"We're all right, Mother!" Russ hastened to say.
"Is our house on fire?" demanded Vi. Even in this excitement she could not forget to ask a question.
"Yes, darlin', the house is burnin'!" cried Norah. "Oh, sorrow the day I should live to see this. Oh, come to Norah, little darlin's!" and she tried to gather in her arms all four of the smallest children at once.
"Don't frighten them!" called Mrs. Bunker, as she caught up Mun Bun in one arm, and Margy in the other. "The house isn't exactly on fire, children. It's just the chimney. A lot of soot got in while we were at Uncle Fred's, and it is the soot which is now burning."
"But I heard a fireman say if the chimney fire wasn't soon put out it might set the house afire!" declared Norah, as all of them started down the front stairs.
There was plenty of excitement now in the home of the six little Bunkers. Outside could be heard the whistle of a fire engine and the shouts of many men and boys.
Russ, Rose, the other four children and Mrs. Bunker and Norah safely reached the first floor. There was no smoke at all here, as yet. As Russ hurried out on the porch he saw Jerry Simms running around holding the garden hose, out of the nozzle of which trickled a little stream of water.
"Let me get at it!" cried the old soldier, who acted as gardener and furnace man by turns. "Let me get at the blaze! I'll put the fire out if I can see it!"
"You won't put much of a blaze out with that stream!" exclaimed a fireman in a rubber coat, as he hurried up the steps. "There isn't enough force to it."
"Oh, I forgot to turn the water on full!" said Jerry Simms. "Wait a minute. I'll go turn it on full force, and then I'll put out the blaze," he said, putting the hose down on the porch and hurrying to the faucet which came through the foundation wall of the house.