family, you know," Flossie would
explain to her friends. "But I have to keep him, for mamma says there is
no colored orphan asylum for dolls. Besides, I don't think Sam and Dinah
would like to see their doll child in an asylum." The dolls were all
kept in a row in a big bureau drawer at the top of the house, but
Flossie always took pains to separate Jujube from the rest by placing
the cover of a pasteboard box between them.

With so much snow on the ground it was decided by the boys of that
neighborhood to build a snow fort, and this work was undertaken early on
the following Saturday morning. Luckily, Bert was by that time well
enough to go out and he did his fair share of the labor, although being
careful not to injure the sore ankle.

The fort was built at the top of a small hill in a large open lot. It
was made about twenty feet square and the wall was as high as the boys'
heads and over a foot thick. In the middle was gathered a big pile of
snow, and into this was stuck a flag-pole from which floated a nice flag
loaned by a boy named Ralph Blake.

"Let us divide into two parties of soldiers," said Ral