ttle chap, and it was a
good chance to tell him, and the other kids, what not to do at a fire.
Next time it might be a serious matter."

The firemen went away, their engines and apparatus making as much noise
as when they had been coming to the fire, and by and by the curious
crowd that had gathered in the street went away, too. The tall
policeman and his friend George helped Miss May and Miss Davis and
Maria to put down the windows which had been left up by the firemen to
let the smoke out, and then they went away.

"Sunny Boy, are you quite positive you feel all right?" asked Miss May
anxiously. "Do your eyes hurt you now? Don't you want me to walk home
with you?"

Sunny Boy said no, thank you, he felt all right and he didn't need her
to walk home with him.

Daddy Horton was home when Sunny Boy came in, for he had left his
office early. So he and Mother heard all about the fire before dinner,
and though Mother hugged him tightly and declared that he smelled of
smoke, she said she was glad her little boy had not been afraid.

"But the fireman was right," said Daddy Horton gravely. "Coats and
rubbers are not important enough, Sunny Boy, even if they were trimmed
with gold fur, to risk one's life for. I hope there'll be no more
fires till you are grown up and able to judge for yourself. But if
there should be, remember what the fireman said. That will keep you
from dashing into a blaze after foolish trifles."

Sunny Boy knew he would not forget, and then he went out into the
kitchen and told Harriet about the afternoon's excitement.

"And we never had the snowball fight at all," he said. "All the
bullets were made, too. Perhaps we can have it to-morrow."

But the next morning was rainy, and though there was plenty of cold
weather through February which followed, not once did it snow again.
There was not even much good skating, though Sunny Boy did enjoy one
afternoon with Bob Parkney, who declared that he would soon be a
champion skater with his new skates to help him. After that, though,
it thawed and froze and thawed and froze and the Centronia Park
Commission refused to allow any one on the ice. The children were
disappointed in the weather, but Miss May said she was glad to see it
rain. She had had enough snow, she said, till another year.

Bob stopped in once a week after school at the Hortons, to get the egg
container. He brought Mrs. Horton two dozen fresh eggs every Monday
morning from hi