“That’s easy,” he answered. “I smelled something burning. You know how it smells when you forget the iron and leave it on the board too long. Well, it smelled like that only worse and pretty soon I saw some smoke coming out of the roof of the tailor shop. I waked up the grocer and the man in the gas station and we stayed to help fight the fire. I guess you’d want to help fight a fire if you had turned in the alarm your very own self and everybody thought you were a hero.”
“I guess I would,” his mother agreed and patted his shoulder.
It was all a little confusing and she was anxious to hear more about the Public Notice so Tommy told her about the glasses and how they had found them in the woods and put them on the Guide’s twig nose. He took them out of his pocket to show her and she agreed that someone might need them badly.
“Everything would have been all right,” she said, “if Muffs hadn’t said you went to see a fire.”
“Well, he did, didn’t he?” Mary asked.
“Yes, but Muffs didn’t know it. She had us all worried with her story of lights and cars and fires. I didn’t know what to make of it.”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” said Tommy. “I guess I scared her with my lantern shining in her eyes. She went back to sleep while I was talking and prob’ly dreamed part of it. Don’t you s’pose we could go back and just let Muffs and Mary see where the fire was? It’s all been burned black inside and it’s wet from the pails of water and shines like anybody’s new shoes.”
Mrs. Tyler laughed. “I guess we could. I’ll tell your father and Donald that you’re safe. I had them out hunting for you. Then I’ll stop in at the Lippett’s. There was something I wanted to talk over with them——”
“Oh, Mom! Couldn’t we play around where the fire was while you talk?”
Muffs was afraid to coax. She couldn’t believe it was true until she saw Mrs. Tyler walking on down the road. She had left them to play alone.