"I'll get them for you," promised Sunny Boy. "Don't cry, Jessie. I know where they are in the cloakroom."
"Will you get my rubbers, too?" asked Jessie, smiling through her tears.
"Yes, I'll get everything," said Sunny Boy.
"You can't go in there, it's on fire!" screamed Maria, when he ran up the steps. "Sunny Boy, I tell you the school is burning up! Come back here!"
But Sunny Boy opened the door and ran in past her. He knew that Jessie Smiley was very proud of her new winter coat with its pretty beaver collar.
The house was full of smoke, and it made Sunny Boy choke and gasp, but he shut his eyes and felt his way to Miss Davis' room. The smoke was worse in here than in the hall, and his eyes smarted and burned as he crept slowly to the cloakroom. In there there was not so much smoke, and he had no trouble at all in pulling Jessie's coat down from the hook where it hung, and he found her rubbers on the floor. He stuffed one in each pocket. Then he started back.
His eyes hurt so badly that, brave little boy as he was, he began to cry.
"I can't breathe!" he sobbed. "I wish I had a drink of water."
"George!" suddenly shouted a big voice in his ear. "Say, George, here he is! I've found him!"
Somebody grabbed Sunny Boy up in strong, rough arms and he was carried swiftly through the halls and out to the porch again. The children shouted when they saw him.