rn! Oh, it was a dreadful sight.
All the other ducks and the geese and the chickens gathered around. The
rooster crowed the alarm. Box number twenty-one it was, but of course
there were no engines to come and put out the fire.

"Oh, we must save the house!" shouted Papa Wibblewobble.

"Everybody bring water from the pond and throw it on the fire!" cried Aunt
Lettie, and she ran down and filled her two horns, which she carried on
her head. The horns were hollow and had the tops sawed off, so she could
fill them quickly and pour out the water just as easily. She splashed some
water on the fire, but it didn't do much good. Then Lulu and Alice and
Jimmie, they filled their bills with water and threw it on the blaze, but
that didn't do much good.

No, sad to tell, all the water the ducks and the geese and Aunt Lettie
could carry, to say nothing of the rooster who couldn't bring much,
because he stopped to crow every now and then--all this water didn't do a
bit of good, and the house was burning faster and faster.

Then, what do you think happened? Why, all at once there came running up
old Nero, the big, shaggy, yellow dog, who was so old and kind that he
would never hurt any one. Yes, he ran right up and called out:

"Make way, if you please. I will put out that fire!"

So he ran down into the pond as fast as he could run and soaked himself in
the water. Then he ran up close to the fire and shook himself hard, and
the drops of water scattered from his shaggy sides all over the blaze,
just like a rain storm. And the fire was partly out.

Then he ran down again and got all wet and shook himself, and scattered
some more water over the fire. And that fire was pretty nearly out.

Then for the third time that dog, Nero, ran down into the water and got
all soaking wet, and scattered the drops over the blaze, like two showers
and a half. And then that fire was all completely out! Oh, wasn't he a
good dog, though?

Well, the house wasn't burned so much after all, and the ducks could go
back into it. And maybe they weren't thankful to Nero, but he only said:

"Ah, you should have watched me gnaw bones when I was a young dog. That
was a sight worth seeing." But I think it was great for him to put out
the fire, don't you? Now, to-morrow night's story, providing my automobile
doesn't hit a balloon, will be about how the fairy prince was caught.

STORY XVII

HOW THE FAIRY PRINCE WAS CAUGHT

Aunt Lettie, the nice old